Boeuf bourguignon

Inspired by Jerel, Julia (Child), and some actual free time, I finally decided to crack the spine on my copy of Mastering the Art of French Cooking and attempt the famous Boeuf bourguignon. This recipe is not for the faint of heart, or for heart patients.

Brand new cookbook

Since the recipe is a bit complicated, I’m not going to retype it here. But here’s a link to the Knopf Doubleday web site; Knopf originally published the cookbook.

Recipe

My adventure started at the grocery store, where I could not find a “6 ounce chunk of bacon”. I improvised and bought thick-cut sliced bacon and attempted to cut lardons from that. The first step is to simmer the bacon and rind (which I did not have) in 1.5 quarts of water. I’m not sure why I was supposed to do this, but I wasn’t going to question Julia’s wisdom, so that bacon simmered for 10 minutes as instructed.

Browning the beef was kind of a nightmare because my kitchen has terrible ventilation. I’m surprised I didn’t set off the smoke alarm. I opened all the windows as a preventative measure, which definitely helped…except it was 37 degrees outside so I was freezing. I also had to keep adding more oil to the pan in addition to the bacon fat because the meat started to stick to the bottom. I probably also should have cut the meat into more uniform sizes, but that would have required more browning, my least favorite part of the process. No wonder I don’t cook meat very often.
Tip: Open the windows! Also, don’t brown the meat in the dish you are going to be putting in the oven.

The recipe called for a “full-bodied, young red wine, such as Beaujolais, Côtes du Rhône, Bordeaux-St. Émilion, or Burgundy”. I bought a bottle of 2012 Beaujolais Nouveau. The recipe calls for three cups of wine, which perfectly leaves one glass for drinking…would have been great except I didn’t like it!
Tip: Buy a wine you also like to drink.

Beaujolais-blah

While the beef is cooking (2.5-3 hours once it gets in the oven the second time), the recipe calls for making two additional recipes: Brown-braised onions (18-24 pearl onions) and Sautéed mushrooms. I opted to skip the pearl onions, but I did make the mushrooms. The dietitian in me just had to decrease the butter a bit (the recipe called for 2 Tbsp butter and 1 Tbsp of oil for 1/2 lb of mushrooms).
Tip: 1 Tbsp of butter works fine too, with a 10-ounce package of mushrooms.

Champignons

Once the meat comes out of the oven, you’re supposed to separate the meat from the sauce and simmer the sauce to thicken it. It did not thicken up as much as I would have liked, but I was getting impatient, hungry, and a little tired of cooking. After all, I started the project at 2 PM and finally got to eat around 6:30 PM.
Tip: Patience is a virtue.

Finally!

So was it worth the effort, or more importantly, would I make it again? It was delicious…the meat just fell apart, no knife required. And I am glad I finally got to try the recipe. I think I’d make it again if I had a sous chef who could be in charge of the bacon lardons and the beef, and perhaps someone to do all of the dishes. Any volunteers? Bon appétit!