The latter is made with Burgundy. If you didn’t like it I’m thinking either it wasn’t a great wine for the dish, it was cooked too high, or you just don’t care for beef burgundy. As for it being fancy, remember that it became popular in the early 20th century; a lot has changed in the past hundred years!

FWIW, I used to use a lot of different wines in dishes, but now I'm not that crazy about the taste and prefer simpler seasonings.

I'd take beef stew over bourginon any day.

Has Burgandy wine, which gives it a purple color and it sounds fancy to Americans. No, I prefer beef stew and my husband refuses to eat Beef Burgandy.

We love both. Although I probably don't make burgundy beef more than 2 - 3 times a year. We had some I'd made in June and frozen the leftovers just this last week. We've both had a cold (tested, not Covid) and I needed something hot and quick requiring no effort 😁

I may cook it a little lower and slower than Ina Garten's recipe. I've even used the $5 Costco bottle Portuguese red wine in it and it's fine - in fact, quite good.

Barefoot Contessa beef bourginon has been our Christmas Day dish the last two years 😁

It is essentially stew made with a wine sauce. I am not so terribly fond of wine in my stews but this is a good dish. Fussier than ordinary stew of course in that it has more processes but all of them simple and served on a starch rather than having it cook in the pot with the meat. I am very fond of stew as it is a good comfort food so it is hard for me to forgo that in favor of something a little more elegant. I have read that it is not actually a traditional French food but is mid 1800's or something like that. Julia Childs made it popular here.

" my husband refuses to eat Beef Burgandy "

Doesn't sound very open minded.

Boeuf Bourguignon is simply the French term for their traditional beef stew. As with most French dishes of this type, wine is an expected ingredient. A lighter red wine like a Burgundy (aka here as a Pinor Noir here) compliments and blends well flavor-wise with beef.

There are some continental European countries who make a beef stew with beer. Wine in traditional wine drinking countries, beer in traditional beer drinking countries, like Belgium's carbonade flamande (Flemish stew in English) made with ale.

I love bœuf Bourguignon and I love beef stew. I think the only real difference is the red Burgundy wine in the French version.

Although it was not documented until the late 19 c. and Escoffier is credited as being the first to write down the recipe, the dish has been around since the Middle Ages. Peasant food. Suits me just fine. ;-)

I like it myself. In fact, wish I had a kitchen right now so I could make some. Bad thing about this Fall and Winter and all the delicious food discussions here, I won't be able to just go out and get the ingredients and make whatever. lol.

“Barefoot Contessa beef bourginon has been our Christmas Day dish the last two years.”

I love good Boeuf Bourguignon and Ina’s is one of my favorites. I also love stew and often add red wine to mine, such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Pinot Noir, Shiraz…whatever we have on hand. I’ve used those same reds for Boeuf Bourguignon. Always good.

I realize that i shouldnt have asked what the difference is. I know it has Burgundy wine in it. My real question was why it’s is often propped as high class and elegant. And that has been pretty much explained. You always come through! Thank you all for taking the time to respond to my post. I wont be serving Boeuf Bourginon (or beef stew!) at any dinner parties Haha

In France the dish is not considered remotely fancy and would never appear on a holiday menu.

Not a fan of beef stew or beef bourginon, but I do love Coq au Vin and it's getting to be that time of year down here.

Coq au vin is the chicken counterpart to Boeuf Bourguignon.

I agree with Zalco. Both dishes have an equivalent patina in France as meatloaf may have here. Only difference is, meals there, even daily casual family meals (other than with young adults, urban people on the go) tend to involve a bit more preparation. Not meaning they're more elaborate, just with a bit more prep time.

You'd be amazed at what even public-school lunches are like. Soup, salad or crudites as the starter, for instance, then a hot main course with a veggie or two (and/or a starch), and then a small dessert. Dessert could be a piece of fruit, or a small baked dessert, or something like that. Not a sandwich, not finger food. Mostly knife and fork stuff.

Many very old dishes needed help (wine, spices) to disguise poor quality or even spoiled meat.

Coq au vin is the chicken counterpart to Boeuf Bourguignon.

It is. I much prefer chicken to beef.

I’m a much bigger fan of beef but DH would take Coq au Vin. Like her Beef Bourguignon, Ina’s G’s Coq au Vin is good. The bit of Cognac with the wine in both recipes ups the flavor IMO.

The Coq au Vin I make is a combo of Ina's and Jenn's.

