My Boeuf Experiment

This is not a food blog. BUT, every now and then I attempt a new recipe get a good story out of it. Usually when I’m pregnant, I’m too picky and easily grossed out to experiment in the kitchen. But, I’m on a Julia Child kick right now (I just finished her autobiography—she had a fascinating life) so I decided to try one of the famous recipes from her first cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking. I chose to make Boeuf Bourguignon, a beef stew in red wine with bacon, onions, and mushrooms.

The first hurdle:

WINE. At first I tried to figure out how to substitute the 3 cups of red wine in the recipe, but after much research and a valuable consultation with my favorite, most knowledgeable “cousin in-law-in-law,” (Jeff’s cousin’s wife, Whitney—she has a culinary degree), I decided to—gasp—just use the real stuff. In case you’re interested, here’s what I learned that made me feel ok about using REAL WINE:

1. Whitney put it best: “You can make it so alcohol-free that you will not have to feel bad about eating it. (After all, we consume raw alcohols at times--vanilla extract has the same proof as vodka, higher than rum, and many LDS toss it willy-nilly into smoothies not realizing they've just added a shot to their orange julius!).”
2. “So, here's the deal. Three cups, 24 ounces of wine. Most red wine hovers around 11% alcohol by volume. That means you have 2.64 ounces of pure alcohol to get rid of for your recipe. Measure about three and a half cups of wine into a saucepan. Bring it to a boil, then boil the heck out of it! (Literally, too, right? Hehe.)”
3. This chart from the US Department of Agriculture’s Nutrient Data Laboratory shows how cooking affects alcohol content. After just 15 minutes, only 40% alcohol remains. (That's 1 ounce, or 2 tablespoons, for 3 cups of wine).

Alcohol Burn-off Chart
Preparation Method	Percent Retained
alcohol added to boiling liquid & removed from heat	85%
alcohol flamed	75%
no heat, stored overnight	70%
baked, 25 minutes, alcohol not stirred into mixture	45%
Baked/simmered dishes with alcohol stirred into mixture:
15 minutes cooking time	40%
30 minutes cooking time	35%
1 hour cooking time	25%
1.5 hours cooking time	20%
2 hours cooking time	10%
2.5 hours cooking time	5%

4. Therefore, after 20 minutes of boiling and 4 hours in the crock pot, there was less than 2 tablespoons of alcohol in the whole huge pot and I felt OK about consuming the wine laced stew. Are you bored or lost yet?

So the first time I bought wine was with a big ole pregnant belly!

Monday night after an Family Home Evening lesson on the Word of Wisdom, we went to the store and bought a $9 bottle of red wine. It was a very weird experience—Jeff and I know nothing about wine!

Tuesday during Jay’s nap I got down to business. Problem: we don’t own a cork screw! I looked up at least 10 different ways to open a bottle of wine without a cork screw, but none of them worked! After nearly an hour of fruitless pounding, scraping, plucking, and hammering, I had to admit defeat. That cork was not coming out.

So, I did everything else to prepare the Boeuf instead: blanch the bacon, brown the beef, brown the veggies, and brown-braise the mini onions. WHEW! That took almost 3 hours! Then I had to turn around and fix something else quick for dinner since the Boeuf wasn’t ready! I was EXHAUSTED. No wonder Julia Child never had any kids—you really can’t be a Pregnant French Chef easily! The backache! The foot ache! That night, Jeff went and got a cork screw.

Wednesday during Jay’s nap time: While the wine boiled and filled our house with that sickly alcoholic scent, I sauteed the mushrooms in butter, following Julia’s careful instructions. WOW they were GOOD! I snacked down plenty. Then I dumped all of this stuff into my trusty crock pot, and voila! It simmered for 4 hrs.

I was looking forward to having a fun, 4 course French meal with Jeff that night, but alas, his newest job kicked in and he had to go in to the community college to man the computer lab till 9pm that night. So, Jay and I were the first to experience the finished Boeuf Bourguignon.

[The 4 courses we would have had include: salad (or salade verte I think it is), le Boeuf, sour cream apple pie (I’ll call it tarte aux pommes to Frenchify it), and the grand finale: some soft Camembert fromage avec pain (bread and cheese). Ah, it was a good idea. But alas, my stomach can only hold so much at one time now because of a certain little baby smooshing it, so all I ate was a modest bowl of the stew. Jeff came home and had some after 9pm.]

HOW WE LIKED IT: Jay hated it. Jeff loved it. First general impression for me=RICH! The stew was so rich I couldn’t have eaten much of it even with a normal shaped stomach. I loved the braised onions and the carefully prepared mushrooms in it, but I didn’t do the beef justice. It was still kind of dry after all that. I also didn’t like how I could taste that wine-y quality. It reminded me of the yucky smell that pervaded our house while I was boiling the wine. Bottom line: if I ever have the time/energy to try this recipe again, I’ll make sure I’m not pregnant so my taste buds are back to normal.

SUMMARY: Boeuf Bourguignon was intense and time consuming to make, ULTRA flavorful, and expensive—it cost at least $25 for this one meal! The good part is that Julia Child never claims that her recipes are fast, easy, healthy, kid-friendly, or cheap. In the foreword to Mastering the Art of French Cooking, she does warn you:

“This is a book for the servantless American cook who can be unconcerned on occasion with budgets, waistlines, time schedules, children’s meals, the parent-chauffeur-den-mother syndrome, or anything else which might interfere with the enjoyment of producing something wonderful to eat. ...Elimination of steps, combination of processes, or skimping on ingredients such as butter, cream, and time, … “Too much trouble,” “Too expensive,” or “Who will know the difference” are death knells for good food.”

Bon appetit!

PS pardon the lack of pictures, but brown, chunky beef stew is not very photogenic.