Julia Child called it “certainly one of the most delicious beef dishes concocted by man.” It was the centerpiece in the movie “Julie & Julia” and Chris Kimball moaned in ecstasy as he ate it on the air in ATK. Undaunted by the 11 cooking time, Bouef Borguignon is the recipe I most wanted to make in 2010.
Problems.
- At 6:30 this morning, I realized that I accidentally bought “Maple Flavored Bacon.” Who on earth would eat maple-flavored bacon? (I checked the ingredients and there’s no real maple syrup in there). Oh well, I had to use it because my other bacon was frozen 😦
- Chris Kimball goes to great lengths to describe how your beef chunks must be 1-1/2 inch cubes. Julia Child goes even further and says to use 2 inch cubes. So how am I going to follow ATK’s advice “to save time, use precut meat (labeled “chuck”)? Those little 3/4 inch precut pieces were sure to disintegrate during the 9 hours of cooking. Solution: I didn’t save time. I cut up my own chuck roast. The good news was it was on sale for $2/lb.
- Chris Kimball told me to use frozen pearl onions (and to add sugar) so that they’d be ready in 5 minutes. Sorry Chris. No way. I bought fresh boiler onions and deeply carmelized them for 50 minutes (following Julia Child’s method). No sugar needed!
Recipe Rating: 5-star.
Cost: $25 for 6 to 8 servings. $9 for beef and $9 for wine.
How much work? lots.
How big of a mess? Huge mess.
Start time 6:30 AM. Dinner time 5:30pm. Yes, 11 hours in the making.
A hearty beef stew in red wine, with bacon, onion and mushroom.
Posted by My Year With Chris Kimball 
