Beef Bourguignon Recipe: Julia Child's Red Wine Stew, Now a Gen Z Kitchen Project

Two young cooks, a pot of red wine and Julia Child's most famous stew: GBH, the Boston public broadcaster, published its Gen Z Tries Julia Child: Boeuf Bourguignon episode on 11 November, two days after a sibling episode on a French fry plate. The series is playful, but the dish at its centre is a proper winter project.

Beef bourguignon is younger than its reputation. According to Wikipedia's history of the dish, it was first documented in Pierre Larousse's dictionary in 1867 and was not considered a Burgundian specialty until the twentieth century. Julia Child, Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle put it in Mastering the Art of French Cooking in 1961, calling it one of the most delicious beef dishes ever made.

What follows is an adaptation in metric, checked against GBH's own version of Child's method. The pay-off is a sauce that coats the back of a spoon, beef that yields to a fork, and a pot that tastes better on day two.

Ingredients

Serves 6. Total time about 4 hours, most of it unattended in the oven.

• 1.4 kg beef chuck, cut into 5 cm chunks and patted very dry
• 200 g smoked streaky bacon or pancetta, cut into 1 cm lardons
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 large carrot, sliced
• 1 large onion, sliced
• 2 tablespoons plain flour
• 750 ml dry red wine
• 350 to 450 ml beef stock
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 3 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 bouquet garni (parsley stems, 2 thyme sprigs, 1 bay leaf)
• 18 to 24 small pearl onions, peeled
• 40 g butter, divided
• 500 g small white mushrooms, quartered
• 1 teaspoon fine salt and freshly ground black pepper
• Chopped parsley, to finish

Method

1. Heat the oven to 230 C. Simmer the bacon in a pan of water for 5 minutes, then drain and dry. This removes harsh smokiness.
2. In a heavy casserole, brown the bacon in 1 tablespoon of the oil for 3 to 4 minutes. Lift it out. Raise the heat until the fat shimmers.
3. Brown the beef in batches, without crowding, until deeply coloured on every side, about 8 minutes a batch. Set it with the bacon.
4. Brown the carrot and onion in the same fat for 5 minutes, then tip off any excess fat. Return the meat and bacon, season with salt and pepper and toss with the flour.
5. Roast the uncovered casserole for 4 minutes, toss, and roast 4 minutes more to set the flour into a crust. Reduce the oven to 160 C.
6. Stir in the wine, enough stock to just cover the meat, the tomato paste, garlic and bouquet garni. Bring to a simmer on the hob, cover and braise for 2 1/2 to 3 hours, until a fork slides into the beef without resistance.
7. Meanwhile, brown the pearl onions in 15 g of butter and a splash of oil, add a few tablespoons of stock, cover and cook gently for 30 to 40 minutes until tender. Fry the mushrooms separately in 25 g of butter over high heat until golden.
8. Strain the braising liquid into a pan, skim the fat and simmer until it coats a spoon lightly, about 600 ml. Taste and adjust the seasoning.
9. Return the meat to the pot with the onions and mushrooms, pour the sauce over, cover and simmer gently for 5 minutes. Scatter with parsley and serve.

Tips, swaps and storage

Use a wine you would drink, a Burgundy pinot noir if the budget allows. Do not skip the drying and the batch browning, since steamed meat gives a grey, flat sauce. Serve with boiled potatoes, buttered noodles or crusty bread.

The stew keeps in the fridge for 3 days and reheats gently on the hob. For a vegetarian version, GBH's cooks used a plant-based steak, vegetable stock and no bacon, though that changes the technique and the time. Taste as you go, and add a little stock if the sauce reduces too far. If the beef is still firm at the three-hour mark, give it another 20 minutes with the lid on, because chuck cooks by collagen and not by the clock. A spoonful of redcurrant jelly can soften a very sharp wine.

As the nights close in, a long braise like this one is the kind of cooking that rewards patience. Expect more young cooks to take on the classics, one pot at a time.