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