Everything My Grandma Taught Me About Beef Bourguignon
Beef bourguignon isn’t difficult because of flavour. It’s difficult because of fear.
Fear of committing hours to a dish that might not turn out right. Fear of wasting good beef and a bottle of wine. Fear that, somehow, it won’t be authentic enough to deserve the name.
That fear stops a lot of people from ever cooking it at all.
The truth is, beef bourguignon was never meant to be intimidating. At its heart, it’s a slow, patient stew built on simple techniques, good ingredients, and time doing most of the work. When done properly, it should feel classic, forgiving, and quietly confident, not precious or stressful.
This post breaks the dish down to what actually matters, so you can cook a version of beef bourguignon that’s rich, comforting, and deeply satisfying without second-guessing every step along the way.
Everything My Grandma Taught Me About Beef Bourguignon
This is my grandma’s beef bourguignon — a recipe she spent a lifetime refining. No shortcuts, no fuss, just years of quiet adjustments, instinct, and experience distilled into one dish.
Ingredients
- 200g / 7.05oz Smoked streaky bacon
- 10 x Pearl onions
- 250g / 8.8oz Mushrooms
- 2 x Carrots (215g)
- 2 x Garlic
- 1.5kg / 52.9oz beef shin, boneless
- 50ml / 1.75oz brandy or cognac
- 750ml / 26.45oz Bordeaux red wine
- 750ml / 26.45 beef stock
- 45g / 1.58oz Flour
- 60g / 2.1oz Butter
- Small bunch of thyme
- 3 x Bay leaves
Instructions
- Prepare the vegetables by peeling and halving (if large or leave them whole if small) pearl onions, halving or quartering the mushrooms, peeling and slicing the carrots and dicing the garlic.
- Prepare the smoked streaky bacon by cutting it into lardons.
- Preheat a large pot over a medium heat, add bacon lardons and cook for a few minutes. Next add the mushrooms and continue to cook until you have some colour on the mushrooms, then at the onions continue to cook and finally at the carrot along with the garlic and continue to cook and stir for another minute or two.
- Remove everything from the pan and set aside to cool ready for later.
- Place the pot back onto a medium heat, if it's dry, then add a little oil or beef fat.
- Add the beef being sure to not overcrowd the base of the pan, so work in batches if you have to. Taking your time to get deep colour on all sides of the beef (see video)
- Once all of the beef is coloured, remove from the pan and set aside for a few moments.
- Keeping a pan on a low heat, add a shot of Brandy or cognac
- Let that heat for 30 seconds and add the red wine and reduce that by around half
- Then at the beef stock, bring up to a boil and whisk in the beurre manié
- Add all beef back into the pot, make sure it's simmering, place a lid on and put it in your oven set anywhere between 90c - 160c (see video)
- Once you're at the stage where you're an hour away from being ready (see video). Bring the pan out of the oven assess how much liquid you have (see video). Then add the sautéed vegetables and bacon lardons from earlier, gently mix in. Lastly, at the thyme and bay leaves and continue to cook for one more hour either on the hob, in the oven with the lid on or in the oven with the lid off (see video)
- Serve with really simple potatoes and enjoy.