291610 Fri Jan 17 13:35:11 -0800 2003 18 27 General Chowhounding Topics 0 1588007 Making for the first time on Sunday! Any chowhound tips would be greatly appreciated!!!!! what do you do to yours that makes it really special? Fri Jan 17 13:35:11 -0800 2003 0 luv food 1 1588017 It goes without saying that the cut of meat is paramount. A dry, unmarbled cut will be dry. A fatty, well-marbled cut will be tasty. For the ultimate, use tenderloin and barely cook it. Fri Jan 17 14:28:52 -0800 2003 1588007 0 Jim H. 1 1588018 Use seven bone chuck and don't forget to brown the bone and cook it in the stew. Then throw the bone on your compost. Zappa! Fri Jan 17 14:33:56 -0800 2003 1588007 0 Zappa 1 1588033 This is an altimate dish for cheap cuts of beef. Do not waste tenderloin or prime rib on this, a chuck will taste just as good at a third of the price. The trick to making a great beef bourguignon is time. The longer you cook it, the better it will taste. For a good recipe, see the first volume of Mastering the art of French cooking by Julia Child. Here is my interpretation: I dry the beef pieces (~3 Lb) on paper towels, then brown them in oil in an oven proof casserol and set aside. Brown 2 onions and 2 carrots chopped. Put the beef back in the casserol and season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle 2 tbsp of flour over it and stir. Then put in the oven at 450 for 8 minutes stiring half way through. Take out of the oven, pour in a bottle of young red burgundy (or some other red), and top of with beef stock to cover the meat completely. Add some mashed garlic, 2 tbsp tomato paste, bring to a simmer on top of the stove and then cover and put in the oven at 275F for 3-4 hours. The longer you cook it the better it will taste. It tastes even better next day when reheated. You can add some sauteed mushrooms in the end. I skip the bacon and it still comes out very flavorful. Of course adding bacon never hurts :) Fri Jan 17 15:34:01 -0800 2003 1588007 0 Helen Rennie 2 1588061 tomato paste? hmmm.... i've never used that to thicken, it seems that the flour on the beef manages somehow, miraculously to thicken up all that wine just fine.... i brown the meat first then in the same pan after the meat has been removed i suate some garlic and deglaze the bottom of the pan with some brandy, put the meat back in add a full bottle of good red, some bay, and low and slow for at least 3 hours. i have heard rumors that a good bourgignon is only good if the meat gets marinated for a full 24 hours in wine prior to cooking, but i have never tried that. Some how the chemistry in that doesn't sound right to me.... Fri Jan 17 16:56:55 -0800 2003 1588033 0 Jupiter 3 1588064 No, that would only make the outer layer of flesh mushy, and harder to sear in a pan on a home stovetop. Madeleine Kamman is right to recommend that home marinades of this sort be cooked, to remove the alcohol that creates such problems.... Fri Jan 17 17:02:15 -0800 2003 1588061 0 Karl S. 1 1588050 Good wine in it, and with it! Fri Jan 17 16:15:02 -0800 2003 1588007 0 SLRossi 1 1588052 One of those why-didn't-I-think-of-that recipes that comes to mind is from Ina Garten's Barefoot Contessa cookbook. Her Bourgignon uses a filet of beef, but doesn't stew it. It's less stew than it is a dressed-up beef dish. I don't always like that stewed flavor of beef, so this really appealed to me. She browns the meat, makes the vegetable mixture based on that fond, and then adds the just-cooked meat at the end. It's perfect and has very fresh, delicious flavors. I'm not knocking traditional Bourgignon, but this is definitely a delicious dish. Anyone who wants the recipe, I'll post (if that's allowed, copyright-wise?) Fri Jan 17 16:17:26 -0800 2003 1588007 0 Mrs. Smith 2 1588054 List off the ingredients, and paraphrase the prose, and you'll be all set. Fri Jan 17 16:35:32 -0800 2003 1588052 0 ironmom 3 1588057 without being too much of a mooch, I'd love the recipe (I love braised meats/stews, my hus much prefers roasted/grilled meats - this sounds like the perfect "suits us both' approach). Many thanks Fri Jan 17 16:40:16 -0800 2003 1588054 0 pam 4 1588058 Okay -- I'll paraphrase as ironmom says, and post sometime this weekend. It's yummy, trust me. Fri Jan 17 16:44:03 -0800 2003 1588057 0 Mrs. Smith 5 1588103 thanks Fri Jan 17 21:41:11 -0800 2003 1588058 0 pam 6 1588120 DO NOT braise tenderloin. Lightly saute the cubes, add to the final dish without further cooking. DO NOT BRAISE! Sat Jan 18 00:52:45 -0800 2003 1588103 0 Jim H. 5 1588473 Hi All, I agree with Jim H's desperate plea not to braise tenderloin (which would probably fall apart into a tasteless mass, having little fat and no connective tissue to dissolve). I never suggested braising beef tenderloin, and neither does the Barefoot Contessa cookbook from which this comes. Here's the Ina Garten recipe. Enjoy: Filet of Beef Bourguignon Serves 6 to 8 Note: I’ve done this successfully with frozen beef stock from the grocery store when I didn’t have homemade beef stock. Do not attempt this with reconstituted demi-glace, which has flour or roux in it, and could ruin the texture of the finished product. In a pinch you could use those bouillon cubes, but the result would probably be too salty and chemical-tasting. I wouldn’t recommend doing that to this pretty expensive cut of beef. I haven’t tried using reconstituted “Better than Bouillon” paste for this, but it would probably be okay. I use frozen grocery store stock from a good deli most of the time, since I find making beef stock such a pain. 1 3-pound filet of beef, trimmed Kosher salt Freshly ground black pepper 3 to 4 tablespoons good olive oil ¼ pound bacon, diced 2 garlic cloves, minced 1 ½ cups good dry red wine, such as Burgundy or Chianti 2 cups beef stock 1 tablespoon tomato paste 1 sprig fresh thyme ½ pound pearl onions, peeled (put them in boiling water for a minute or two, drain, cool, and then they will be very easy to peel. I’ve used both white and yellow pearl onions, and I prefer yellow in this recipe.) 