This signature French meal may be found on many à la carte menus. We thought we would inform you of the lengthy and intriguing history of this in the culinary environment.
The History of Beef Bourguignon
This dish with a combination of beef, onions, mushrooms, and red wine is both savoury and delicious and is very well-known not just in France but all over the globe. In certain respects, this meal may be as well-known as traditional French dishes such as ratatouille or coq au vin.
A red wine braised beef stew is made by simmering beef for an extended period of time in red wine with various vegetables, such as potatoes, carrots, mushrooms, garlic, and onions (bundle of thyme, parsley and bay leaves).
The dish is also known for include lardons, such as ours.
The Bourguignon beef stew originated in Burgundy, which is called Bourgogne in French, thus the name. It’s here that the Charolais cattle are known for producing meat of the highest quality. As well as wine, Burgundy is famed for its great food, and the characteristic and historical cuisine of the area is a mixture of these two dishes.
Selecting the kind of wine used to simmer the meat is really critical. A Burgundy red wine should have the color of a Pinot Noir or Gamay; a red such as a Pinot Noir would also be suitable. The meat’s flavors blend well with the wine and combine with the rest of the ingredients to make the stew very full-bodied and savory.
According to some historians, Boeuf Bourguignon goes back to the Middle Ages, when it was made from food scraped off peasant dishes. For many rural residents, slow cooking was affordable, satisfying, and a good way to serve a lot of people. Tough portions of beef that would have otherwise been wasted were converted into something edible by being cooked in this manner.
The longer this dish cooks, the more flavor and tenderness it gains.
Culinary variation: This meal has changed throughout the years from peasant food to typical Parisian cafe food to the representation of French cuisine today. This dish’s versatility is what makes it such a joy to eat.
This recipe was only written down by Chef Auguste Escoffier in 1903, but previous to that, there are many historical records of this meal dating back to the Middle Ages.
Inventor Auguste Escoffier first popularized this exclusive meal for members of the upper-class in city folk life. People who partook in gourmet cuisine in style, such as at the Ritz, the Savoy, and the Carlton Hotel, dined out.
The recipe has developed to employing chopped or cubed beef, with the original technique being a full piece of beef. The successful growth of this evolutionary progression was in part aided by the American chef, TV personality, and cookbook author Julia Child, who authored the award-winning book Mastering the Art of French Cooking in 1961.
Julia added her interpretation of the original recipe, which she called the Meat with Suet Pastry, integrating lardons. She also instructed the reader to use paper towels to dry off the beef before cooking it and many other unique methods that made her dish very famous.
With her recipes for boeuf bourguignon, Julia Child introduced boeuf bourguignon to American kitchens. In the book, she referred to it as “perhaps one of the most delectable beef meals that mankind has ever devised” and this caused it to become one of her most popular recipes, increasing its renown worldwide.
Beef Bourguignon is as beloved by foodies all around the globe as it has been for centuries. Anthony Bourdain, Richard Olney, and Michel Roux are among several notable chefs who have offered their own customized beef bourguignon recipe.
Utilizing a pig’s trotter in the stew and using beef cheek or marinating the meat beforehand, as well as caramelizing the onions, offer a personal twist but do not compromise the essence of the meal. The adaptability of this simple yet wonderful meal is shown clearly.
Beef bourguignon is frequently spoken about by our chefs as their favorite dish. A cookbook author once described the preparation and consumption of a certain meal, which was described as both gratifying as well as steeped in history. This contributes to making it a distinguished dish for us at Côte.
Beef Bourguignon Recipe
Serves 6 generously
Set aside 3 hours to make this dish.
Beef Bourguignon Ingredients
1 bottle of full-bodied red wine, preferably from Tokara
1 Tbsp olive oil
60g butter (divided)
1.4kg stewing steak such as topside, chuck, rump pot roast & silverside cut into 5cm pieces (you can ask a butcher to do this)
2 – 3 medium carrots, peeled and cut into 0.5cm rounds
2 medium onions, peeled, halved and sliced into 0.5 cm thick rounds
2 Tbsp flour
Crushed black pepper (about 1 tsp)
750ml beef broth (I used 3 sachets of concentrated beef stock from Woolies)
1 large celery stalk cut in half
1 bouquet garni (3 sprigs fresh thyme, 2 fresh bay leaves, 4 stems flat-leaf parsley, tied together with a green leek leaf, or string)
2 cloves garlic, peeled and degermed (the middle germ grain removed), and cut in half
16 small white or pickling onions, peeled (or 8 small onions)
1 tsp coarse salt
1 tsp caster sugar
125g lardons or chopped streaky bacon
200–225g small button mushrooms, cleaned and with their stems trimmed
1 tablespoon finely chopped parsley
Salt and pepper
Instructions
Put the wine into a small pot and bring it to a boil. Simmer for 20 minutes. Take the meat out of the fridge to bring it to room temperature and pat it dry with a paper towel.
Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a large saucepan or lidded casserole dish (such as cast iron). Add 45g butter to the pan and when it foams add the cubes of meat to brown on all sides. You will need to do this in batches to prevent overcrowding the pan and boiling the meat. Turn the meat over with tongs or a wooden spoon ensuring you get a deep brown colour. Set the meat aside in another dish.
Put the carrots and sliced onions into the pan in which the meat was browned and cook for 5 minutes over very low heat, stirring a few times to prevent darkening.
Sprinkle the flour over the meat and return it to the casserole dish with carrots and onions. Add 1 teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper and cook over medium heat until the raw flour has been cooked out. This will take about 5 minutes.
Pour the beef stock into the pan along with the reduced wine, sliced celery stalks, garlic and bouquet garni. Simmer very gently over low heat for 2 hours. Check it every 30 minutes to give it a stir and skim off any foam that might appear on the surface.
While the meat is cooking, put the small onions into a saucepan with about 1 litre of water and a teaspoon of salt. Bring the liquid to a boil and simmer the onions for 2 minutes if they are very small and 5 minutes if they are bigger. Drain them in a colander.
Melt the remaining 15g of butter in a medium-sized non-stick pan. Add the onions and caster sugar; season with pepper, cover, and cook over gentle heat for 20 minutes stirring the onions every 5 minutes until they are soft and caramelised on the outside. If your onions are bigger, pan fry for about 10 – 15 minutes and then add them to the stew 40 minutes before the 2 hours of cooking is complete. If you are using tiny onions set them aside on a plate.
Wipe the same pan as you cooked the onions and heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Fry the lardons (or bacon) over medium heat until golden brown and the fat has rendered out. Add these to the onions.
Add the mushrooms to the same pan and with the remaining fat, cook over medium heat for 10 minutes, stirring frequently. Season lightly with salt and pepper and then add these to the onions and lardons.
When the stew has been simmering for 2 hours and the meat is perfectly tender, remove any fat from the surface. You can use a fat skimmer. Or drape kitchen towel over the surface and lift the fat off. Remove the meat and carrots (and onions if you added these to the stew) with a slotted spoon and put them in a large, deep serving dish. Add the lardons, onions and mushrooms into the same dish. Strain the meat sauce through a fine-mesh sieve and return to the pot. Bring it to a simmer for about 5 minutes to warm through and reduce slightly. Add seasoning to taste.
Pour the sauce over the meat and vegetables and sprinkle with chopped parsley and serve with mashed potato.
Recipe and featured Image by Sam Linsell for Tokara.
