Beef Bourginon advice

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Dommi35

Assistant Cook
Joined
Nov 29, 2012
Messages
13
Hello

I am not much of a cook but I made beef Bourginon following a recipe online. I used beef shin pieces soaked
overnight in some nice red wine wine. I cooked it in the oven on gas mark 1/4 for 7 hours.:chef:

It was my first attempt & even though the sauce flavour was tasty the meat had shrunk a lot into small pieces and seem fatty in places (soft jelly type fat) which i didn't like. :ermm:
I had envisioned it having large juicy tender pieces of meat in it :yum:

What did I do wrong?
What meat cut do you advise?
Should I have used a higher heat to break down the fat?

I appreciate advice from some beef stew pros!
;)
 
Beef shin doesn't have large juicy tender pieces of meat in it. I make this dish with boneless chuck roast cut up into 2" pieces.

Gas mark 1/4 = 225ºF, too low to do the job. I'd go with gas mark 3 (325ºF) next time.

I assume the pot contained more ingredients than just meat and wine and you just didn't list them.
 
Hello

I am not much of a cook but I made beef Bourguignon following a recipe online. I used beef shin pieces soaked overnight in some nice red wine wine. I cooked it in the oven on gas mark 1/4 for 7 hours.:chef:

It was my first attempt & even though the sauce flavour was tasty the meat had shrunk a lot into small pieces and seem fatty in places (soft jelly type fat) which i didn't like. :ermm:
I had envisioned it having large juicy tender pieces of meat in it :yum:

What did I do wrong?
What meat cut do you advise?
Should I have used a higher heat to break down the fat?

I appreciate advice from some beef stew pros!
;)

You answered your own question. Beef Stew is made with meat that is less tender. That is why it is braised. The next time use a cut of Chuck meat. One that is specifically meant for a beef stew. If in doubt, ask the butcher. He can lead you to the right cut. It isn't so much the temperature that breaks down the fat and meat, as the liquid and long slow cooking. Low and slow is the way to go for a beef stew.

Go the beef meat recipes here on DC, and you will find some excellent recipes for beef stew. Along with recommendations for the right cut of meat.

Oh, and welcome to DC. You are a brave person for a self confessed novice cook to try such a dish on your first outing. You are going to love it hear. :angel:
 
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Hi Andy,
thanks for reply.
yes I had fresh herbs, mini onions/mushrooms, garlic, stock and the juice from the marinade (which contained 1 bottle of decent red wine). The recipe said shin or chuck so I asked the butcher at sainsburys. I had picked up some beef stew packs but she said they wouldn't be right for slow cooking. She didn't know what Chuck was but sold me the shin (which looked dark and tasty).
The recipe was for stove cooking but I was advised to slow cook so I googled and it said gas 1/4. If I had used gas 3 how long would I cook for?
 
Addie- thanks too. Next time I'll find somewhere that sells chuck and knows what it is! lol
I'll check out the recipes on the site too :)
 
Hi Andy,
thanks for reply.
yes I had fresh herbs, mini onions/mushrooms, garlic, stock and the juice from the marinade (which contained 1 bottle of decent red wine). The recipe said shin or chuck so I asked the butcher at sainsburys. I had picked up some beef stew packs but she said they wouldn't be right for slow cooking. She didn't know what Chuck was but sold me the shin (which looked dark and tasty).
The recipe was for stove cooking but I was advised to slow cook so I googled and it said gas 1/4. If I had used gas 3 how long would I cook for?

2-3 hours. Chuck is from the front shoulder of the steer.
 
Hi Andy,
thanks for reply.
yes I had fresh herbs, mini onions/mushrooms, garlic, stock and the juice from the marinade (which contained 1 bottle of decent red wine). The recipe said shin or chuck so I asked the butcher at sainsburys. I had picked up some beef stew packs but she said they wouldn't be right for slow cooking. She didn't know what Chuck was but sold me the shin (which looked dark and tasty).
The recipe was for stove cooking but I was advised to slow cook so I googled and it said gas 1/4. If I had used gas 3 how long would I cook for?


Something labeled "beef stew meat" is probably ONLY right for slow cooking. A quick google suggests that chuck is widely avail in the UK so I would suggest finding someone else to sell you meat.

It's also better to cook it in the oven to avoid scorching
 
Hi Andy,
thanks for reply.
yes I had fresh herbs, mini onions/mushrooms, garlic, stock and the juice from the marinade (which contained 1 bottle of decent red wine). The recipe said shin or chuck so I asked the butcher at sainsburys. I had picked up some beef stew packs but she said they wouldn't be right for slow cooking. She didn't know what Chuck was but sold me the shin (which looked dark and tasty).
The recipe was for stove cooking but I was advised to slow cook so I googled and it said gas 1/4. If I had used gas 3 how long would I cook for?

