So uh... I made braised beef tips last night.

Cafe Society
1

So I was a little tipsy last night when I decided to make some braised beef tips.

The end result was quite tasty but what I didn’t realize until today was that the “gravy” (or whatever it’s called) has a purple hue to it.

Is that normal? Or does that mean I fucked up somehow? Or was it possibly the cheap wine?

Let me walk you through what I did:
I seared the beef tips on high heat.
I took that out of the pan (or Dutch oven actually)
Threw in a vegetable medley and scraped up all the good bits off the pan.
Poured in a (Cheap) bottle of red wine and reduced it by 2/3’s. (eh, I’m pretty sure I did, remember I was a little tipsy)
I then threw the beef tips back in, poured in some beef broth, brought it to a simmer and then put the whole thing in the oven for an additional 2 1/2 hours.

Any ideas what (if anything) went wrong?

I guess one could argue that as long as it’s tasty, I have nothing to worry about, but dang it! I watch too many cooking shows to know that presentation counts!

2

My mother’s gravy, made from Julia Child’s original French cookbook, sometimes comes out purple. I definitely think it’s the wine - not necessarily the quality, just that it adds color.

3

It’s the red wine, unless you were drunk enough to add beets to the recipe.

4

It’s BRAISED, not RAISIN.

5

It was the cheap wine. This has happened to me before with a cheap Port. It came out almost grape-jelly-purple, but tasted fine.