The Boeuf Bourguignon talk

[BrunofromBrazil]

Hey guys, created this thread for us to discuss recipes and share experiences!

 

[BrunofromBrazil]

 

[BrunofromBrazil]

This was my latest attempt! Apart from the traditional recipe I added bone marrow, it gave a brilliant and vivid color to the sauce, it also gave a more complex and interesting flavour profile! If I had reduced it a bit more it would have been a great sauce by itself, to be added to steaks or burger!

 

[MarcelNL]

IME Boeuf Bourguignon lives or dies with the stock and the wine added, too much acidity kills it, too little also.....the beef, well good is good enough, its cooked for hours anyhow, carrots for sweetness , onions and shrooms for umami. I imaine marrow helps flavors a great deal!

 

[BrunofromBrazil]

IME Boeuf Bourguignon lives or dies with the stock and the wine added, too much acidity kills it, too little also.....the beef, well good is good enough, its cooked for hours anyhow, carrots for sweetness , onions and shrooms for umami. I imaine marrow helps flavors a great deal!

I used some nice organic carrots as well! Forgot the mushrooms on the other hand! Also, did not add any flour whatsoever when frying the beef (I don’t really like it).

 

[Noodle Soup]

Many of the recipes I've tried seemed like they added way too much wine. I don't want beef stewed in wine. It needs to be something more complex than that so I go half to 3/4's the wine they call for. I've had it in Paris and I haven't been able to hit that standard yet but I'm tryiing.

 

[BrunofromBrazil]

Many of the recipes I've tried seemed like they added way too much wine. I don't want beef stewed in wine. It needs to be something more complex than that so I go half to 3/4's the wine they call for. I've had it in Paris and I haven't been able to hit that standard yet but I'm tryiing.

I don’t really follow any specific measurement in regards to wine, usually I only use enough to semi cover the meat, then boil until I don’t smell alcohol! Then I lower the heat and add 75%meat stock 25% vegetable stock!

 

[mockit]

Glad you posted this. Beef bourguignon and coq au vin are some of my favorite fall / winter dishes and I need some inspiration to improve my half assed versions.

 

[BrunofromBrazil]

I made this one a couple months ago, for me it cooked for too long, don’t really enjoy this texture of beef!

 

[BrunofromBrazil]

Glad you posted this. Beef bourguignon and coq au vin are some of my favorite fall / winter dishes and I need some inspiration to improve my half assed versions.

I never tried making coq au vin, do u have any recipe recommendation?

 

[Simply]

My most recent experience with beef bourguignon (I didn’t know we had another nice fresh box of thyme)

Was a great dish… excited to make again

 

[BrunofromBrazil]

My most recent experience with beef bourguignon (I didn’t know we had another nice fresh box of thyme)

View attachment 348873

Was a great dish… excited to make again

Hahaha I always have thyme on the spice cabinet! But 2 tablespoons are too much for me haha

 

[aporigine]

Hahaha I always have thyme on the spice cabinet! But 2 tablespoons are too much for me haha

 

[Benuser]

I made this one a couple months ago, for me it cooked for too long, don’t really enjoy this texture of beef!

What's wrong with it?

 

[Just a DK]

I use short ribs to “cheat” for a faster cook. Short ribs is fatty so would advise to skip the bacon.

Increases cost of meal, which takes away from the sprit of the meal… but aint got time.

 

[mockit]

I never tried making coq au vin, do u have any recipe recommendation?

Sub beef *with* chicken and voila - coq au vin. I generally use Kenji and serious eats for most recipes .

Edit- Going to substitute AI / Grammerly with @Michi lol.

 

[BrunofromBrazil]

What's wrong with it?

I like it a bit more firm, still really tender, but not falling apart, but thats my personal preference! A bit more texture!

 

[aporigine]

Sub beef for chicken and voila - coq au vin. I generally use Kenji and serious eats for most recipes .

I’ve gotten picky with Serious. His beef recipes are excellent. Eggs, notably deviled, require adjustments. And his fish recipes have done poorly in my kitchen.

