Beef bourguignon for evenings with friends
Beef slowly braised in red wine with bacon, onions, and mushrooms. The ultimate sharing dish, which takes time and invites conversation.
Beef slowly braised in red wine with bacon, onions, and mushrooms. The ultimate sharing dish, which takes time and invites conversation.
On ordinary days, I ate anything, anywhere. But there were those evenings when we gathered — the Beaver, friends, manuscripts on the table — and then we needed a dish that would last as long as our discussions. A beef that has simmered all afternoon in wine, that can stand us talking until dawn without really cooling down. We don't get together to eat: we eat to have a reason to stay together and think out loud.
- •Beef for braising (chuck, shin) — a nice piece (base)
- •Red Burgundy wine — one bottle (braising liquid)
- •Bacon lardons — a handful (fat base)
- •Onions and carrots — a few (aromatic garnish)
- •Button mushrooms — a handful (garnish)
- •Bouquet garni, garlic — to taste (flavor)
Beef bourguignon for evenings with friends
Beef slowly braised in red wine with bacon, onions, and mushrooms. The ultimate sharing dish, which takes time and invites conversation.
Why this dish? The stewed dish that brings people together: for evenings when Sartre, Beauvoir, and their "family" of intellectuals dined and talked for hours. A bourgeois classic revisited by the bohemia of Saint-Germain.
On ordinary days, I ate anything, anywhere. But there were those evenings when we gathered — the Beaver, friends, manuscripts on the table — and then we needed a dish that would last as long as our discussions. A beef that has simmered all afternoon in wine, that can stand us talking until dawn without really cooling down. We don't get together to eat: we eat to have a reason to stay together and think out loud.
Ingredients (period version)
- Beef for braising (chuck, shin) — a nice piece (base)
- Red Burgundy wine — one bottle (braising liquid)
- Bacon lardons — a handful (fat base)
- Onions and carrots — a few (aromatic garnish)
- Button mushrooms — a handful (garnish)
- Bouquet garni, garlic — to taste (flavor)
Ingredients
- Beef chuck — 1.2 kg (base)
- Full-bodied red wine — 75 cl (braising liquid)
- Smoked bacon lardons — 150 g (fat base)
- Carrots — 3 (garnish)
- Onions — 2 (garnish)
- Button mushrooms — 250 g (garnish)
- Flour — 1 tbsp (thickener)
- Bouquet garni + 2 garlic cloves — — (flavor)
Method
- Cut the beef into large cubes and brown on all sides in a Dutch oven; set aside.
- Sauté the lardons, onions, and carrots, then sprinkle with flour.
- Return the meat, pour in the red wine, add garlic and bouquet garni; season with salt and pepper.
- Cover and simmer on very low heat for 2.5 to 3 hours.
- Sauté the mushrooms separately and add them at the end of cooking.
- Serve hot, with steamed potatoes or fresh pasta — and bread for the sauce.
How it was made : Beef bourguignon, a peasant dish from Burgundy ennobled by 19th-century bourgeois cuisine, was codified by Auguste Escoffier and popularized in the 20th century. The secret lies in the slow, low-temperature cooking that tenderizes tough cuts and concentrates the wine's aromas.
The contemporary twist : Prepare it the day before: like a good idea, it's better after a night's rest.
Jean-Paul Sartre · Charactorium
