Mamaw

Would Love your imput on this famous french dish. I don't eat much meat but years ago I had this dish while on tour with students and I have been dreaming of it since.

Thanks in advance for your info.

Theresa in Detroit.

NeoPatrick

The first thing about it is that you may be surprised eating it in France. I've eaten (and made) a lot of beef bourguignon and it is normally small sort of bite sized pieces of beef "stewed" in burgundy wine, often with bits of bacon, onions, and mushrooms. In France more often that not, I've had it served as one big hunk of beef, not cut into bite sized pieces.

ElendilPickle

I love Mark Bittman's recipe in The Best Recipes in the World.

Lee Ann

StCirq

Julia Child's recipe is my favorite.

And yes, I've had either one large piece of beef or a few large ones every time I've had it in France. No bite-size morsels.

travelme

OK don't laugh but I made a version of it last week using a can of mushroom soup and some good red wine. I also added a little black forest ham. It was exquis! Just brown the pieces of meat in a little fat(butter, or oil or even pam). Then add your mirepoix(onions, carrots and a little celery) Add the can of creme of mushroom soup and an equal portion or more of any good red wine that you have. I add a bayleaf, some herbes de provence and salt and pepper. I used a pinch of allspice. Oh, yes the ham I added when I sauteed the vegetables. Cook this for at least 2 hours.

Mamaw

I will be in Paris in March. I should have said that in the first post. I want to find a restaurant that serves some good Beef bourguignon. Any recommendations?
The dish I had there in Paris was a hunk of meat not small pieces and it was served with the most fab mashed potatoes ever on the side. I about liked the plate. The potatoes came in this little silver pot with handles.

Thanks again.

hopscotch

Go to Dijon or Beaune if you want the real item. It is one of the best dishes in the world.

Second day have coc au vin. They don't make it like that anywhere else. The chickens are the size of turkeys.

IMO, these foods travel about as well as Irish bars. I.e., they don't.

travel2live2

Yes, definitely do have coq au vin. The reason the chickens are so huge is that they are much older males (capon). If it is made with normal chicken it technically cannot be called coq au vin.

NeoPatrick

I'm very curious about that last statement. A capon is an "emasculated" male chicken, so it technically is NOT a coq or cockerel. They are indeed large, but very tender for roasting. But I've never heard of them being used for coq au vin, which is stewed "rooster" -- not capon. It would seem counterproductive to raise a capon for tender meat, then stew it to death in wine -- a process used to tenderize otherwise tough old male birds. At least, that's the way I always understood it. No?

StCirq

Agree with NeoP. Traditional coq au vin is not made with capon...or chicken. It would be counterproductive to raise a capon and then stew it to death.

And though I'm sure it was a very tasty dish, I'm really having a hard time with the boeuf bourgignon made with a can of mushroom soup. I think that dish needs to be renamed - it's good, I'm sure, but boeuf bourgnignon it ain't.

Leely

Oh, Ina Garten's boeuf bourgignon recipe is the one I've finally settled on. A pain to make, expensive but oh-so-good.

That probably doesn't help you, mamaw. I can't recall having boeuf bourgignon in France. Sorry. Have a fun trip!

travel2live2

Just looked it up in one of my culinary textbooks which states, "In traditional stock farming, cocks which were good breeders were kept as long as they could fulfil their function. They would be several years old before they were killed and therefore needed long and slow braising as coq au vin. Nowadays coq au vin is sometimes made with a chicken or hen." Larousse Gastronomique.

Sorry - in my last post I meant rooster, not capon. I had capon on my brain for another entirely different dish! I've been doing some capon research.

StCirq

Agree that Ina Garten's recipe is a good one. I saw that episode, too. I just instinctively shy away from her recipes because she looks to me, though a really lovely person, like someone who's gained about a thousand pounds since becoming a cook and I have this thing about eating well but staying tiny. I guess I should compare her and Julia's recipes and see which one is actually more fattening. Or just trust my instincts: I mean how hard is chunks of beef, pearl onions, garlic, a bottle of wine, a bunch of mushrooms, broth, herbs...?it's not rocket science...

kerouac

I personally have never been served boeuf bourguignon as one large chunk of beef in France. Whenever you order it as a plat du jour in a brasserie or a basic restaurant, it is served in bite sized pieces.

Carrybean

I've often served Boeuf Bourguignon for my annual Christmas party since it's a great buffet dish. Here's the recipe I use which always gets raves. It's from Craig Claiborne:

BOEUF BOURGUIGNONNE (serves 10-12)
5 lbs chuck beef, cut into large cubes
Flour
1/4 cup olive oil
Salt & pepper to taste
1/4 cup cognac, warmed
1/2 lb bacon, diced
3 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped
2 carrots, coarsely chopped
2 leeks, coarsely chopped
3 cups coarsely chopped onions
2 TBL chopped parsley
1 bay leaf
1 tsp thyme
1 bottle Burgundy (I've also used Bordeaux)
5 TBL butter
36 whole small onions
Dash of sugar
36 mushroom caps
Juice of 1/2 lemon

Roll the beef cubes in flour & brown on all sides in a skillet over high heat in the olive oil.
Sprinkle the meat with salt & pepper, pour the cognac over it & ignite. When the flame dies, transfer meat to a 3 qt casserole.

