What Cut of Beef Is Used in Bourguignon
I t's a mystery to me how this giant of the French classical repertoire has escaped the clutches of this column for then long. Richard Olney (another big brute of the Gallic cookery scene) describes boeuf bourguignon equally "probably the virtually widely known of all French preparations", while Elizabeth David introduces it every bit "a favourite among those carefully composed, slowly cooked dishes, which are the domain of French housewives and possessor-cooks of modest restaurants rather than of professional person chefs".
Sounds manageable. Yet Olney goes on, slightly worryingly, that "beef burgundy certainly deserves its reputation – or would if the few details essential to its success were more often respected. In that location is zippo difficult about its preparation, merely there are no shortcuts." And David doesn't help the situation, with the airy assertion that "such dishes exercise not, of grade, take a rigid formula, each cook interpreting it according to her taste".
Co-ordinate to Larousse Gastronomique, la bourguignonne refers to annihilation (generally "poached eggs, meat, fish or sauteed craven") cooked with cherry-red wine and "usually garnished with small onions, button mushrooms and pieces of fat bacon". That much nosotros know. Everything else, information technology seems, is up for grabs.
The beef
While, like most stews, this volition work with almost all tiresome-cooking cuts, chefs have their own particular preferences. Simon Hopkinson and Lindsey Bareham telephone call for "well-hung sinewy beefiness – chuck, shoulder or shin perchance" in The Prawn Cocktail Years. Anthony Bourdain's Les Halles Cookbook specifies paleron of beefiness, which, a helpful butcher informs me, means featherblade. Richard Olney's much lauded French Carte du jour Cookbook suggests Desperate Dan-style heel (which takes a while to rail downwardly) and Michel Roux Jr's The French Kitchen opts for "braising beef (chuck is good but cheek is best)". Harry Eastwood is also a fan of cheek, writing in Carneval that: "My father introduced me to the joys of eating cheeks … [and] it turns out that beefiness cheeks are the perfect vehicles for a bourguignon since they absorb all the flavours in the pan and the meat surrenders completely."
Featherblade proves the to the lowest degree successful with testers – it's just too lean, which makes it seem rather dry in comparison with the more gelatinous cuts. A good well-marbled chuck (not e'er the case with supermarket versions) does the job, and the more than gelatine-rich shin and heel are even better, but my own favourite is the cheek, which seems to offering the best remainder between meat and melt. Cut it into relatively large chunks because, equally Hopkinson and Bareham observe, "A true boeuf à la bourguignonne is not most little cubes of meat stewed in Hirondelle."
Olney'due south is the only recipe to marinate the meat before utilise; Roux cautions confronting it, warning that "I find this makes for a gamey flavour that'southward non entirely true to the original". Some testers agree, simply my problem with information technology is that, far from tenderising the meat, information technology seems oddly to have dried information technology out slightly. Whether or not the wine is actually to blame, the meat should have plenty of time to absorb its flavour in the oven, rendering such a stride pointless.
Hopkinson and Bareham also add a gelatine-rich pig's trotter to the stew, presumably in lodge to requite it body and richness. This certainly works, but trotters are not always easy for everyone to get agree of. One tester suggests that the more than usually available oxtail might do the aforementioned job even better is a proficient i. Yous can go out information technology on the bone if you like, although I prefer to strip it off later cooking so the meat is more evenly distributed.
The pork
Boeuf bourguignon almost always contains cured pork, as well – later on all, this is a French recipe, and two meats are better than one. Certainly my testers are not happy with its omission in Bourdain's dish. Olney, who I am quickly learning to fright, warns me that "if adept lean salt pork is non available, omit information technology; do non substitute bacon, the smoky season of which … distorts and muddles the otherwise clean, singled-out season of the sauce". Proving that i man'due south muddle is another's masterpiece, Eastwood's smoked lardons and Roux'south smoked streaky don't seem to go downwardly too badly with the panel, but the simpler savoury flavour of dark-green bacon seems less probable to distract from the wine, which is, afterwards all, the whole signal of the dish. (If you have access to salt pork, you may wish to poach it briefly before utilise to tame its aggressive salinity, equally Olney does. There's no demand with bacon or pancetta – yous'll only spoil information technology.)
The vegetables
The traditional Burgundian garnish of button mushrooms and miniature onions ought to be non-negotiable, preferably sauteed until golden in the fat from the bacon, every bit Eastwood, Olney, Hopkinson and Bareham suggest. In this manner, they absorb some of its savoury richness. The Prawn Cocktail Years recipe adds the vegetables to the stew for the entire cooking fourth dimension, while Roux and Olney cook them through separately, which is a scrap of a faff, peculiarly when the erstwhile demands they're done in 3 split pans. All very well with a kitchen brigade at your disposal, but I prefer Eastwood's method, which adds the the sauteed vegetables to the beefiness for the final half hour of cooking instead. Much easier.
Instead of the tiny pearl onions near recipes recommend, Bourdain uses the ordinary kind, thinly sliced and caramelised. Some testers like the sugariness they add to the dish, merely we all hold their assertive flavour does requite his version something of the soupe à l'oignon. If you can't discover pearl onions or some other diminutive variety, small shallots are better than nothing.
Carrots are also common; the baby variety favoured by Eastwood and Roux make the nearly pleasing garnish aesthetically, just ordinary sized ones, cut into large chunks, work just besides in the flavor department. (The aforementioned goes for ordinary mushrooms equally opposed to the button sort.)
