Boeuf Bourguignon, prepare Beef Stew French Style Step by Step
from Thomas Sixt
Hi, I am a German Chef and Food Photographer. The imparting of cooking knowledge is my great passion. Everyone can cook for himself and with this website I would like to contribute to its success. Cooking questions I answer you gladly at the end of the articles. Have fun and good luck!
I serve you my boeuf bourguignon in this post. The beef stew in French style is a classic of fine cuisine. I ate the stew for the first time many years ago in an original version in Paris. Now show you my variant with step by step instructions and cooking video.
My preparation method is influenced by Paul Bocuse, Alain Ducasse, Alfons Schuhbeck and Eckart Witzigmann and I have summarized the familiar tips for optimal preparation here.
Please read on and enjoy! Let me show you a wonderful dish, the cooking time is a good 35 minutes, then your stove does the work. The video I have cut together to 8 minutes to give you a quick overview. Wish you good luck!
Table of Contents
1. What meat we use for beef bourguignon
The dish is prepared with beef, classically with stew meat, it is goulash meat.
Suitable pieces of meat are:
| English | Französisch |
|---|---|
| Beef shovel | Macreuse a pot au feu |
| Parts from the shoulder | Jumeau a pot au feu |
| Thick rib | Paleron |
| Thick flank | Gite a la noix |
| Leg slice | Gite et jarret |
In Germany, unfortunately, the goulash meat is usually cut too small. Therefore, it would be better to buy the meat in one piece. So you can cut your meat yourself into cubes of about 5 cm.
Beef sausage is my first choice for this stew!
Meat recommendation from chef Thomas Sixt
2. What ingredients are typical for the original?
I like to call this dish French beef goulash. While in Germany we “only” add onions, broth and paprika seasoning to the meat stew, in France red wine is added to the preparation. In the original, of course, a Burgundy.
How can you recognize Burgundy wine in the supermarket? Burgundy is round, this applies to the bottle and the matching glasses. The Burgundy wine bottle has a longer neck and the transition to the bottle belly is rounder than the Bordeaux bottle.
The typical ingredients in the overview:
- Braised beef, optimal is the –> beef sausage
- Small pearl onions as well as garlic I like to use —> shallots
- For the familiar flavor –> bacon and preferably small mushrooms
- For vegetables yellow beets I use —> carrots
- Sauce –> tomato paste, Burgundy red wine, optional veal stock
- To thicken the sauce –> cornstarch
- Spices like –> bay leaf, cloves, allspice, salt, pepper and sugar
- Must not be missing in French cuisine –> butter
- As a garnish —> boiled potatoes and blanched green onions.
This is not a Julia Child recipe 🙂
Says chef Thomas Sixt
3. Chef preparation tips
–> In contrast to the goulash, the meat in the ragout has big pieces.
–> I do not add onion cubes, the gentle aroma comes from whole onions.
–> Instead of adding veal stock, I cook the bone with it.
–> I cook the carrots separately because they become too soft during braising.
–> Roast with tomato paste, which optimizes flavor and color.
–> Bacon and mushrooms I add later, finer taste tuning.
–> The binding of the sauce is done precisely with cornstarch instead of roux.
–> Christmas cooking: add gingerbread spice and dark chocolate.
Photo impressions:
4. Recipe Boeuf bourguignon
Here now the step by step instructions with many photos and video. About the comment function you can send me directly a cooking question!
Boeuf Bourguignon
Prepare beef bourguignon step by step with the professional cooking instructions from chef Thomas Sixt.
Boeuf bourguignon recipe with step by step photos and cooking video tutorial. Prepare French beef stew with Chef Thomas Sixt. All info here!
