Julia Child’s Boeuf Bourguignon Recipe

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164 Responses to “Julia Child’s Boeuf Bourguignon Recipe”

1. CaptPoco says:

   January 20, 2010 at 4:48 am

   @ Miriam Ghabour
   If you don’t drink wine, I suggest beer. If that isn’t good, then, yes, you could make it with broth instead of stock. You’ll need to make 6 c though, which means that you’ll have to, essentially, make a pot of tasty beef soup just to add it to this dish. It’s your call, but it seems like a lot of work to me.

   Your best bet is to take the ingredients for this dish and instead use them to make Beef Stroganoff. It’s the same thing, except with heavy cream rather than wine. It contains some Cognac, but that can easily be omitted.

   @ Bailey
   I’m pretty sure you serve the same kind of wine that you made the beef with.

   In general, I find that cooking the vegetables separately is unnecessary, and that the bacon can easily be replaced with a few tablespoons olive oil with no discernible change in flavor.
2. JC says:

   January 23, 2010 at 2:35 pm

   It’s noon & I’ve just completed the recipe for dinner tonight. It looks perfect, smells wonderful. But I find my rump roast is dry. I’m very disappointed after all the work. We cooked it at 320 for 3 hrs. Haven’t decided whether or not to serve it. Would it have been different at the 2hr mark? And/or another cut of meat.
3. Shari says:

   January 24, 2010 at 10:01 pm

   Wow, the wine taste is strong. I’m not surprised because it’s literally “beef stewed in wine” but I’m not use to eating something with such a strong wine taste. Holy moly. Less wine more broth next time. Although now I can saute mushrooms whereas I didn’t know I was doing it wrong. Pretty cool overall. I had to read the recipe several times. I think that it’s pretty well written for being a french cook book. However, even though it is just a half a century old, some of the wording is becoming archaic. Which sets me aback. It’s astonishing that the English language can change so rapidly as to make simple instructions start to sound archaic.
4. caroline says:

   January 26, 2010 at 10:06 pm

   what about using short ribs? looking at the recipe, i was surprised that was not the first choice meat. its such a good and tender meat for stewing. i will try it this weekend. stay tuned.
5. Fern says:

   January 31, 2010 at 4:00 pm

   I’ve made this once with great success, and I’m doing it again today. The rump roast was surprisingly tender for such a lean cut of meat. To the earlier post about dry meat, I would cook it longer rather than shorter time. Short ribs are so rich, it would probably change entirely the character of this dish.

   I found the recipe for sauteed mushrooms most instructive. I didn’t think there was anything new I could learn about cooking mushrooms after 40 years of doing it!
6. ROTHNH says:

   January 31, 2010 at 5:49 pm

   @ Caroline = If you read previous posts here, you will note that I recommended Beef Short Ribs as the ideal cut of beef for this recipe — Boneless or Bone-in both work extremely well here.
7. paul chlopas says:

   February 1, 2010 at 7:39 am

   Amazing recipe. Follow it to the T and you can’t go wrong. JC – maybe you left the lid off? or not enough wine. This cannot turn out dry if you follow all the instructions. ENJOY!
8. Bob Whitlock says:

   February 2, 2010 at 2:26 pm

   As far as cuts of meat are concerned, I like chuck for its flavor and its marbling of fat which tends to make the meat moister. If you choose a very lean cut–shoulder for example–you’ll probably be disappointed. This dish is interesting in that it’s not difficult, just time consuming to do correctly–a two-day recipe, really. I pulled out the 20-quart stock pot to make beef stock, roasting shin and knuckle bones for almost three hours before adding them to the pot–it takes about 12 hours to make stock! But…what a difference in the result. My suggestion for wine is to find an inexpensive dry red wine that is “fruity,” not austere, like a cotes du rhone with lots of grenache or even an australian shiraz. Just choose a wine you would actually drink! My one labor saving tip is to buy Birds Eye frozen onions instead of laboriously blanching and peeling pearl onions. Finally, the observation that while, yes, you can boil the sauce to reduce it, if you like the flavor of the sauce and it’s too thin, you have the option of using a beurre manie–kneaded butter. Just take a tablespoon of flour and knead it into an ounce of softened butter with a fork. The smooth mixture is then added to the sauce and brought to a boil while whisking. Arrowroot and cornstarch are other thickening agents, but I prefer the ol’ beurre manie.
9. Jeanne says:

   February 5, 2010 at 5:12 pm

   I made this for several friends a couple of weeks ago, and it was perfection. I used lean stew beef, french burgundy and followed the recipe to the letter. The meat melted in our mouths. All the work was more than worth it. If you are looking for a 30 minute meal is is NOT it. Couldn’t have asked for a better meal that day.
10. Wendy Dennis says:

    February 5, 2010 at 8:34 pm

    Just for fun, click on jumpingonion at http://www.culinaryq.com

    A wonderful recipe, even better when made with a friend.
11. Lee says:

    February 7, 2010 at 8:39 pm

    I’ve read this recipe over many times. I don’t know where the carrots and onions ended up. Are they in the pot with the beef and flour to be simmered ? Do they get removed and put back later or do they disappear as the copy leads me to believe. “Wash out the casserole and return the beef and bacon to it”, then later “Pour the sauce over the meat and vegetables” What vegetables? I’d really like to try this recipe for my friends, but I’m stuck.
12. angela says:

    February 8, 2010 at 3:00 pm

    Hi Lee! Funny, you aren’t the first person to ask that question. The vegetables are the third step on page two of the pdf (pg 316 of the book). Its just carrots and sliced onions — but they do add a lot of flavour.

    Of course, the pearl onions and mushrooms come in later.

    Hope that helps!

    angela
13. a says:

    February 8, 2010 at 3:10 pm

    I have asked that question and read from the book and PDF and it is not at all clear, however the carrot and sliced onion are removed and discarded when the meat is strained. In Julia childs the french chef video she dosn’t use the carrot and sliced onion so I concider it optional I have made it both ways with and without the use of carrot and sliced onion and there is very little difference in flavour. However, I would use them as I think she omitted them from the video due to time and budget.

    Would like to know what everyone else thinks.
14. Heather says:

    February 8, 2010 at 8:59 pm

    I have always left the carrot and onion in as the recipe does not say to take it out. I use the peeled baby carrots. By the time all is said and done the sliced onion has disappeared anyway.