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Boeuf BourguignonBoeuf Bourguignon
July 5, 2020 | Updated March 13, 2023 | Laura
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✽ Recipe from Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol. I | Julia Child ✽
Julia Child Recipe 124 | 404 recipes to go!
✽ Boeuf Bourguignon / Boeuf à la Bourguignonne [Beef Stew in Red Wine, with Bacon, Onions, and Mushrooms], p. 315
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✽ Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol. I was written by Julia Child who co-authored with Simone Beck & Louisette Bertholle and was published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1961.
✽ You can buy Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume I which contains these recipes here. (affiliate link)
The purpose of this Julia Child section of my blog is to document my journey of learning how to cook. To show my successes, my failures, and what I learned along the way.
Since I didn't create these recipes (if only!), I do not post exact amounts of ingredients or word-for-word instructions. If any of these recipes spark your interest, I highly recommend you buy Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking (affiliate link). It's a great investment and learning tool and contains hundreds of classic recipes.
What you will find on my blog is:
✽ Butter Count & Cost Total
✽ How the Recipe Tasted
✽ Answers to Questions about Recipe
✽ Fun Facts about Recipe or an Ingredient Used
✽ The Recipe Process
✽ Step-by-Step and Final Photos of Recipe
I hope that you enjoy reading my thoughts, learn something new, and leave inspired to try a new recipe. Bon appétit!
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Butter Count & Cost: Boeuf Bourguignon
✽ Butter Count: +0 TB
✽ Cost: $37.86 [~$6.31 per serving]
Check out the total Julia Child butter count & cost here!
→ Looking for a different Julia Child recipe? Here's a list of all of the completed and pending Mastering the Art of French Cooking recipes!
Well, I finally made it to the very much anticipated Beef Bourguignon.
I’ve been waiting for this recipe since day one of this journey. I’ve scrolled past a countless number of other people’s pictures of their beef bourguignon. I’ve spent the last year and a half drooling over those pictures. Now finally my Dutch oven is filled with my very own, and my kitchen smells like a winery. Oh what a wonderful thing.
Before I get into the recipe, let me say that this dish is so worth the hype. I usually do not like to give into popular trends. I find myself overcome with joy when I discover a super delicious “unpopular” recipe within this book. However, I can’t lie. Beef Bourguignon deserves all the medals and awards.
If you haven’t decided if you want to commit a whole afternoon cooking this recipe, just do it. The outcome is worth every second.
Side note- I toast my glass to all of you talented people out there that can make this dish look like more than just a plop of beef and gravy in a bowl. Trust me, it tastes 20x better than any picture could ever make you believe!
Julia describes it as “one of the most delicious beef dishes concocted by man."
Boeuf Bourguignon: Questions
✽ What do you serve with Boeuf Bourguignon?
Potatoes are the best side with this famous dish. That delicious red wine sauce is great on top of boiled buttered potatoes or homemade mashed potatoes. You can also serve it with buttered noodles or white rice. I personally recommend serving with some fresh French bread too!
For a vegetable, the cookbook recommends buttered peas. As for wine, reach for a red wine to pair with the dish. Burgundy is good!
✽ What is the best cut of meat for Boeuf Bourguignon?
The better the cut of meat, the better the boeuf bourguignon. However, with that said, use what you can afford. Even a cheap cut of meat is going to taste great in this recipe.
As for the best cut of beef, go with rump pot roast followed by chuck pot roast, sirloin tip, top round, or bottom round.
✽ Is boeuf bourguignon good leftover?
YES! Most people often agree that leftover boeuf bourguignon is better than freshly prepapred boeuf bourguignon. All the flavors marry together in the fridge so it is super flavorful the next day. The stew will stay good in the fridge for 3-4 days when stored in an covered container.
Reheat the stew covered on the stove and simmer slowly. While it is reheating, occasionally baste the meat with the sauce until warm.
Looking for more Julia Child beef stew recipes to read about?
→ Check out all of the meat recipes that I've completed so far!
Fun Facts about Boeuf Bourguignon
*Find these facts plus lots more on Wikipedia*
✽ What is boeuf bourguignon?
