Why you are cooking this tonight
Beef bourguignon is the dinner that makes people think you went to cooking school. Deep, wine-soaked, long-braised beef with bacon, pearl onions, and mushrooms, ladled over buttery pappardelle or a pile of mash. It is the reason French home cooking conquered the world.
It is also forgiving. The oven does the real work. You put the effort in at the front (browning, building layers) and then the kitchen can look after itself for three hours while you tidy, walk the dog, or have a glass of the wine you opened for the sauce. This is the dish to cook on a Saturday afternoon while it rains, with something on the stereo and a fire in the lounge.
Two non-negotiables. Use a wine you would actually drink, because bad wine gives you bad bourguignon. And brown the beef properly in batches. Every step after that is built on that crust. Skip the browning and you have beef stew, not bourguignon.
What you need
1.2 kg beef chuck or gravy beef, cut into 4 cm cubes. Chuck is the cut. Not sirloin, not rump. You want connective tissue that breaks down over three hours into silk. Your butcher can cube it for you, or do it yourself with a sharp knife. Trim excess fat but leave some on.
200 g thick-cut bacon or speck, cut into 1 cm lardons. The smoky backbone of the whole dish.
2 tablespoons plain flour.
2 tablespoons olive oil and 1 tablespoon butter for browning.
1 large brown onion, diced.
2 carrots, peeled, sliced into 1 cm rounds.
4 fat garlic cloves, smashed.
2 tablespoons tomato paste.
750 ml (a full bottle) of red wine. Pinot Noir ideally (real Burgundy if you are treating yourself, Mornington or Yarra Valley Pinot as the sensible Australian option at $25 to $40). Cotes du Rhone, Cabernet, Shiraz all work if that’s what is open. No moscato, no sweet reds.
500 ml good beef stock. Campbell’s Real Stock or an equivalent tub is fine. Avoid bouillon cubes here, they make the sauce taste tinny.
Bouquet garni: 4 sprigs thyme, 2 bay leaves, a stem of parsley, tied in string or tucked into a tea bag.
1 tablespoon brown sugar, to round out the wine.
Salt and pepper, as always.
For the garnish, which matters:
250 g pearl onions (or small shallots if pearl aren’t available). Peeled.
300 g button or swiss brown mushrooms, halved if large.
2 tablespoons butter, another knob.
A handful of chopped flat-leaf parsley at the end.
How to cook it
-
Heat the oven to 150°C fan. The whole low-and-slow step happens here.
-
Render the bacon. In a heavy cast-iron pot or Dutch oven (Le Creuset, Lodge, or equivalent), cook the bacon lardons in a splash of olive oil over medium heat until they are golden and have given up their fat, about 5 to 6 minutes. Lift them out with a slotted spoon onto a plate.
-
Brown the beef. This is the most important step. Pat the beef dry with paper towel. Season generously with salt and pepper. Working in three batches (do not crowd the pan, or it steams instead of browning), brown the cubes hard on all sides in the bacon fat, adding a bit of olive oil as needed. 6 to 8 minutes per batch. You want a proper dark crust. Move each batch out to the plate with the bacon.
-
Sweat the aromatics. Lower the heat to medium-low. Add the butter. Add the onion and carrots. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 8 minutes until soft and starting to caramelise. Add the garlic, stir 30 seconds.
-
Flour, then tomato paste. Sprinkle over the flour, stir hard for 1 minute to cook it off. Stir in the tomato paste, cook another minute until it goes dark red.
-
Deglaze with wine. Pour in the wine. Bring to a simmer, scraping the bottom of the pot with a wooden spoon to lift every bit of fond. Simmer 5 minutes to burn off the sharp alcohol edge.
-
Add stock, beef, bacon, brown sugar, bouquet garni. Tip the beef and bacon back into the pot along with any juices that have pooled. Pour in the stock, stir in the brown sugar, drop in the bouquet garni. Season with salt and pepper. The liquid should come three quarters of the way up the beef.
-
Lid on. Oven. Three hours. Low and slow. Check once at the 90 minute mark, give a stir, top up with a splash of stock or water if it looks dry. You are looking for the beef to be fork-tender and the sauce to have reduced to a glossy, slightly thick body.
-
Cook the garnish while you wait. In a separate pan, melt butter. Saute the pearl onions over medium heat for 10 minutes until golden and tender (add a splash of water and a pinch of sugar if they are stubborn). Lift out. In the same pan, add a little more butter and saute the mushrooms hard for 5 minutes until browned. Set aside with the onions.