Cousine
Keyword
Preparation Time
35 Min.
Cook Time
180 Min.
Ingredients
|
Beef stew base ingredients |
||
| 1 | pc | beef on the bone |
| 2 | tbs | Sunflower oil |
| 2 | tbs | tomato paste |
| 10 | pc | shallots |
| 3 | pc | Garlic clove |
| 5 | pc | laurel leaves |
| 3 | pc | cloves |
| 4 | pc | allspice seeds |
| 0,7 | l | Burgundy red wine (I like to use a Burgundy <5€ bottle) |
| 0,7 | l | Beef broth (or water) |
| 1 | pc | bouquet garni (rosemary, thyme, sage) |
|
Prepare carrots |
||
| 8-10 | pc | carrots |
| 30-60 | g | butter |
| 4-6 | pinches | Salt |
| 2-4 | pinches | Pepper |
| 2-4 | pinches | nutmeg |
| 100 | ml | Water |
|
Ragout finish ingredients |
||
| 100-120 | g | bacon |
| 200-250 | g | Mushrooms |
| 2-3 | tsp | Cornstarch (Dissolve in 80 ml of cold water, then there are no lumps!) |
| 2 | cl | cognac (optional) |
| 50 | g | butter |
|
Side dishes |
||
| 3-5 | pc | Potatoes |
| 1 | bunch | spring onions |
Instruction
Prepare ingredients and meat
Beize vorbereiten
Provide the ingredients.
Fleisch beizen
Put the beef knife ready to use. It is important to have a stable base or cutting board and a sharp knife.
Fleisch vorbereiten
Remove the meat by cutting along the bone.
Gemüse vorbereiten
Cut the meat into 5 cm cubes.
Ragout preparation
Fleisch braten
Peel the shallots and garlic. Cut a shallot in half and lard with bay leaf and cloves. Cut carrots into pieces and tourned (give shape). Put the carrots in a separate dish. Cut bacon into strips and make ready as well.
Soßenansatz
Brown the meat in a pan over high heat with the sunflower oil.
Schmoren
Turn meat over and brown vigorously, we cooks also refer to this as caramelizing, although no sugar is added here.
Fleisch entnehmen
Add shallots and garlic.
Soße passieren
Add tomato paste and roast until dark brown. Deglaze with red wine and broth. Boil roasting substances from the bottom of the pan, put the ragout in a pot, add the bones, add the bouquet garni and simmer gently with a lid on the stove or in the oven at 175°C for one hour.
Soße reduzieren
Fry bacon strips and mushrooms in the pan.
Beilagen zubereiten
Cool the bacon and mushrooms in the pan.
Side dishes prepare
Fleisch aufschneiden
Toss carrots in foamed butter, season with salt, pepper, sugar and nutmeg. Add water and cook with lid until well done. Place next to the stove ready to serve.
Peel the potatoes, cut them into quarters and shape them. Then boil in salted water until soft. Cut the light green of the young onions into 3 cm pieces and cook briefly with the potatoes until al dente.
Sauce binding and dressing
Anrichten
In the cooled pan, mix cornstarch with cold water.
Check the degree of cooking of the meat and continue cooking as needed. Then strain the sauce into the pan through a fine sieve (stainless steel hair sieve). Cut out the meat (technical term, remove from the pot without herbs and additions) and add to the sauce. Bring ragout to a boil in the pan and final taste with butter, salt, pepper and sugar.
Heat side dishes in butter, arrange ragout with sauce in the middle of warm plates. Add vegetables and decorate with thyme leaves and thyme sprigs. Enjoy your meal!
Video
In the cooking video I show you the preparation in about 8 minutes summarized. You can gently flavor the ragout with gingerbread spice and dark chocolate during the Christmas season!
5. Cooking time tips
My ragout was ready in less than 50 minutes. In fact, most of the information about the braising time of meat does not correspond to reality. The better and more mature the meat, the faster it can be prepared. Meat from young cattle generally cooks faster than meat from older cattle. Therefore, please ask when purchasing, additionally when preparing the meat rather try several times and then adjust the cooking time if necessary.
6. Note on the preparation of ragout with fillet of beef
Please do not braise beef fillet cubes! Prepare the sauce without meat. The basis can be a roasting stock with soup vegetables, tomato paste, veal stock and red wine. Refine the sauce as shown here with mushrooms and bacon and thicken with cornstarch. Later, sear the beef tenderloin cubes vigorously and let them infuse in the sauce to the desired degree of doneness, for example medium, and serve immediately.
A variant of this preparation I show you here at the beef ragout.
Cooking times are always only guidelines, the meat always cooks differently, depending on the breed of cattle, origin and age. Trying is the secret tip!
When is the ragout meat ready tip from Chef Thomas Sixt
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