Thomas Keller Boeuf Bourguignon Question

[CanadianSportsman]

Greetings,

I've cooked several recipes from Keller's "Bouchon" the last couple of weeks, and have loved them all! At the moment (as in right this minute) I'm making the boeuf Bourguignon, and am a little confused about the red wine reduction. After reducing the wine, herbs, and veg for nearly an hour now, I'm nowhere near the consistancy of a glaze that Keller specifies. In fact, it looks mostly like the veg is on the receiving end of most of it. Is this how the recipe is meant to be? Can anybody tell me what kind of yield is expected? Any help would be appreciated. Thank you, kindly. 

[Chris Hennes]

Your vegetables are definitely going to wind up colored by the wine, but you still should be able to get it down to a more glaze-like consistency (sorry I don't have a volume yield for you, just a texture). How vigorously are you reducing it? It really shouldn't take more than 45 minutes or so to reduce a bottle of wine, but it will depend on the surface area of your cooking pan and how high the heat is.

[CanadianSportsman]

Hi Chris,
Thank you for the quick reply. There really is hardly any wine left, but I've decided to move on, and troubleshoot later if need be. I had it on a gentle simmer as if I were making stock. I'm using a 5 1/2 quart Creuset oval dutch oven.

 

Funny enough, through searching online I came across a blog post ( https://shadowcook.com/2007/11/29/thomas-kellers-braised-beef-with-red-wine/ ) Where the blogger mentions this as well:

 

My gloss on this: I reduced the wine about as far as it would go, but it did not end up with the consistency of a glaze. Once I strain it and it spent the night in the fridge, it appeared more like a glaze. But not at this point.

 

If anyone else has any suggestions I'm all ears. Thanks

[Chris Hennes]

Good plan - the recipe isn't really that sensitive to the precise amount of liquid.

[Dave the Cook]

My first impulse was to ask CanadianSportsman a possibly embarrassing question, but he seems to have sorted things out.

 

However, for those reading along, the instructions in Bouchon for making the reduction are potentially confusing, as they call for a pot with a lid (because later on you'll need it, though it doesn't say so at that point). If you'd never made a reduction before, you might think that you were supposed to put all the stuff in the pot, lid it (why else woould you need a lid?), and let it simmer for 45 to 50 minutes. This would lead to a lot of confusion, since the liquid would hardly have reduced at all.

 

I mention this because we once had a student who was taking one of our classes for the second time, mostly because she wanted to master the red wine reduction we made as one of our sauces. She'd taken the class, then, with recipe in hand, tried to make the sauce, and failed. Repeatedly. After much back-and-forth, I finally realized that in trying to minimize after-cooking clean-up, she was attempting to reduce the sauce with the lid on. Sort of the cooking equivalent of the IT help desk asking "Is your computer plugged in?"

[Paul Fink]

I've made Julia's Boeuf Bourguignon several times and its been marvelous.

The richness & thickness of the stock comes from the the beef/veal stock reduction.

Not the wine.

[CanadianSportsman]

4 hours ago, Dave the Cook said:

My first impulse was to ask CanadianSportsman a possibly embarrassing question, but he seems to have sorted things out.

 

However, for those reading along, the instructions in Bouchon for making the reduction are potentially confusing, as they call for a pot with a lid (because later on you'll need it, though it doesn't say so at that point). If you'd never made a reduction before, you might think that you were supposed to put all the stuff in the pot, lid it (why else woould you need a lid?), and let it simmer for 45 to 50 minutes. This would lead to a lot of confusion, since the liquid would hardly have reduced at all.

 

I mention this because we once had a student who was taking one of our classes for the second time, mostly because she wanted to master the red wine reduction we made as one of our sauces. She'd taken the class, then, with recipe in hand, tried to make the sauce, and failed. Repeatedly. After much back-and-forth, I finally realized that in trying to minimize after-cooking clean-up, she was attempting to reduce the sauce with the lid on. Sort of the cooking equivalent of the IT help desk asking "Is your computer plugged in?"

 

 

You're absolutely right. At first glance it felt like it was implied that the lid would come into use right away, but even I knew better, thankfully. I obviously reduced way too much, but the wine flavor is definetly there, so I'm not too concerned. After the multiple strains and degreasing I may reduce it a bit more before serving since the sauce feels a little too liquidy. This being my first attempt at this dish ever I'm not completely sure what result I'm after, but I take it the sauce should coat the back of a spoon. I'm also wondering why TK never mentions seasoning with salt at any point. Exception being the searing of the beef, and the finishing fleur de sel. That feels incredibly scant for such a robust stew.