Beef bourguignon

• 3 lbbeef chuck · cut into 2 inch cubes, trimmed of hard gristle but not of fat
• 6 ozslab bacon or lardons · unsmoked if you can find it, cut into 1/4 inch batons
• 1 1/2 tspkosher salt · for salting the beef an hour ahead
• 1 tspblack pepper · coarsely ground
• 3 tbsptomato paste · cooked out in the pot until it darkens
• 1/4 cupall-purpose flour · or 3 tbsp cornstarch slurry at the end for a gluten-free version
• 1 bottledry red wine · 750ml, a Pinot Noir or a Gamay, something you would actually drink
• 2 cupsbeef stock · low-sodium, warmed
• 2 largecarrots · cut into 1 inch chunks on a bias
• 1 largeonion · roughly chopped, this one dissolves into the sauce
• 4 clovesgarlic · smashed
• 1 wholebouquet garni · 4 thyme sprigs, 2 bay leaves and 10 parsley stems, tied with string
• 18 wholepearl onions · peeled, frozen are fine and save twenty minutes
• 1 lbcremini mushrooms · quartered, or halved if small
• 2 tbspunsalted butter · for the mushrooms and pearl onions
• 1 tbspneutral oil · avocado or refined peanut, for the searing
• 1/4 cupflat-leaf parsley · chopped, for the finish
• 1 tspred wine vinegar · to wake the sauce up at the very end, off the heat

Method

1. 1

   Buy chuck, and buy it as a whole piece

   Chuck has the collagen that turns to gelatin over three hours and gives the sauce its body, and it has enough intramuscular fat to stay moist. Buy a whole chuck roast and cut it yourself into two-inch cubes, because pre-cut stewing beef is offcuts from several muscles that cook at different rates, which is why supermarket stew has some pieces dry and some still tough. Brisket and short rib both work. Round, sirloin and anything lean do not, at any cooking time.

2. 2

   Salt the cubes an hour ahead and leave them uncovered

   Salt the beef, spread it on a rack over a tray, and leave it in the fridge for at least an hour and up to overnight. Two things happen. The salt penetrates rather than sitting on the surface, which seasons meat you cannot season later once it is in liquid. And the surface dries out, which is the single biggest factor in whether the sear browns or steams. An hour uncovered in a cold fridge is more effective than any amount of patting with paper towel.

3. 3

   Render the bacon first and pull it out

   Cold pot, bacon batons, medium heat, eight to ten minutes until they are golden and have given up most of their fat. Lift them out with a slotted spoon and set them aside, because if they stay in for the whole braise they go soft and disappear. They go back in for the last twenty minutes. What you want from them now is the rendered fat, which browns beef better than oil does and carries flavour into everything that follows.

4. 4

   Three batches, and this is the step that decides the dish

   Get the fat properly hot, add one third of the cubes with space between every piece, and do not touch them for four minutes. Turn, three more minutes, then out. Repeat twice. A crowded pot drops below the temperature at which the Maillard reaction runs, the meat releases water, and you end up boiling grey cubes in their own juice. There is no later step that puts that flavour back. Twenty minutes across three batches is the correct time budget.

5. 5

   Cook the tomato paste until it changes colour

   After the last batch of beef comes out, add the chopped onion, carrot and garlic to the pot and cook for six minutes in the beef and bacon fat, then push them aside and spread the tomato paste across the pot floor. Leave it two full minutes until it goes from bright red to a dark brick colour and smells sweet rather than sharp. Raw tomato paste in a braise reads metallic all the way through and it is one of the more common faults in a home bourguignon.

6. 6

   Flour in the pot, not on the meat

   Sprinkle the flour over the vegetables and stir for two minutes so it toasts in the fat before any liquid arrives. Dredging the beef in flour before searing is the classic instruction and it works against you: the coating burns during a proper hard sear, and it insulates the meat surface so it browns less. Toasting the flour separately gives you the same thickening with none of the pastiness. For a gluten-free version, skip it and use a cornstarch slurry at the end.

7. 7

   The wine, and the honest answer about which one

   A whole bottle of dry red, and the classic choice is a Burgundy, meaning Pinot Noir. A Gamay or a light Cotes du Rhone works. What matters is that it is dry, not oaky and not a fourteen-percent fruit bomb, because three hours of reduction concentrates everything including the sweetness and the oak. Do not use anything sold as cooking wine, which is salted and thin. You do not need an expensive bottle. You need a drinkable one, and you should drink the rest.

8. 8

   Reduce the wine by a third before the stock goes in

   Pour in the wine, scrape every brown patch off the pot floor with a wooden spoon while it bubbles, and let it reduce hard for eight to ten minutes. This drives off the raw alcohol, which otherwise stays sharp and thin through the whole braise, and it concentrates the wine flavour before it gets diluted. Then the stock, the beef with all its resting juices, and the bouquet garni. The liquid should come about three quarters of the way up the meat, not cover it.

9. 9

   Oven at 325F, lid on, three hours, and check at two and a half

   The oven is better than the stove because heat comes from all sides and nothing catches on the bottom. Bring the pot to a bare simmer on the hob first, lid on, then into a 325F oven. Three hours. Start testing at two and a half by pressing a cube with a spoon: it should yield with almost no resistance and pull apart, but still be a cube rather than shreds. Overcooked braising beef goes dry and stringy, which surprises people who assume more time is always safer.

10. 10

    Cook the garnish separately, and never skip this

    While the pot is in the oven, brown the pearl onions in butter in a skillet with a splash of water and a pinch of sugar until glazed, about twelve minutes, then set aside. In the same pan, cook the mushrooms hard in butter in a single layer without salt until they are deeply browned, eight to ten minutes. Both go into the pot for the last twenty minutes. Mushrooms and onions added at the start turn grey and waterlogged and give the sauce a muddy edge.

11. 11

    Degrease, then reduce the sauce if it needs it

    Lift the meat and garnish out with a slotted spoon, and let the liquid settle for five minutes so the fat rises. Skim it with a ladle, or refrigerate overnight and lift the solid cap off, which is far easier. If the sauce is thin, boil it hard for ten minutes to reduce. It should coat the back of a spoon and hold a line when you draw a finger through it. Then everything goes back in, plus the reserved bacon, and warms through for ten minutes.

12. 12

    The overnight rest is worth more than any ingredient upgrade

    Cool it, refrigerate it, and eat it the next day. The gelatin sets and redistributes, the wine and stock finish integrating, the fat cap lifts off in one piece, and the beef reabsorbs seasoned liquid as it cools rather than losing it. Reheat gently, covered, at 300F for forty minutes or on the lowest hob setting. Every restaurant that serves this makes it the day before, and if you have any choice about the timing, so should you.

13. 13

    Finish with acid, and serve it with something plain

    A teaspoon of red wine vinegar stirred in off the heat lifts three hours of accumulated richness in a way that salt cannot, and nobody will taste vinegar. Then the parsley. Serve over buttered egg noodles, mashed potatoes or the polenta on this site, all of which exist to carry the sauce. A green salad with a sharp mustard vinaigrette on the side. Bread for the bowl. Nothing else on the plate needs to be interesting.