Bœuf Bourguignon (Beef Braised in Red Wine)

Variations

• Coq au vin: chicken instead of beef, treated exactly the same way. In Burgundy it uses the same wine and the same garniture, so it is effectively the sister dish — and being chicken, it takes less than half the time.
• Make it the day before: the commonest way in France. Chilled, the fat sets into a sheet you lift off whole, and the meat takes up the sauce so everything comes together. For guests, the day before is almost always the better plan.
• Without wine: for an alcohol-free version, beef stock with a little grape juice and balsamic vinegar imitates the acidity and sweetness. It is not the same dish, but the structure survives.
• Braises built the same way: carbonnade flamande swaps the wine for beer and brown sugar, goulash leans on paprika, svíčková on root vegetables and cream, and beef stroganoff on soured cream. Irish stew and rogan josh work on the same principle: a tough cut, long and low.
• The contrast with pot-au-feu: similar materials, opposite directions. Pot-au-feu starts in cold water to move flavour into the broth and never browns anything. Bourguignon browns hard first and reduces the liquid to concentrate flavour back onto the meat. They are the two French ways of handling beef.
• What to serve it with: boiled potatoes, mashed potatoes, wide pasta, or baguette to wipe the plate. It goes with rice perfectly well too.
• Leftover sauce: strained and frozen, it is the base of a pan sauce for the next steak.

Tips

• Dry the meat and brown it in batches. This is where the dish most often falls down. Water on the surface never gets past 100°C so browning never starts, and a crowded pot does the same thing. Ten extra minutes spent on three batches changes the result of the next three hours (browning and Maillard, heat control).
• The flour is for the crust, not the sauce. Dusted on thinly it speeds up browning and later gives the sauce a natural body — better than slurrying flour in at the end (thickening sauces).
• Use a cut with connective tissue. Chuck, shoulder or shin have the collagen that turns to gelatine over three hours. Fillet or sirloin given the same treatment simply goes dry (braising, collagen and time, cooking meat and resting).
• Wine you would drink, and reduce it. "Cooking wine" is salted, and three hours of reduction concentrates that salt. And covering the pot straight after pouring traps the alcohol so it never leaves — which is what the uncovered ten-minute boil is for (cooking alcohol).
• Never let it boil. In a braise a hard boil contracts the muscle fibres and squeezes out their water, so the meat reads cooked and eats tough. Hold it at a shiver; an oven at 160°C is the easiest way to keep it there (what your oven is doing).
• The garniture is cooked apart, always. Bacon, pearl onions and mushrooms added at the start are gone after three hours. Cooked separately and added for the last ten minutes they keep their own texture, which is why the combination has a name of its own in French cooking.
• Wipe the mushrooms, do not wash them. Waterlogged mushrooms give that water back in the pan and stew instead of frying. A damp cloth, then dry and hard heat.
• Blanch the pearl onions to peel them. A minute in boiling water and a plunge into cold, and the skins slip off under your thumb. They go in whole so they keep their shape.
• Reduce the sauce at the end. After three hours the liquid is usually thin. Lift the meat out and boil it down for fifteen minutes until it coats a spoon; reducing with the meat still in it overcooks the beef to shreds.
• Season at the end. Reduction concentrates salt along with everything else, so start with the minimum (salt and seasoning).
• A day's rest makes a real difference. Cold, the fat is easy to lift off and the meat has drunk the sauce. Three days in the fridge, three months frozen. Reheat gently (freezing and thawing, reviving leftovers).