-
Pull it together. After three hours, fish out the bouquet garni. Stir the pearl onions and mushrooms through the braise. Return to the oven for 15 more minutes so they take on the sauce.
-
Taste. Add salt, pepper, a squeeze of lemon if it needs lifting. If the sauce is thinner than you want, fish the meat out, reduce the sauce on the stovetop for 5 to 10 minutes, return the meat.
-
Serve. Over buttered pappardelle, or a mountain of mashed potato, or a slab of toasted sourdough rubbed with garlic. Scatter over the parsley. A green salad on the side with a sharp vinaigrette. Done.
What to pour with it
Wine / beer to buyA Pinot Noir from the same country as you cooked with
If you used French Burgundy in the pot, drink French Burgundy at the table. If you used Mornington Peninsula or Yarra Valley Pinot, same. The sauce and the wine share DNA. Kooyong, Bindi, Paringa, or a proper Burgundy from Gevrey-Chambertin.
Wine / beer to buyA Cotes du Rhone or Grenache blend
if you want something a bit fuller. The garrigue herb notes play into the thyme and bay in the braise. Jamsheed, d’Arenberg, or a basic Cotes du Rhone from Dan Murphy’s at $18.
Make this drinkA Boulevardier before dinner
Bourbon, Campari, sweet vermouth. The bitter-sweet-smoky profile is genuinely complementary to what is going on in the pot. Pre-dinner, one glass, by the fire.
Read the recipe →Make this drinkA Manhattan if you are feeling deeper winter
Rye whiskey, sweet vermouth, bitters. Same vibe as the Boulevardier, slightly less bitter, a little more classic. Both drinks cut through fat and anchor the room.
Read the recipe →Two things that go wrong
Tough, chewy beef. The meat needed more time, not less. Put it back in the oven for another 45 minutes with the lid on. Chuck can take it. You want it to collapse when you prod it with a fork.
Thin, watery sauce. Lift the beef out, reduce the sauce hard on the stovetop until it coats the back of a spoon. Or stir in a tablespoon of butter whisked with a teaspoon of flour (beurre manie) in the last 5 minutes. Do not thicken with cornflour, it goes gluey.
Variations worth knowing
Boeuf en daube (Provencal version)
Same idea, different region. Swap some of the wine for orange juice and add a few strips of orange peel to the bouquet garni. Use rosemary instead of thyme. A splash of brandy at the start. Olives at the end. Serve over polenta.
Carbonnade flamande (Belgian version)
Replace the wine with Belgian beer (an abbey dubbel or a Chimay Rouge). Add a slice of gingerbread with mustard at the end to thicken. The sweetness is lovely, particularly on a cold night.
Oxtail bourguignon
Swap chuck for oxtail, cook for 4 hours instead of 3, the marrow thickens the sauce to something extraordinary. Serve with soft polenta or mash, nothing else.
Leftover plan
Better on day two. The flavours deepen overnight in the fridge. Reheat gently in a covered pot over low heat, adding a splash of water if needed. Serve the same way, or shred the meat and turn the sauce into a ragu for pappardelle, baked potato toppings, or shepherd’s pie. Freezes brilliantly for up to three months.
Beef bourguignon the way Julia actually meant it
Ingredients
Method
- Heat the oven to 150°C fan.
- Cook bacon lardons in olive oil in a heavy cast-iron pot over medium heat, 5 to 6 minutes, until golden. Lift out.
- Brown the beef in three batches in the bacon fat, 6 to 8 minutes per batch, getting a proper dark crust. Remove to a plate.
- Add butter. Soften the onion and carrots over medium heat for 8 minutes. Add garlic, stir 30 seconds.
- Sprinkle over flour, stir for 1 minute. Stir in tomato paste, cook another minute.
- Pour in wine. Bring to a simmer, scraping the fond. Simmer 5 minutes.
- Return beef and bacon with their juices. Add stock, brown sugar, bouquet garni. Season.
- Lid on, oven 3 hours. Check at 90 minutes, stir, top with a splash of stock if dry.
- In a separate pan, saute pearl onions in butter for 10 minutes until golden. Remove. Saute mushrooms hard for 5 minutes until browned.
- After 3 hours, stir onions and mushrooms through. Return to oven 15 minutes.
- Taste, adjust seasoning. Serve over buttered pappardelle or mash. Scatter parsley.