The liquids
The main flavour hither ought to be dry out, fruity red wine of the kind produced in Burgundy, although for those of us buying wine in the UK, I'm not convinced that sticking an actual Burgundian pinot noir into the oven for three hours isn't a criminal waste of both vino and money (Olney demands a "skilful red burgundy" no less). I brand one with the authentic product (the cheapest I tin can find over here is near £9) and the remainder with an inoffensive but rather cheaper red from the south-due west, and no i remarks on the difference, even when it's pointed out. So, unless you have an extremely discerning palate, I'd recommend saving your cash for a good burgundy to drink with it instead.
Puzzlingly, Bourdain uses only a cup of vino in his version, which might explicate why everyone describes it as more like beefiness stew than a bourguignon, with 1 observing that, "If y'all added some dumplings it would brand a lovely hotpot." A whole bottle is required for maximum impact, preferably reduced to concentrate its flavour: Olney does so later cooking, but this involves lifting out the meat and vegetables so warming everything back up together and so it seems far easier to do all the simmering first, as Roux and the Prawn Cocktail Years recommend, so the dish tin be served straight from the oven. While y'all're at it, add a few aromatics, equally the latter recipe suggests, for a more rounded gravy.
A splash of brandy, although not absolutely necessary, does add together a little more complication to the dish. If you don't have it, however, it's not a disaster.
Other liquids
Most recipes also utilize stock of some kind, generally beef, veal or even, for a lighter gravy, Eastwood's chicken or vegetable alternative. Bourdain tops up the wine with water instead, and fifty-fifty with his optional couple of spoonfuls of demi glace, or concentrated veal stock, testers find his gravy thin and a little insipid. "It's but very … ordinary." And ordinary is definitely not what we're after hither.
Flouring the meat will both help it brown more than rapidly, and thicken the sauce more quickly, though information technology'due south certainly not essential if y'all would prefer to keep the dish gluten-free.
Aromatics
Similar whatever respectable French classic worth its salt, boeuf bourguignon benefits from a bouquet garni of bay, thyme and parsley, and a little garlic. If, after all that hard work, you feel it needs a little help in the flavour department for some reason (and sometimes it happens), add a dash of Worcestershire sauce earlier serving, equally Eastwood does, although it ought non to require whatsoever tomato puree, dijon mustard or indeed Hopkinson and Bareham's redcurrant jelly. Add a nuance of lemon juice if you retrieve the dish needs it, merely I like mine unapologetically rich and sticky.
Cooking and serving
You can cook boeuf bourguignon on the hob – it's no doubt the original method – but I find it much easier to keep the rut constant in a moderate oven. (Plus it's easier to clean up after yourself with the pot safely bubbles abroad out of sight.)
Bourguignon is traditionally served with steamed or boiled potatoes, but Roux proves he's a true Brit by preferring his with mash. Gordon Ramsay's celeriac puree would also piece of work, equally would Julia Child'due south buttered noodles or rice. Delia Smith, meanwhile, goes for full-on flavour with pommes boulangère or ratatouille. I concur with Roux, but each to their ain – simply equally long as there's vino.
(Serves half-dozen)
1 bottle of fruity, relatively light dry out red vino
1 onion, peeled and cut into 6 wedges
1 large carrot, scrubbed and cut into 2cm chunks
2 garlic cloves, peeled and squashed with the dorsum of a knife
ane bay foliage,
Pocket-size bunch of parsley, plus a handful for garnish
2 sprigs of thyme
2 tbsp olive oil
35g butter
200g unsmoked bacon lardons or a thick piece of unsmoked salary cut into 2cm cubes
24 pearl onions, or 12 small shallots
18 babe carrots
200g button mushrooms
2 tbsp flour
1kg beef cheeks, cut into 3cm chunks
400g oxtail
60ml brandy
250ml good beefiness stock
Put the vino in a pan with the onion, carrot, garlic and herbs and bring to the boil. Simmer for 30 minutes until reduced by most half. Heat the oven to 150C.
Estrus the oil and butter in a large casserole dish over a medium-high heat, and when the foam has died down, add together the salary. Fry until golden, so scoop out with a slotted spoon and set aside.
Add the bay carrots and mushrooms to the pan and saute until lightly gold, then scoop into a fresh basin. Add the onions, turn downward the estrus slightly, and fry until only starting time to brown. Meanwhile, put the flour on a plate, season, so roll the beef in it. Add the onions to the other vegetables and plough up the oestrus slightly in the pan.
Fry the beef in batches until crusted and deeply browned, being conscientious not to overcrowd the pan or it will boil in its own juices (add a little more oil if information technology feels like it's burning rather than browning). Scoop out and ready aside in a bowl. Turn up the heat.
Add the brandy to the pan and scrape to dislodge any caramelised bits on the bottom. Strain in the reduced vino (discarding the vegetables), followed by the stock. Return the cheeks and oxtail to the pan and bring to a simmer.
Cover and bake for two and a half hours, then tip in the pearl onions, mushrooms and carrots and bake for another half an hour.
Scoop out the oxtail and strip the meat from the basic. Stir dorsum into the pan with the lardons and season to gustation. Add the remaining parsley and serve with mashed potatoes.
Is it a simulated economy to brand boeuf bourguignon with any other wine than red burgundy? What other wines would you suggest serving information technology with? Which archetype Gallic recipes would you similar to run across?
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2017/mar/09/how-to-cook-the-perfect-boeuf-bourguignon
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