Best Cooking Wine for Beef Bourguignon

Considered by many to exist the mother of all stews, Beefiness Bourguignon is a French dish fabricated with beefiness, bacon lardons, carrots, onions and mushrooms slow cooked in a rich red wine sauce.

For the most magnificent stew of your life, beginning this two days earlier you plan to serve it, practice not shortcut pan-roasting ingredients individually, and use homemade beef stock!

Beef Bourguignon

1 of my fondest memories of travels in Burgundy was discovering family-run bistros in small-scale villages that served traditional French fare so incredible, y'all'd swear yous were in a hidden Michelin star restaurant.

And being correct in the region from which Beef Bourguignon hails, it was hard to resist ordering this iconic dish time and fourth dimension again. Every bistro had their secret recipe, and no two were exactly the same.

Except, maybe, the quality that each of them were to me, the most incredible Beefiness Burgundy I've ever had in my life!.

I only demand to add one more to that list though: This Beef Bourguignon recipe you're reading. Information technology was created with the assistance of a classically trained French chef from Burgundy residing right hither in Sydney, Jean-Baptiste Alexandre of Baptiste & Wilson. For a dish this iconic, I refused to just settle for any old recipe.

This Beef Bourguignon is hands-down better than any I've made in my life – including Julia Kid'due south recipe.

What goes in Beef Bourguignon

There are two main components to making Beef Bourguignon:

1. Reddish wine-marinated beef; and

2. Slow cooked stew

1. Red wine marinade for beef

Hither's what you need for the red wine-marinated beef:

• Chuck beef – Non all beefiness is created equal, even when boring-cooked into fall-apart submission! Look for adept quality chuck beef, ribboned with fat for the juiciest event.

  Also, be sure to either buy Large pre-cut pieces – as in 4-5 cm / 2" cubes – or a 1 single slice which you slice up yourself. If you lot purchase pre-cut pieces that are likewise pocket-size, they volition cook faster than the time it takes for the sauce to develop enough season;

• Pinot noir – Beef Bourguignon is also known every bit Beef Burgundy, and thus the wine called for is a Pinot Noir – the nigh famous variety of wine produced in the Burgundy region of France.

  Using a lighter style wine might audio unexpected for a hearty stew, merely the more frail season compared to bolder wines like Shiraz makes information technology platonic for using as a marinade so the carmine wine flavor doesn't overwhelm the natural beefiness season.

  We're using a whole bottle here. Sad folks, yous'll need another bottle for drinking!

• Thyme and bay leaves – Classic herb aromatics;

• Carrot – Just your everyday standard carrots will exercise fine;

• Pearl onions – These small onions are the traditional onions used in Beefiness Bourguignon only are annoyingly hard to find here in Australia. I apply what's sold every bit "pickling onions" which are virtually the same but slightly larger, so I peel an extra layer or ii off the surface to brand them pearl onion size (~3 cm / ane.2″ diameter).

  Alternative: Just use slices of a normal onion. The cease effect tastes the aforementioned, I promise!

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two. The stew

And here'due south what goes into the stew:

• Beef stock – The single biggest variable on which a stew hinges, differentiating a good dwelling house-cooked stew and a quality, why-does-this-eating house-stew-sense of taste-so-damned-skilful result.

  Homemade beef stock trumps shop-bought. But if you're going downwardly the shop-bought path, try to opt for a good quality stock from the butcher rather than the inexpensive mass-produced stuff. The difference I promise is remarkable.

  Having said that though, I would never say that this is not worth making with basic supermarket beefiness stock. It is, oh-and so-very worth making!

• Bacon – Become slab bacon from your butcher if yous tin, and then yous tin can cutting information technology yourself into big mesomorphic lardons (batons). A proper bite of compact salary lardons is office of the awesomeness that is Beefiness Bourguignon.

  If y'all can't discover slab salary, try speck (which in Commonwealth of australia seems to usually smoked pork belly chunks). Failing that, normal bacon slices works just fine too;

• Mushrooms – Just your everyday normal mushrooms. Cut large ones into quarters, medium ones in half;

• Garlic – Flavouring (rare to see a savoury dish effectually hither without it!);

• Tomato paste – For a touch of tang, to help thicken the sauce, for season and for colour; and

• Flour – For thickening the sauce.

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How to brand Beef Bourguignon

For the absolute best results, start this two days earlier you plan to serve information technology to allow for:

• Overnight marinating of the beefiness; and

• Leaving the finished stew overnight to let the flavours develop even further.

