🇫🇷 Beef Bourguignon

Beef bourguignon is beef chuck braised in red wine with bacon, pearl onions, and mushrooms until it is velvety and tender. It is a peasant dish that became a French classic. The wine is not just an ingredient — it is the foundation.

Ingredients

• 1.2 kg Beef Chuck
• 200 g Bacon Lardons
• 1 Onion
• 2 Carrots
• 3 cloves Garlic
• 750 ml Pinot Noir
• 2 cups Beef Stock
• 2 tbsp Tomato Paste
• 2 tbsp Flour
• Thyme, Bay, Parsley
• 250 g Pearl Onions
• 250 g Mushrooms
• 3 tbsp Butter

Method

1. Crisp bacon. Set aside.
2. Sear beef in bacon fat until caramelised.
3. Sauté onion and carrots. Add garlic.
4. Return beef and bacon. Sprinkle flour and cook 2 min.
5. Add wine, stock, tomato paste, and herbs.
6. Braise at 160°C for 2.5–3 hours.
7. Sauté pearl onions and mushrooms in butter. Fold in.
8. Serve with mashed potatoes.

History

Beef bourguignon comes from the Burgundy region of France, where it has been made for centuries as a way of cooking tough cuts of beef with the local red wine. The dish was originally a peasant preparation — the kind of thing a farmer might make on a Sunday, using whatever beef was on hand and the wine that was already in the cellar. It was codified into haute cuisine by the great French chef Auguste Escoffier in the early 20th century, and was further popularised by Julia Child in the 1960s, whose recipe in Mastering the Art of French Cooking introduced the dish to American home cooks. Today it is one of the most iconic French dishes worldwide.

The science

The red wine in beef bourguignon does two things. First, it provides acidity, which helps break down the connective tissue in the beef and tenderises the meat during the long braise. Second, it provides flavour — the wine’s tannins and complex aromatic compounds are absorbed by the meat and concentrated as the sauce reduces. But not all wines work equally well: a wine that is too tannic will make the sauce bitter, and a wine that is too fruity will make it cloying. A dry, medium-bodied red like Pinot Noir is the traditional choice. The cooking temperature is also critical — the braise should be at a bare simmer (around 90°C), never a rolling boil, because boiling toughens the meat and makes it stringy.

Substitutions

Beef chuck is the classic cut, but brisket, short ribs, or even lamb shoulder work well. For a wine, use a dry red Burgundy, Pinot Noir, or a Rhône blend — never a wine you would not drink on its own. The bacon lardons can be replaced with pancetta or thick-cut bacon, though the flavour will be slightly different. For a vegetarian version, use large chunks of portobello mushrooms, celeriac, and carrots, and use a strong vegetable stock with a splash of soy sauce for umami. Pearl onions are traditional but fiddly; frozen pearl onions are a perfectly good shortcut.

Chef's tip

Use a wine you would drink. Cheap wine makes cheap stew.

Drink pairing

Pinot Noir or Bordeaux. The wine in the glass should match the wine in the pot, and a good Burgundy brings out the earthy, mushroom notes of the dish without overpowering the beef.