I omit the pearl onions and always double the amount of mushrooms.

https://www.onceuponachef.com/recipes/coq-au-vin.html

I've never been able to metabolize alcohol (anaphylactic level allergic) so I don't actually know what wine tastes like. But I like to cook stews and sauces. When a recipe calls for wine, I make a mix with a little bit of pomegranite molasses, a splash of some kind of vinegar and a lot of water. Not sure if it's really wine flavor, but it adds something nice. Also, I'd welcome any flavoring siggestions from those of you with a wine palate.

I think your combo is a good solution for your needs, @jupidupi. In fact the pom molasses probably adds a more interesting umami-sweet-tart.

WIne isn’t so much to disguise the taste of dodgy meat as it is to tenderise the meat.

I quite like boeuf Bourguignon but not so much a fan of coq au vin. I think the red wine overpowers the chicken.

Classic boeuf bourgignon usually has bacon, pearl onions and mushrooms, as well as the wine, which I'd not usually put in an everyday beef stew. I do often add some left over beer or wine to a stew but far less than the whole bottle required in BB. I also normally add pearl barley to a plain beef stew and serve with dumplings. Personally, given the price of booze, I'd rather drink good wine than cook it in a stew.

Basically all stews/casseroles are similar method-wise. You can put what you like in and call them anything you like. Most of my stews are made up on the hoof depending on the contents of the fridge.

Over heard this in my head.

"Ok, so who ate the dammed cow? I go out to get the milk this morning and what do I find, bones and hide and someone sucked all the good stuff out of the bones. Now we have no milk. You know that right? That cow could have fed the whole village, but, no you had to go and eat the whole dammed thing all by yourself. Who do you think you are, the king of France maybe? Had a nice jug of wine with it, maybe? Or maybe you would be like that kid down that road. HIs mother told him to take the cow to town and sell it.. And what did he do? He sold it for magic beans! Magic beans! What do you expect a pot of gold to fall out of the sky like that kid did? His mother says he wont come down out of that tree and he says he is friends with a wealthy giant up there. Now she has no cow and no milk and a crazy son in a tree!

It is doubtful that beef like this was a dish of the peasants. Although humans have been raising and eating bovines ever since they were domesticated and even before, consuming meat like this was not a dish of the average peasant. They might be lucky to be eating other less desirable parts of the animal, such as peasants were wont to do, along with a few turnips or roots and some rough grain. As we know it now, it was probably more on the table of the wealthy. But we do live better in America than kings of old did. Our modern homes are much more comfortable and our tables groan more under the weight of plenty.

I used to make beef in wine, but have not done so in decades. Hubs used to love it. I might offer it for his next birthday. I buy very little beef anymore and almost no wine. I used to like to use one of those heavy dark wines for it.

Probably not "right" but in our house a beef stew was made with potatoes, carrots, onion, celery, pepper and maybe green beans and such and was served by itself with a side of bread maybe. Beef bourguignon, in addition to the red wine, was mostly beef with onions and gravy and served over cooked egg noodles. Hungarian goulash was similar but without the potatoes or beans, served over egg noodles but with paprika added and sour cream stirred into the gravy.

I agree with Claudia about peasants in general. There were more well to do peasants in parts of France or where ever but they still mostly sold the major hunks of meat and made sausage from the bits and bobs as in how else do you gain wealth? We have Irish stew which is an oddly named dish for a people who frequently starved to death so where did they get meat for stew? The idea that spoiled meat was spiced doesn't work in that spices were astronomically expensive in Europe in the past. A person who could afford spices could afford fresh meat. We get our old recipes from cookbooks written for literate people who could afford to buy a book. That is limiting in itself to a relatively small percentage of any population back in the day. Even if you lived in the country fuel for fires was always problematic since woods were owned so cooking anything that took long seething like a stew would not be a food of choice for the poor. We get our notions of how people lived from the more prosperous people. Fascinating subject. There is a bit of British history that I love. They were debating the high price of wheat in Britain after the end of the Napoleonic war and the government was keeping wheat high to support the income of landowners and the poor were restless and fomenting awkwardness and demanding cheap bread and one of the supporters of the high prices said that for the poor to demand bread was ridiculous when they could eat cheaper potatoes instead. When bread is a luxury you aren't eating beef stew.

" WIne isn’t so much to disguise the taste of dodgy meat as it is to tenderise the meat. "

I don't believe alcohol tenderizes meat. It's often added for the benefit of its flavor for sauces, whether in brazing liquids or in pan drippings. To deglaze the flavor bits from the pan which are then combined with other ingredients to produce sauce after cooking.