Part 1: Beef marinade

1. Marinate beef for 24 hours in red wine with the onion, carrot, thyme and bay leaves. This tenderises and infuses the beef with beautiful flavour. I've tried it with and without marinating, and marinating is style better. It'southward worth it!

2. Strain and reserve the ruby wine – we're going to reduce information technology to use equally the stew braising liquid;

3. Reduce vino – Cascade scarlet wine into a saucepan;

4. Reduce – Simmer until reduced by one-half, about 7 minutes on medium high. Skim any scum off the surface using a ladle;

5. Pat beef dry – Divide the beefiness from the carrots and onion, then pat dry out. Why? Because wet beef won't brown. Browning is primal for flavour!

6. Season beef with common salt and pepper. Ugh, delight don't skip this step. I once did, and even though I was salting the sauce furiously at the end, information technology just wasn't the same!

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Part 2: Making the stew

It's well worth taking the time to brown each of the ingredients individually before wearisome cooking in the braising liquid. The browning adds a depth of flavour you just tin can't reach past dumping everything in at the aforementioned fourth dimension!

1. Brown beef aggressively all over, because colour = flavour! A very heavy pot like a cast atomic number 26 pot / Dutch oven works best for this job.

   Be sure to use enough oil so the beefiness browns rather than burns. Work in batches and don't oversupply the pot otherwise the beefiness will just braise instead of brown.

   Once browned, remove into a bowl;

2. Bacon – Cook the bacon next, to release all that tasty bacon fat which we then use to brown the subsequent ingredients;

3. Onion next – Just cook until you get some nice golden patches, it'due south impossible to make information technology gilt all over due to the shape. Put these in a divide bowl because these get added back into the stew partway though the tedious cooking phase;

4. Mushrooms – Melt the mushrooms until golden, and so add together them into the same bowl as the onions;

5. Carrots concluding – And finally, pan-roast the carrots until you get some lovely colour on them. We add together some butter here, because you'll find that the mushrooms soak up all the remaining bacon fat, but we need some fat to make the roux with the flour in the next step;

6. Tomato plant paste and flour – Add the tomato paste and cook to take the raw edge off. Then add flour and cook for a minute;

7. Add liquid – Slowly add the beef stock while stirring so the flour dissolves easily, no lumps! And so stir the reduced cherry wine in;

8. Add together beefiness, bacon, thyme and bay leaves, then give it a good stir and bring to a simmer. Now, it's gear up to slow-cook into fall-apart magnificence!

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Function 3. Slow-cooking

This is all nigh time – and not forgetting to add together the onion and mushrooms partway through!

1. Oven 1 hour – Cover pot and so identify in the oven for ane hr at 180°C/350°F (160°C fan). At this temperature, the stew is simmering very, very gently in the oven, like it would on a low stove. I observe the oven is easier than stove because you don't take to worry about the base communicable – no need to stir;

2. Add together onion and mushroom then give information technology a gentle stir;

3. Return to the oven for another 1½ hours, until the beef is "autumn apart tender" – like THIS:

4. Adjust thickness and salt – At this stage, if the sauce hasn't reduced plenty (ie. also sparse) or the sauce is too thick (which tin happen if you lot didn't use a heavy-based pot), you lot can adjust it using the stove.

   If it'southward too thin, but simmer gently on depression heat. It won't have long to reduce and thicken. If the sauce is also thick, add a splash of water then simmer gently to bring it together once more.

   Too, don't forget to bank check if at that place's plenty salt in the sauce! Taste and conform equally necessary. 🙂

Highly recommended: Exit overnight before serving

Every bit with all stews, Beef Bourguignon benefits greatly if you tin can exit it overnight which lets the flavours develop further and meld together even better.

Don't get me wrong, it is sensational served on the day it's made. But it's even better the next day!

What to serve with Beefiness Bourguignon

I suppose one could serve this over a short pasta, polenta, or a grain. But for me, I would never contemplate annihilation other than buttery Mashed Potatoes!

And while I usually offer Paris Mash every bit an even more luxe alternative, I actually recollect it'south too rich for Beef Burgundy.

Complete your Burgundy experience with a fresh French Bistro Salad on the side. You'll find variations of this salad served all over French republic, for a clean and palate-cleansing side intended to serve aslope hearty mains like this.