8 to 10 carrots, cut diagonally into 1-inch-thick slices 3 tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour ½ pound mushrooms, sliced ¼ -inch thick (domestic or wild) (Paraphrase of instructions) Cut the beef tenderloin into 1-inch thick slices. Season it with salt and pepper on both sides. In a big, heavy Dutch oven on medium-high heat, sauté the beef in batches with 2-3 tablespoons of the olive oil, until brown on the outside and still very red and rare inside, about 2-3 minutes for each side. Take the beef out of the pan and place onto a platter. In the beef fond, sauté the bacon on medium-low heat for 5 minutes. It should now be brown and crispy. Remove the bacon, and set aside. Drain all the fat, reserving two tablespoons. In this 2 tablespoons bacon fat, on top of the beef fond, add the minced garlic and cook for 30 seconds. Do NOT cook any longer than that before deglazing. Deglaze the pan by pouring in the red wine, and cook on high heat for 1 minute, scraping the bottom of the pan. Pour in the stock, tomato paste, thyme, 1 teaspoon salt, and ½ teaspoon pepper. Bring this up to a boil, and cook uncovered for 10 minutes. Remove from the heat, pour through a fine mesh strainer, and return it to the pan. Add the onions and carrots, and set it to simmer without the cover on for 20-30 minutes. Taste the vegetables to be sure they are cooked. With a fork mash the 2 tablespoons of butter and flour into a paste. Whisk it into the sauce gently. Simmer for 2 minutes to thicken. Meanwhile, sauté the mushrooms in a separate skillet, in 1 tablespoon of butter and 1 tablespoon of the olive oil. Saute for about 10 minutes, until browned and tender. Add the beef slices, the mushrooms, and the bacon to the pot with the vegetables and the sauce. Cover and reheat gently for 5-10 minutes, until the meat is done to your liking. Do not overcook. Season to taste, and serve immediately. Ina Garten doesn’t say to do this, but I also chop up a few additional fresh thyme leaves, and sprinkle over each assembled plate. I serve this with a cracked-wheat roll. Tue Jan 21 12:56:59 -0800 2003 1588058 0 Mrs. Smith 1 1588078 I just made BB last Sunday and put the last bit into the freezer last night. These were the important things for me: 1. Use a Chuck roast that you cut yourself. 2. Saute your mushrooms and pearl onions seperately until golden, golden and flambe each with a splash of brandy (off the flame). 3. After cooking in oven for 3-4 hours, strain the solids from the broth, cover, and refridgerate overnight. The next day, skim the accumulated fat from the top of the broth and recombine the solids with the broth. 4. We ate it Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights, reheating it in the oven at 325 for about 2 hours each night. On Thursday night it was the essence of perfection. The meat was breaking down but still had character and most important, the sauce (formerly a broth) was thick and had the deepest, richest flavor. The problem was that there wasn't much BB left. I don't know if the metamorphasis of the broth into heavenly sauce was the product of being reheated 4 times, or being cooked 8 hours longer after the initial 3-4 hours in the oven. The next time I'll allow 2 days, doing the initial cooking and straining on Saturday, and then cooking an additional 8 hours on Sunday, for Sunday night dinner. Fri Jan 17 17:56:52 -0800 2003 1588007 0 TomSwift 1 1588095 Cooked mine using recipe from "Julia & Jacque Cooking at Home" with wonderful results. Love her traditional unhealthy approaches to food. Drown large beef cubes in wine for a couple of days before cooking, nice fatty cuts of chuck and of course butter! Fri Jan 17 20:00:13 -0800 2003 1588007 0 SG 2 1588124 I like this recipe a lot too. As is recommended, use a good sturdy bottle of red wine. Also, think about prepping this over a 2 or 3 day period... letting the beef marinate in the wine overnight and finishing the vegetables later. Excellent. Sat Jan 18 01:38:32 -0800 2003 1588095 0 The Loaf 1 1588200 Hope you enjoyed your beef bourguignon. Some time when you cook it again try shin beef. Not sure what it is called in The USA but it is a small muscle about 30- 40cm long. The cartilage/sinew in the shin softens and gives a wonderful tender smoothness to the meat and absolutely no dryness or stringiness no matter how you mistreat it. Not sure about that long marinading though. Will try "cooking" the wine first some time though I have only heard of this from this web site and assume it is an American thing. Any alcohol in cookery boils off almost instantly and it is only the flavour that is left behind be it grape or grain. The brandy flambe bit is well worthwhile. Sun Jan 19 09:39:48 -0800 2003 1588007 0 bgorton 1 1588381 All good tips. I'll give you a strange one. I wasn't happy with the consistency last time I made it (frankly it's a lot better the day after, or 2) so just for the hell of it, I added sour cream. Added a very nice richness. Normally, I would never toy with such a classic but I was having company that evening and wanted some thickness and richness right off the simmer rather than the day after. Mon Jan 20 15:21:21 -0800 2003 1588007 0 Hunter