Sounds like she had some shin bones she wanted to get rid of. And I can't imagaine anyone who sells meat, not knowinig what chuck is. Find a store that knows their product. The next time a butcher tells you, "I don'tknow what that is," run out the door. :angel:
 
Sounds like she had some shin bones she wanted to get rid of. And I can't imagaine anyone who sells meat, not knowinig what chuck is. Find a store that knows their product. The next time a butcher tells you, "I don'tknow what that is," run out the door. :angel:

lolol! :LOL:
She was young & very enthusiastic. She had recently trained and was so keen to help & very excited about using her new sharp knife. She chopped my meat up beautifully...
I will definitely use a real butcher next time though ;)
 
I've been looking online for 'chuck' steak and no supermarket seems to sell it. I'm happy to use a butcher instead but was wondering since there are so many cuts sold in supermarkets would any of the following be alternative names for 'chuck' ?

1. Braising steak
2. casserole beef
3. stewing steak
 
I've been looking online for 'chuck' steak and no supermarket seems to sell it. I'm happy to use a butcher instead but was wondering since there are so many cuts sold in supermarkets would any of the following be alternative names for 'chuck' ?

1. Braising steak
2. casserole beef
3. stewing steak

Chuck is called braising steak in the UK.
 
I've been looking online for 'chuck' steak and no supermarket seems to sell it. I'm happy to use a butcher instead but was wondering since there are so many cuts sold in supermarkets would any of the following be alternative names for 'chuck' ?

1. Braising steak
2. casserole beef
3. stewing steak

Yes, "braising steak" would definitely do it, so would "seven bone" (though it never looks much like a seven to me and is usually covered over by meat in English markets) blade and the upper part of the "thick rib". Those who criticized the Saintsbury butcher must have missed the fact that she was English or not be aware that the cuts on a British cow are very different from those in the U.S. See:
http://www.hub-uk.com/images020/beef-british-cuts.jpg
http://www.hub-uk.com/images020/beef-american-cuts.jpg
wot I half inched from a U.K. site
Cheers
 
Yes, "braising steak" would definitely do it, so would "seven bone" (though it never looks much like a seven to me and is usually covered over by meat in English markets) blade and the upper part of the "thick rib". Those who criticized the Saintsbury butcher must have missed the fact that she was English or not be aware that the cuts on a British cow are very different from those in the U.S. See:
http://www.hub-uk.com/images020/beef-british-cuts.jpg
http://www.hub-uk.com/images020/beef-american-cuts.jpg
wot I half inched from a U.K. site
Cheers

It's Sainsbury's. Which obviously means the poster is in the UK.

Which I knew when I criticized the butcher for telling the OP that stewing beef isn't good for long slow cooking. And about not knowing what chuck is. Although chuck is also called "braising steak" in the UK, it's also called chuck and a trained butcher should know that.

Point proven -- like Andy said -- by both diagrams you posted.
 
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@ Jennyema & Andy M: My apologies for leading you astray. I posted the two links because they were convenient and because they show the many difference between English and US cows; the former do not have a tenderloin,for example, and because I didn't realize that the technical use of Chuck on the English cow, could be used to imply that the young woman at Sainsbury's was ignorant of her trade or dishonest (trying to palm off surplus stock).
My BGD (beloved granddaughter) is, at 18, already an accomplished cook and we went meat shopping together in Asian markets as recently as Thanksgiving. She is also becoming a good researcher, so yesterday, I sent her an Email package on this topic, including the thread, a 1970's English recipe that called for chuck steak and a reference to braising steak, and asked her to come up with a good short argument on whether or not the young woman at Sainsbury's was ignorant/badly trained, or whether she had no way of knowing what a chuck steak was from her training. This morning I got three links. She had googled Sainsbury's main site and entered "braising steak" in the search box, which gave 20 hits, and "chuck" which gave zero hits.
What a nice use of Occam's razor! I have a tendency to think that the more references I have the better and try to overcome the opposition by weight of numbers, but this easily accessed reference cuts to the chase and. short of writing to the head of Sainsbury's butcher school, answers the question, which is not "does anyone in England know what chuck is?" but "should a Sainsbury trained butcher know what chuck is?".
Cheers
 
Thanks everyone so much- I appreciate your time & responses...
This thread has been really interesting & have learnt a lot. :chef:

I have looked at supermarket websites here in the UK and can't find chuck. However I find lots of packs of meat such as this one (picture posted- £7.00/kg).

I do wish they'd actually say what cut it is...as it would make life easier...
Can anyone out there tell by looking at it?
 

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This one looks nice too & it says 'braising steak'...£8.60 a kilo...and it looks less fatty...so I wonder if it's better?
 

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Thanks everyone so much- I appreciate your time & responses...
This thread has been really interesting & have learnt a lot. :chef:

I have looked at supermarket websites here in the UK and can't find chuck. However I find lots of packs of meat such as this one (picture posted).

I do wish they'd actually say what cut it is...as it would make life easier...
Can anyone out there tell by looking at it?

I would say you have what we call chuck." That is what you should have used. :angel:
 
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