Enjoy! – Nagi x

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Scout how to go far

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Servings 5

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Recipe video above. Considered by many to exist the mother of all stews, Beef Bourguignon is a French dish fabricated with beef, bacon lardons, carrots, onions and mushrooms dull-cooked in a rich cerise wine sauce.

For the most magnificent stew of your life, first this two days before you programme to serve it, do not shortcut pan roasting ingredients individually, and utilise homemade beef stock if you can!

Beef marinade:

• ▢ 800g/ i.6 lb chuck beef , cut in 4-five cm / 2" cubes (Notation 1)
• ▢ 2 large carrots (~300g/10oz), cut on an angle into 4-5 cm / 2" pieces
• ▢ 16 pearl onions or small, round pickling onions (Annotation two)
• ▢ one bay foliage , fresh (sub: dried)
• ▢ iii sprigs thyme
• ▢ 750ml/ 25 oz pinot noir or other red vino (Annotation 3)

Browning beef:

• ▢ three tbsp oil , olive, canola or vegetable
• ▢ 3/4 tsp salt
• ▢ 1/2 tsp pepper

Stew:

• ▢ 200g/ 7oz mushrooms , halved (quarters if large)
• ▢ 150g/ 5oz bacon slice , cut into 1cm / ane/ii" thick batons (Annotation four)
• ▢ 50g/iii tbsp unsalted butter
• ▢ 3 garlic cloves , minced
• ▢ two tbsp tomato paste
• ▢ half-dozen tbsp flour , plain/all purpose
• ▢ iii cups beef stock (low sodium) , preferably homemade; otherwise the all-time you can afford (Note 5)
• ▢ ane/4 tsp common salt
• ▢ 2 tbsp chopped parsley , for garnish

Marinate beefiness:

• Marinate beef: Place the Beef Marinade ingredients in a large, non-reactive ceramic dish or ziplock purse. Marinate overnight in the fridge (minimum 12 hours, maximum 24 hours).

• Strain liquid into a bowl, reserve marinade. Separate the beef, carrots and onion.

• Reduce wine: Pour red wine into a saucepan and bring to a boil over medium loftier oestrus. Simmer vigorously, skimming off whatsoever impurities that rising to the surface, until reduced by one-half. Gear up aside.

Dark-brown beefiness and vegetables:

• Preheat oven to 180°C / 350°F (160°C fan).

• Dry beefiness: Line a tray with newspaper towels, spread beef out, then pat dry out with paper towels.

• Season beef: Sprinkle beefiness with 3/4 tsp salt and 1/two tsp black pepper.

• Chocolate-brown beef: Rut two tbsp oil in a large, heavy-based, oven-proof pot over high heat. Add ane/iii beef and brown aggressively all over. Remove into basin, then repeat with remaining beef, adding more oil if needed.

• Fry bacon: Add salary and cook for 3 minutes until gilded. Add to basin with beefiness.

• Sauté mushrooms: Add together mushrooms and cook for 5 minutes, or until golden. Remove into a new bowl.

• Sauté onion: Add a bit of extra oil if needed, then cook onions for 5 minutes or until there are nice gilded patches. Add to bowl with mushrooms.

• Sauté carrot: Add butter into pot. In one case melted, add carrot and cook for 3 – 4 minutes until there are golden patches. Add garlic and cook for a further 1 minute.

• Love apple paste: Add tomato plant paste and cook for 2 minutes.

• Flour: Add flour and cook for 2 minutes.

• Add together wine and stock: While stirring, slowly pour in beef stock – this helps the flour dissolve lump-free into the stock. Then add wine and mix until flour mixture is dissolved and by and large lump-free (Notation vi).

• Add beef into pot: Add beef, salary, thyme, bay leaf, 1/4 tsp salt and pepper into the pot, so stir well.

Ho-hum-cook:

• Oven 1 60 minutes: Bring to a simmer, and so embrace and transfer to oven for 1 hour. (Note 7)

• Mushrooms and onion: Remove from oven, stir in mushrooms and onion.

• Oven one½ hours: Cover with chapeau and render to oven for i½ hours, or until beef is "fall-apart tender".

• Accommodate table salt: Remove from oven, sense of taste sauce and add salt if needed. (Note 8 – important!)

• Leave overnight (recommended): If time permits, leave the stew overnight before serving because as with all stews, information technology gets better with time! Reheat gently on a depression stove.

• Serve over mashed potato – Essential for mopping up every drop of that amazing sauce!

