I’ve owned both volumes of Mastering the Art of French Cooking for a coon’s age, but I’d never made boeuf bourguignon. When the* Julie and Julia* fever was at its peak, I heard many people raving about boeuf bourguignon as the first thing they’d ever made from Mastering.
So I made it today. Time-consuming but not difficult. My husband and son found it ambrosial. “The meat just melts in your mouth!”
I found it to be…beef cooked until is was falling apart and icky. I don’t like pot roast. I don’t like beef barbecue. I like beef stew, if the meat isn’t cooked to death. This was cooked to death.
I would make this again and do everything the same, except, before the final combining of beef, bacon, onions and mushrooms with that yummy sauce, I’d chuck the stewed beef and throw in an equivalent amount of grilled steak, cooked rare and cubed. Now THAT would be awesome.
Naw, I think goes in the different strokes category. My wife doesn’t like it either because she doesn’t like the taste of wine in food. I don’t use a recipe to make it but everything gets browned and then reduce, reduce, reduce.
First off beef stew that isn’t cooked to death? The definition of stew is to cook low and slow for a long period of time.
If you don’t like any beef dishes that aren’t rare steak why would you be surprised that this dish isn’t for you?
Should I start a thread complaining about how gross a tuna maki is and then off-handed mention that “I hate raw fish, seared ahi tuna and sticky rice…but tuna salad is ok”.
You know, I actually did have a clue that a recipe that called for a slow simmering of beef for 3-4 hours was not going to yield the same result as a steak grilled three minutes per side. However, I sometimes cook for the other people in my household that do like long-simmered beef.
My mistake, I reckon, for thinking that it would be fun to post a whimsical thread about the disconnect between my cooking boeuf bourguignon when I like my beef cooked rare.
Yeah, stewed beef should be of the fork-tender variety. Steaks should be medium rare (for me.) A stew that’s cooked to a steak level of doneness just doesn’t work. The type of meat involved is just chewy and girstly unless you cook it for hours at a low temp, to the point where the collagen breaks down into gelatin. (So I say, who made Hungarian beef stew, aka porkolt/goulsh, for dinner.)
Nothing to do with the OP, but we were inspired to make Hungarian mushroom soup today. Wonderful, creamy stuff with dill and smoked Spanish paprika and four or five types of shrooms and sour cream. Also made a loaf of herb bread to eat with it. Now that’s rainy-day fall food.
I think a new rule needs to be instituted in CS which states that one is not allowed to post about “this thing I made the other day” without including the recipe along with it.
I was searching around today for a good authentic stroganoff recipe and it struck me that this one is pretty similar to what you describe wanting to make here and thought I’d share it just in case. I don’t know if’s close to being authentic stroganoff or not but it tastes good.
I made a easy stroganoff this week by cubing and browning beef and cooking in the pressure cooker in beef stock for 15 minutes with onion, chive and garlic. After the pressure cook, when the beef is tender, add 16 ounces of cream cheese. simmer until the cream cheese is well incorporated, not just melty. Serve over egg noodles. Yum. and less than 30 minutes from start to finish.