Add a little water to the skillet & deglaze over high heat, scraping up the brown partickles clinging to the pan. Pour over the meat.
Preheat oven to 350°. To the skillet add the bacon, garlic, carrots, leeks, chopped onions & parsley. Cook, stirring, until the bacon is crisp & the vegetables are light brown. Transfer to the casserole with the meat & add the bay leaf, thyme, Burgundy & enough water to barely cover the meat. Cover & bake 1 1/2 hours.

Prepare a beurre manie by blending 1 TBL each butter & flour & stir into the casserole bit by bit. Return the casserole to the oven & continue cooking 2-3 hours longer.
Brown the small onions in 2 TBL butter with a dash of sugar. Add a little water, cover & cook until the onions are almost tender.
Saute the mushrooms in 2 TBL of the butter until light brown on 1 side. Sprinkle with lemon juice & turn to brown the other side.

To serve, add the onions to the casserole & garnish w/the mushrooms & additional chopped parsley.~~ (I serve over egg noodles.)~~Craig Claiborne

Padraig

I glanced at the recipe given by Carrybean. It looks like more work than I would care to do in the kitchen!

There are two things about many recipes that I think are not good ideas: the beef and the wine!

First, echoing the coq au vin discussion above, the meat used should be the sort that might be unpalatable without long slow cooking. I use large lumps of shin beef and cook them until they are starting to come apart. If I use other cuts, then I call it beef in red wine.

Second, I don't give a fig what wine I use so long as it is an okay red. I use whatever table wine is convenient, usually from the cubi that is open.

Gretchen

The other secret to cooking with wine is to reduce it first--to concentrate the flavor and to drive off the raw alcohol flavor. It makes a huge difference in braises. And Tyler Florence fixed boeuf bourgignon on a show and served the beef in largish chunks rather than more like a stew. It is a MUCH more attractive serving, and cooks so much better. Use a nice chuck. And PLEASE, no canned soup.
When doing a braise, place a piece of parchment paper over the liquid before putting the lid on the cooking oven.

NeoPatrick

Author: kerouac
Date: 01/08/2008, 01:15 am

I personally have never been served boeuf bourguignon as one large chunk of beef in France. Whenever you order it as a plat du jour in a brasserie or a basic restaurant, it is served in bite sized pieces.
>>>>>>>>>>>>&g t;>>>>>>>>>>>> >>>>>

You should expand your horizons. I would certainly call Aux Charpentiers on Rue Mabillion, a typical French "basic" restaurant, where I don't believe it is on the regular menu but my partner has had it as a plat du jour -- and as my journal recalls it was one HUGE hunk of beef. I'd also call Au Pied du Cochon a typical brasserie -- in fact one of the oldest and most famous. They serve their boeuf bourgignon in one (or possibly two) big chunks. And I've had it probably a dozen times in actual Burgundy towns -- where I assume the dish is even more authentic -- and it has ALWAYS been served as one or two large hunks of meat.

It's fine that you haven't encountered it that way, but it is not unusual to find it served that way, and it clearly is the CLASSIC FRENCH way of serving it. Even my Larousse Gastronomique describes it that way. Now go ahead, Kerouac, and give us your usual statement that the rest of us have only eaten in touristy restaurants.

kerouac

I wouldn't dream of doing so, because it is actually the sort of thing that most residents would never order in a restaurant, so you visitors are the experts. We other people make it and eat it at home -- it is more common to order a difficult dish in a restaurant (I'm not talking about a quick bite for lunch).

However, I would suggest that you go to <b>any</b> supermarket in France and look in the meat department to see the presentation of the product called &quot;boeuf pour bourguignon.&quot; I guess a lot of people have to stick all of those pieces back together if they want the &quot;full&quot; version.

I would assume that restaurants that serve a big piece of meat do it for 2 reasons:

1. <i>because they can</i> -- A restaurant doesn't mind stewing meat for 10 or 12 hours. At home we have better things to do, which is why it is stewed in smaller pieces.
2. <i>because the small pieces would fall apart in a big restaurant</i> -- that's assuming they have a large quantity of it in a big pot all day long to handle the orders as they come in. The last customers would just get a plateful of mush.

Restaurants love to served stewed items in any case -- so much less work!

tod

Mawmaw - I had the most delicious Beef Bourguignon at L'Oree Du Marais, 29 Rue Francs Bourgeois,75004.
It's a small place with only two or three tables outside.
My beef was tender and in a lovely thick wine sauce accompanied by tagliatelle, 13.50Euros With my meal I had a 14cl Muscadet, 3.50euro and finished off with an espresso at 2.50euros.
This was at lunchtime.