Beef bourguignon (US /ˌbiːf ˌbʊərɡɨnˈjɔːn/) or bœuf bourguignon (UK /ˌbɜrf ˈbʊərɡɨnjɔːn/;[1] French pronunciation: [bœf buʁɡiɲɔ̃]), also called beef Burgundy, and Boeuf à la Bourguignonne,[2] is a well known traditional French recipe.
The dish originates from the Burgundy region (in French, Bourgogne) which is in the east of present-day France, as do many of the more well-known French dishes such as coq au vin, escargot, persillé ham, oeufs meurette, gougères, pain d'epices, epoisses, etc.
It is a stew prepared with beef braised in red wine, traditionally red Burgundy, and beef broth, generally flavoured with garlic, onions and a bouquet garni, with pearl onions and mushrooms added towards the end of cooking.
(Traditionally, the meat was larded with lardons, but modern beef is sufficiently tender and well marbled that this very time-consuming technique is rarely used any more. However, bacon cut into small cubes is still used to produce the initial cooking fat and added to the dish at the end.)
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Beef bourguignon is one of many examples of peasant dishes being slowly refined into haute cuisine. Most likely, the particular method of slowly simmering the beef in wine originated as a means of tenderizing cuts of meat that would have been too tough to cook any other way.
Over time, the dish became a standard of French cuisine. The recipe most people still follow to make an authentic beef bourguignon was first described by Auguste Escoffier. That recipe, however, has undergone subtle changes, owing to changes in cooking equipment and available food supplies. Mastering the Art of French Cooking describes the dish, Sauté de Boeuf à la Bourguignonne, as "certainly one of the most delicious beef dishes concocted by man."
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