Boeuf bourguignon is a French stew made with red wine-braised beef that is flavored with carrots, onions, and bacon. The final dish is garnished with small white onions, mushrooms, and parsley.
✽ How long has boeuf bourguignon been around?
People have been eating dishes similar to boeuf bourguignon for hundreds of years. However, the dish was not first documented until the year 1867 inside Pierre Larousse's Grand Dictionnaire Universel du XIXe Siecle. It would be in the year 1878 that boeuf bourguignon was first served in a restaurant.
How to Make Boeuf Bourguignon
✽ Step 1: Simmer Bacon
As with any Julia recipe that contains bacon, we begin by simmering the cut bacon for a few minutes in water.
✽ Step 2: Saute Bacon
The bacon is then sautéed in oil for a couple minutes to brown and removed to a side dish.
✽ Step 3: Saute Beef
The bacon grease leftover is what the cubes of beef will be sautéed in. Once all sides of the all the beef are browned, they are set to the side with the bacon.
✽ Step 4: Brown Vegetables
In the same fat, a sliced carrot and sliced onion are browned.
✽ Step 5: Coat Beef with Flour
Once everything has sautéed, the fat is removed, everything is added back into the casserole, and seasoned. It is all tossed with a bit of flour and put into a hot oven for just a few minutes. It is tossed once again and returned to the oven for a little bit longer.
This step will give the beef a nice crust so don’t want to skip this step!
✽ Step 6: Add Liquids & Flavorings
Wine and beef stock are added to barely cover everything. Tomato paste, garlic, thyme, bay leaf, and the simmered bacon rind are added. It is all brought to a simmer, covered, and set into the oven for 2-3 hours.
At this point, your kitchen will smell like a winery. And if you’re anything like me, you’ve had a couple glasses of wine yourself. Turn on some French music and embrace everything that is going on around you.
✽ Step 7: Prepare Onions & Mushrooms
The onions are prepared the same way as in the minced braised beef served in a beef shell recipe and the mushrooms are sautéed in butter.
✽ Step 8: Pour into Sieve
Once the beef is done cooking, everything in the casserole are poured through a sieve. The casserole is washed out and only the beef and bacon are added back. The onions and mushrooms are poured over the meat.
✽ Step 9: Simmer Sauce
The sauce is skimmed of fat and simmered for a couple minutes. My sauce was too thin so I rapidly boiled it down until it was able to coat the back of a spoon. Lastly, that delicious sauce is poured over the meat and you are ready to serve it.
✽ Step 10: Serve
The great thing about this recipe is that you can actually serve it at a later time. You just have to reheat it on the stove for about ten minutes. Decorate the stew with parsley sprigs.
Actually, the leftovers were so much more flavorful because everything had time to marry each other in the fridge.
I served my beef bourguignon with boiled potatoes because Julia says that is how the dish was traditionally served. It would also go well with buttered noodles, rice, or mashed potatoes.
This is a classic for a reason. Go make it!
*This blog, Laura the Gastronaut, and this post were/are not endorsed or supported by Julia Child or The Julia Child Foundation.
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Category: Julia Child, Meat Cuisine: French
Keywords: beef bourguignon recipe, julia child boeuf bourguignon recipe, boeuf a la bourguignonne recipe, french beef stew recipes
✽ Did you make this recipe too?
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More Beef Recipes:
✽ Beef Braised in Red Wine (delicious marinated beef braised in red wine)
✽ Hamburgers in Cream Sauce (tasty French hamburgers covered with an amazing cream sauce)
✽ Steak au Poivre (perfectly cooked steak covered in peppercorns)
→ Check out all of the completed Julia Child beef recipes!
✽ You can find this recipe and all the other Julia Child recipes I make in Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume I (affiliate link).
→ Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol. I was written by Julia Child who co-authored with Simone Beck & Louisette Bertholle and was published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1961.
✽ Check out my Julia Child Recipe Checklist to see a list of all my completed and pending recipes from Mastering the Art of French Cooking!
Bon appétit!
July 5, 2020 by Laura Ehlers
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