Tonight's dinner: Julia Child's Beef Bourguignon

[Catseye3]

Years ago I made the Beef Bourg (that's what we hip foodies call it, Beef Bourg) from my venerable Modern French Culinary Art by Henri-Paul Pellaprat. I thought it was incredibly fabulous -- and comparing his ingredients list with Julia's, I gotta say, Henri-Paul, you been bested, though not by much. He uses regular old bacon, and he adds black pepper to his tomato paste, and coats the raw meat in the flour, but other than that I don't see much difference. Julia's looks better by virtue of how she prepares the meat.

[LuFins Dad]

Is it harder to prepare than it is to pronounce?

[Mik]

I'm going to use jowl bacon because it's easy to cut into lardons.

[LuFins Dad]

@mik said in Tonight's dinner: Julia Child's Beef Bourguignon:

I'm going to use jowl bacon because it's easy to cut into lardons.

Okay, now I am going to agree with @Catseye3 Jowl Bacon? Where the hell do you get jowl bacon? And what, pray tell, are lardons? It sounds like something that happens if you get overly excited over lard...

[George K]

@lufins-dad said in Tonight's dinner: Julia Child's Beef Bourguignon:

And what, pray tell, are lardons? It sounds like something that happens if you get overly excited over lard...

A lardon is a piece of thick cut bacon cut into a piece that's about 1 inch long and ¼" wide. I just took some thick-cut bacon and cut the pieces crosswise.

https://www.idratherbeachef.com/lardon-the-best-bacon-ever/

[xenon]

I went to a cooking class shortly after college. My skills up until that point maxed out at putting frozen things in the oven.

This is the first dish we made and it made me think, "this cooking thing isn't that hard... it's kinda fun"

[George K]

@xenon said in Tonight's dinner: Julia Child's Beef Bourguignon:

"this cooking thing isn't that hard... it's kinda fun"

I am probably the least creative person on the forum. However, I'm good at following direction and reading/understanding instructions.

As I used to tell my residents, "Anesthesia for heart surgery isn't hard, it's just complicated." I do complicated well.

And so, to cooking. I will not modify, create, innovate or improvise. But gimme a recipe, and I'm good.

[Aqua Letifer]

@xenon said in Tonight's dinner: Julia Child's Beef Bourguignon:

This is the first dish we made and it made me think, "this cooking thing isn't that hard... it's kinda fun"

Learn the cowboy chords of cooking and there's actually a ton you can do.

[Mik]

For a beginner I recommend How To Cook Without A Book. It teaches the main techniques rather than individual recipes.

[Catseye3]

Here's another good one: