Beef Bourguinbust

Sometimes, you can spend half of a day preparing a meal, and it still isn’t exactly what you’d hoped. Unfortunately friends, this was the case for our first attempt at Julia Child’s infamous Beef Bourguignon, made true to recipe from her cookbook.

I have no link for you this time because we actually followed her exact recipe in her original words. I know there are tons of online versions, but her book is truly an experience so that is what I will promote. I will say though, that she was vague and definitely has a high bar for the home cook - lots of intuition required.

What Went Right: While this wasn’t perfect or mind-blowing, it still tasted good. It just was missing that extra dimension of flavor and richness. Also, without a doubt, Julia’s mushrooms and onions are perfection - she has you cook them separately (from each other and the dish) and it’s worth the fuss. And, this was a really fun way to spend an evening with friends. We all got to pitch in and help and chat throughout. It’s not hard, it’s just time consuming, but there is a 3-hour inactive window which helps.

What Went Wrong: The meat was a bit tough and I think when I try again I will experiment with a different cut of meat to see if that makes a difference. We will also make this earlier in the day so it can sit and get to know itself a bit before we want to eat, or make it the night before. I don’t mind eating late, but everyone hits a point where they just want to get something done, and we surpassed that here at 10:30 p.m.

For what it’s worth, we had a really fun evening with two of our dear friends and while I wish the final product had been incredible, I don’t regret spending this much time on mediocre. I definitely plan to try again. I will also be forever grateful that John never lies to me or sugarcoats the truth with my cooking - he’s honest and genuine whether it’s awesome, awful or just okay.

Before you get too excited, I did not get new, better plates. These are my dear friend Carolyn’s fantastic clay dishes.