Well Elmer, I've been cooking professionally for the best part of 50 years and now it's my turn to parade my professional experience.

I didn't say alcohol, I said wine. It's not the alcohol that does the tenderising, but it happens.

Patriciae. the same with clothing and fashions from the past What surives and is noted is manily that of the wealhty .

It is a bit like some historical reeactment, no one wants to be the peasant. They all want to be the princess, or the queen, or the lady of the house. Those are the images that survived.

For much of humankind,, life has been short and brutal. Certainly not filled with peace and plenty. And, childhood was a time that you were lucky to have survived.

Patriciae, you made so many interesting points that I'd never really considered. Thanks for the food for thought.

Fair comment, colleenoz. Wine is slightly acidic, apparently about like orange juice, and that can have a tenderizing effect. However, knowing from marinading raw meat that liquids in that context don't penetrate much below the surface, is it not the case that the long cooking period used when braising meat in liquid (as with a stew) is what's responsible for tenderizing?

Wine of course has many other elements in it like tannins that also contribute to texture and of course in this context we are not marinading the meat we are chopping it into relatively small bits and cooking the meat in the tenderizing solution. That greatly increases the penetration.

"Relatively small bits" is suggestive of hamburger to me, which is not what stew/bourguignon is made with.

Kenji's two recipes which I've used and enjoyed, one for each related preparation, directs first searing large hunks of beef chuck roast and then cutting them into 2 inch pieces. Not a "relatively small bits". My marinating example was to recall what beef does when submerged in liquid marinade - penetration after many hours is limited, the flavoring is mostly imparted to the exterior. It's the thickness that matters. I regularly marinate tri-tip several hours before cooking and the penetration into the meat is meager - not even 1/8 of an inch.

The pieces need to be cut when eating, so a knife and fork accompany a spoon. The large pieces each recipe calls for makes eating them a toothsome and meaty experience.

“I regularly marinate tri-tip several hours before cooking and the penetration into the meat is meager - not even 1/8 of an inch.”

I do the same, Elmer. I agree with the 1/8” but it’s still darn tasty. I have tri-tip marinating in the fridge right now for tonight. It’s one of my favorite cuts.

I combined 2 Cooks Illustrated recipes. Soy sauce, ginger, a dash of olive oil, garlic powder, ground black pepper, a splash worth of fish sauce, Worchestershire, and a few squirts of Sriratcha. Into a gallon plastic zip bag, squished around to mix, then meat added and into the fridge for a few hours.

What do you use?

Relatively small bits vs a roast. I did not realize I needed to draw you a picture. Sorry about that.

2+ inch square cubes aren't small bits. Words are adequate.

You are actually allowed to cut your meat into irregularly size pieces as well depending on the source of your bits since meat doesn't necessarily come in thick slabs. I suppose to some people cubes look more elegant. They would be easier to brown on all sides which is the more laborious but more flavorful version of browning the meat. The word bits obviously means something different to you. It has me wondering if you discard the bits that don't come out as 2" cubes as unsuitable for the dish? Anyway it is a good thing I don't write recipes for you.

Hamburger by the way used to be meat chopped with a cleaver into shreds-before the invention of the meat grinder. That must have been a job and a half.

It's okay to let go anytime.

“What do you use?”

I like both of these. I definitely use the first one most often. Got it years ago from a book I have called ”California Sizzles.”

Tri-Tip Marinade

1/3 cup soy sauce
2 T. brown sugar
1 T. red wine vinegar
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1 clove garlic, minced
2 T. olive oil

Tri-Tip Marinade

1⁄4 cup lemon juice
1⁄4 cup olive oil
2 T. sugar
2 T. soy sauce
2 T. McCormick's Montreal Steak Seasoning
1 tsp. seasoning salt (to taste)
3 large garlic cloves, chopped
1 T. Kitchen Bouquet Browning & Seasoning sauce (I sub with Worcestershire)

Looks good. I left out mentioning vinegar, I think your first one and the one I like are quite similar.

Our tri-tip marinade recipe, which my mother got from a Salinas women's cookbook in 1946, is sugar, soy sauce, bourbon, (all in equal parts) plus ginger and garlic.

I’ve also used the first one for grilled pork tenderloin…very good.

I don’t recall the source for the second marinade, other than finding it online. It caught my eye due to the Montreal Steak Seasoning. I’m never without that stuff.

Thanks for the pork tenderloin suggestion, sounds like another good fit.