Scaling recipe upwardly – will work perfectly, but be certain to brownish the meat and vegetable in batches so you get some nice colour on them. If yous crowd the pan as well much, they will merely braise and get watery, rather than going golden. Slow melt time will exist the same as long every bit you lot're using a heavy based pot and bring to simmer first earlier covering and transferring to oven.

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ane. Chuck beef – Look for beefiness that's nicely ribboned with fat, as it volition be juicier and more tender. Don't buy pre-cut small pieces, they will cook as well speedily earlier the flavor in the sauce develops. Information technology's amend to buy a big slice and cut your own to size.

2. Pearl onions are very small onions and are irritatingly hard to detect in Australia. The closest are pickling onions which are slightly bigger, so just pare an actress layer or two off to make them the correct size – effectually 2.5cm/1″ in diameter. Soak them for 10/15min in cold water, information technology will soften the skin and will make them easier to skin (use a minor knife to assist).

Yous can also only use ii brown or yellowish onions, halved then cut into 1cm / 2/5" slices.

3. Pinot Noir is the traditional wine used in Beef Bourguignon. It'southward the red wine that the Burgundy region of France is nearly famous for, reflecting the origins of this dish which is also known as "Beef Burgundy".

There's no demand to splurge on expensive wine here. Just comb through the discount bins at your local liquor store. The bottle I used an end-of-bin bottle steeply discounted to $7 (I stocked up!).

iv. Bacon Lardons – Biting into a thick piece of salary is all part of the Beef Bourguignon experience! If you can't notice a slab of bacon to cut yourself, endeavour speck which is like (and similar fat % too which is key!).

Otherwise, only apply streaky salary cut into strips. Salary is central for sauce seasoning, so don't skip it!

5. Beef stock quality is the cardinal variable here that will set apart a good homemade Beef Bourguignon from an exceptional restaurant-quality one. Homemade beefiness stock trumps any store bought. Good quality store-bought from butchers etc. are far better than mass-produced (like Campbell'southward hither in Australia).

Practice not use powdered beefiness stock. It's frankly inferior to even the parcel liquid stock and has no place hither amongst all this endeavor, I'm agape!

half dozen. Flour lumps –  Don't fret if you have some lumps! They will deliquesce during the slow cooking time 🙂

7. Cook method – Oven is best considering it's entirely hands off, no need to stir to ensure base of operations doesn't take hold of. But it can also exist washed on a low stove, lid on, stirring every now and so (accept extra care towards the finish so the meat doesn't break autonomously).

Irksome cooker: This can work merely you'll demand to reduce on the stove at the cease to thicken sauce. Wearisome-cook for four hours on low, add mushrooms and onion, then slow cook a further iv hours. Transfer to pot then simmer (no lid) for 15 – 20 minutes until sauce reduces. I really call back it's just easier to utilize the oven!

8.Table salt quantity required varies drastically depending on saltiness of bacon, homemade vs store bought stock (homemade is unsalted), so always do this at the finish andtrust your tastebuds.

With homemade beefiness stock, I add another iii/4 tsp salt. With store bought, it's unlikely you lot'll demand more salt.

nine. Storage – Stew volition go along for five days in the refrigerator, and freezes not bad!

10. Recipe source: Adult with the assist of a classically trained French chef from Burgundy, Jean-Baptiste Alexandre of Baptise & Wilson. For a dish this iconic, I refused to just settle for any old recipe! Meliorate than the Julia Child recipe I'd been using for years. 🙂

11. Nutrition per serving, assuming 5 servings.

Calories: 745 cal (37%) Carbohydrates: 25 1000 (viii%) Protein: 47 g (94%) Fatty: 40 g (62%) Saturated Fat: 17 one thousand (106%) Trans Fat: 1 thou Cholesterol: 165 mg (55%) Sodium: 1822 mg (79%) Potassium: 1206 mg (34%) Fiber: 3 grand (xiii%) Sugar: 7 g (8%) Vitamin A: 4476 IU (90%) Vitamin C: 12 mg (15%) Calcium: 69 mg (7%) Iron: iv mg (22%)

Keywords: Beef Bourguignon, Beefiness burgundy, bœuf bourguignon, French beefiness stew

Life of Dozer

Where he's been positioned while I've been bashing out this recipe. Notice how he sprawls across two seats – and too detect how I thoughtfully pushed them together for him. #sucker

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Source: https://www.recipetineats.com/beef-bourguignon-beef-burgundy/

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