I found a superior recipe for al pastor, so far my most complicated dish, at Stellanspice. I hybridized the two (the mini trompo in a cast skillet works great) and have a result that tastes and looks better than Kenji’s unaltered.

 

[Famima]

Essential Beef Bourguignonne viewing here



I stick with Elizabeth David's recipe attached, albeit put a bit more wine and a bit less stock in. No carrots in any case! (Though there is hearty debate about this point even in france - all the best restaurant renditions if this dish in france have been without carrots though.)

Elizabeth David's Coq au Vin is also a great recipe.

 

[BrunofromBrazil]

Essential Beef Bourguignonne viewing here



I stick with Elizabeth David's recipe attached, albeit put a bit more wine and a bit less stock in. No carrots in any case! (Though there is hearty debate about this point even in france - all the best restaurant renditions if this dish in france have been without carrots though.)

Elizabeth David's Coq au Vin is also a great recipe.

Thanks for sharing!! I’ll try this next time!

 

[Michi]

Sub beef for chicken and voila - coq au vin. I generally use Kenji and serious eats for most recipes .

Nope. You substitute beef with chicken, or you substitute chicken for beef.

If you substitute beef for chicken, it means that you started with chicken and used beef instead. Which is not what you meant here.

 

[Famima]

Going off on a slight tangent, this is also a great Floyd recipe and another classic piece of TV cooking:

 

[rickbern]

Try braising in the oven instead of on the stove top. Much easier to control the heat, you’ll end up with better texture. Or get a heat diffuser for your stovetop so you can lower the heat from the burner

 

[Naftoor]

I’ve gotten picky with Serious. His beef recipes are excellent. Eggs, notably deviled, require adjustments. And his fish recipes have done poorly in my kitchen.

I found a superior recipe for al pastor, so far my most complicated dish, at Stellanspice. I hybridized the two (the mini trompo in a cast skillet works great) and have a result that tastes and looks better than Kenji’s unaltered.

Agreed. 8-10 years ago, serious was my go to gospel for anything that wasn’t baked. Then they got Stella and her stuff was generally pretty good as well. Once kenji mostly moved on and started focusing on his restaurant and cookbooks the quality of the site dropped a ton, and it dropped further when it restructured 5ish years ago and they went from “chefsteps for the everyman” to “look at our ads”. When I do end up there nowadays, my first step is to check the top comments to see if people have issues with the recipe. Spend enough time there and you’ll find quite a few recipes with the wrong proportions for what the recipe claims textures or flavors should be.

One takeaway from when kenji was in his prime though is exactly what @rickbern is saying. Stick it in the oven. Works with any braised or long cooked dish like bolongese or chili. Take it out every hour or so to scrape the darkened bits exposed by evaporation back into the liquid to deepen the flavor.

 

[mockit]

Agreed it’s gone down hill. Most of the recipes I use on there are from a long time ago. I rarely trust the home page recipes on sites like that anymore. Searching for the classics yields better results.

 

[aporigine]

I’ll say this: Kenji knows how to sell it. His writeups sound like he really knows what he’s doing, and his pre-recipe narratives read like the diary of a holy quest to make the Perfect Thing. As adventure fiction, they’re a darn good read.

More than once I followed him down the path and tried one of his particularly awesome-sounding preps (usually two or three times to see if it was operator error) only to end up disappointed to some degree.

It’s like finding this really great hole in the wall turning out food to die for, and it slowly decays into food to stub a toe for … before it closes because the suck was too strong.

 

[Loogan]

Funny that this thread just pops up and I make this for the first time ever. I have no baseline to compare the taste against since I’ve never eaten it, but it was fantastic nevertheless. Plus, a good prep to try out the new Denka on. Unfortunately wasn’t able to source pearl onions so I couldn’t make Julia Child’s recipe exactly. Served with some pretty standard mashed potatoes.

 

[Noodle Soup]

This thread got me going. I bought a big chunk of chuck roast today but I forgot about the pearl onions until I read the last post. Time to go shopping again.

 

[esoo]

I don't think I've ever made this, but I did make Smitten Kitchen's mushroom version last night. I need more sauce (and to remember the pearl onions) but it was quite tasty.