A butcher should sell slabs, otherwise simply substitute slices of bacon. No blanching necessary for bacon, only for salted pork fat - a completley different product than bacon, usually cheaper and much saltier.

Hi,

i would like to know why we separate the bacon into rind and lardon?. Can we just cut them into small dice instead?.

Thank you.

This recipe is from Julia Child; therefore we did not really change it. The lardon is cooked separately for flavor and texture while the rind is used mostly to add fat (which adds moisture, mouthfeel etc.) and flavor. Basically they serve two slightly different purposes. The rind will melt away as it cooks whereas the lardon will not. If you like you can simply cook some lardon (or small dice, but just note that they will likely get lost in the dish and also permeate the entire dish as they would be smaller). Cheers!

i choose this receipe to be done for 300 peoples, most of the conversion i'm fine with it, i'm just wondering about ( 2 spring fresh thyme, 2 spring fresh parsley...) how do i quantify that for 300?, and also the receipe call for 6 to 8 peoples, i multiply by 7, is this OK?

thank you, robert

If you need to cook this dish for 300 and the recipe only serves 6 to 8, you're looking at scaling the recipe much higher (not by only 7). If you are serving many sides and not so much meat, divide by 300 people by 8. If the stew is the main event, I'd divide 300 by 6 (leftovers can always be frozen). Better to have more than run out.

300 divided by 6 = 50. That means 50 full recipes are required to serve 300 people (not just 7 recipes). Basically, every ingredient needs to be multiplied by 50. If 2 sprigs of thyme are used for 1 recipe and you need to make 50 recipes, you'll need about 100 sprigs of thyme, 150 pounds of beef chuck (3 pounds x 50) , 6.25 liters of wine, and so on. Double and triple check your numbers. Proper scaling and mise en place is critical when scaling recipes. Cheers!

Thank you for the guidance, it's a big step but with what i have learned here so far i feel totally confident, power to you.

What a great way to spend Valentine's Day... this was a labour of love, and I did it for my sweetie, who loves stew.. especially since she knows that I am not a big fan of stews. Have to admit tho', that this was pretty good. I loved the accompanying Pommes Parisiennes, and pulling the whole thing together was half the fun. Please don't tell her that I actually liked the stew, since she was so impressed that I put my own preferences aside to create a marvelous stew for her...:)

Thank you to all Rouxbe team, with this receipe, i won the silver medal in our community "cookout", i had to cook for over 150 peoples and i didn't have enough!

We were 7 competitors and it was a blast, pure fun, it was so easy and straight to the point, i was amaze myself how well and fast this receipe was execute.

As for the comment, it was unamous...simply amazing!!! Some peoples were coming for second, even kids, and the smell was devine, again thank you for giving me the tools to better myself as a passionate with food, but mainly, thank you for helping make all those peoples happy with god's food.

Robert

I found this quite tasty (the meat was delicious and fall-apart-fork tender), but thought the sauce could use a bit of thickening. (I used the recommended 1/4 cup of flour.) Keeping in mind the amount of work required to make the dish, I don't want to do too much trial and error. Given that I need to thicken five cups of liquid, I was thinking of increasing the amount of flour to either 1/2 cup or 3/4 cup. Any thoughts on this?

Thickening a sauce at the end of making a stew is covered in the lesson on Stewing in the Cooking School (Topic 7 specifically). You can also use a beurre manie to thicken a sauce. The more times you make the dish, the more you will become familiar with how much flour to use to reach the consistency you like. You could try using 1/2 cup but I wouldn't use more than this. It's better to make adjustments at the end by following the techniques in the lesson. The sauce should just nicely coat the ingredients but not be thick/gummy. Cheers!

There's the problem... haven't taken that lesson yet. I will rectify that situation shortly.

Thanks!

I just joined rouxbe this week and was inspired by a book to make this recipe for my book club. I slaved over it all night (almost literally), then took it in to work today and warmed it in a slow cooker. It was a hit! We're having the leftovers tomorrow. Despite the fact that it was a hit, I felt I made some errors. 1. My sauce was too thin (Kimberly answered that issue above). 2. I don't think I braised my beef perfectly...a lot of juices came out when I rested it on the plate while prepping the veg. 3. I'm still working on my knife skills and even dicing. 4. After it had cooled, I didn't scoop off as much grease as I should have. As a result, I spent an hour skimming. 5. I used pancetta instead of a slab of bacon, not sure if that was a mistake or not. In the end, although it was a hit, I'm striving for perfection :)

Welcome to Rouxbe :-) Glad to hear your dish was a hit - nice work! In regards to #2, I'm not sure what you mean. Do you mean juices were coming out of the meat after you seared it (in step 2)? If so, this is normal at this stage and all of the resting juices can be incorporated into the stew. RE: #5, yes, pancetta will give it a slightly different flavor, but with all of cooking, it is okay to improvise if you don't have the exact ingredients on hand. I'm sure you'll be able to try this dish again with the bacon.

In regards to your other questions, it might be helpful for you to review the lessons on Combination Cooking in the Moist-Heat Cooking Methods section of the school. Here you will learn all there is about braising, stewing and pot-roasting and the fundamentals behind this versatile technique. This stew is actually a practice recipe from the lesson on Stewing. Hope this helps! Cheers!

Hi Dawn! I tried the recipe today after having watched the stewing lesson a few times :) and was sooo happy with the results! The sauce was really tasty and velvety and the touch of braised onions was amazing! Everyone absolutely loved it! Thank you so much to the Rouxbe team for such great lessons and recipes! It's so encouraging to get such great results!

Eva

So glad to hear that Eva. Keep up the great work!

please try if the following could help you making the dish. intensifying all flavors. the wine, Red & bold, and finished with port, marinating the meat into the wine and then intensify the flavor by using reduced stock with added bits of beef, clarified; use of different varieties of mushrooms for flavoring. On cooking procedure, while cooking the beef, vegetables, with aromatics in red wine and reduced stock I add a slice of bacon - once done Cooking the beef, Remove the bacon and the meats slowly from the pot. what to do with the veggies and the sauce, - I blitz everything in the blender turning it into a very thick puree, pass everything to fine sieve and set aside the sauce packed with all flavors not only of the beef and wine but also with the vegetables, thin with little bit of stock and finished it with port for little sweetness. garnishment: glazed vegetables, caramelized onions and sautéed mushrooms in butter, topped with deep fried enoki mushrooms, and lardons. for the choice of meats I never go wrong with what we learned from our lessons on braising anf stewing

Hi , I agree with Joseph recommendation . Usually when making this dish without pureeing the vegetable, I would need to thicken the sauce with roux or starch and the vegetable has lost its al dente bite after a long term cooking process. So pureeing the vegetable will do the thickening job and adding sauteed vegetable will give you a better mothfeel for the vegetable. I do add some roasted veal bones before braising to enhance flavor.
For me this is one of the great classics of the French cuisine and a dish that will last forever.

This is quite a lot of work but the result is stunning. It is the best beef Bourguignon I have eaten. Thanks for a great recipe.