The Fishy Tale of Bœuf à la Bourguignonne

 

 
Above: "Pièce de Bœuf  a la Bourguignonne",

If ever there was a European dish that deserved the label "Classic", then Bœuf à la Bourguignonne (also Bœuf à la Bourguignon, Beef Bourguignonne/Bourguignon or Beef Burgundy) would have to be high on the list. It has appeared around the world at family meals, dinner parties and resturants for many decades and currently a Google search for the term results in over one million hits. Indeed, in the English speaking world the term "Beef Burgundy" has become synonymous with "beef stewed with red wine", even if it is simply filling for a pie. In France pre-cut cubes of stewing beef are labeled for sale simply as "Bourguignon". Which is all rather amazing for a stew.

While "Beef Burgundy" may have become synonymous with beef stewed in red wine, this an over simplification.  Classically the garnish for the dish was as, if not more, important to the definition of the dish, then the use of red wine. Other similar beef stews use red wine, but classically a garnish "à la Bourguignonne" implies the use of small onions, mushrooms and lardons, although these elements are increasingly being dropped from modern interperatations of the dish. The association of the dish with the French region of Burgundy (Bourgogne) brings to mind the the areas gastronomic riches. Famous for high quality beef, poultry, mustard, cheese and wine, Burgundy has been called the "gastronomic heart" of France. Labelling a beef stew "à la Bourguignonne" implies that the dish will possess a level of elegance and richness beyond that of other beef stews. But there is a dirty little secret lying at the heart of this dish, for all of its association with Burgundy, it is not thought to be a proper regional specialty. Increasingly in discussions on the nature of food, a lack of regionality implies a lack of authenticity and this can be perceived as a big negative.

 So what is the origin of this dish? The most common histrory for the dish given is that it was a peasant dish that was raised to a higher level by professional chefs.  Auguste Escoffier is often quoted as the indvidual that modernized the recipe at the begining of the 20th century. The recipe in  Escoffier's "Le Guide Culinaire" (1903) was quickly followed by dozens of similar recipes published by various authors in the next decade. The number of "new" recipes continues to rise. As it happens, Escoffier's recipe is actually for "Pièce de Bœuf  a la Bourguignonne", that is a single large piece of beef, rather then lots of small cubes of beef. However, the following American recipe indicates that the modernization of the  recipe did not orginate with Escoffier.

"The Post-Graduate Cookery Book" (1903) by Adolphe Meyer

 

Terrine De Boeuf A La Bourguignonne - Beef In Terrin, Burgundy Style

 Cut 5 or 6 pounds of rump of beef in pieces about 2 inches square, also cut 1/2. pound of lean salt pork in small squares and parboil them.

Heat some lard or beef suet in a pan; season the beef, and put in the pan to brown lightly with the salt pork, add 4 large carrots and 4 large onions; cut in quarters; also add a faggot of herbs and 1 clove of garlic. When well browned, drain the fat and sprinkle 2 or 3 spoonfuls of flour over the meat; stir well and let cook for a few minutes; then moisten with I quart of claret and enough beef stock to have the stew well covered. Put a lid on the pan, and cook the stew in a moderate oven for about 3 hours.

When the meat is done, remove it piece by piece into a clean pan, reduce the sauce to good consistency, and strain it over the meat. Next add 3 dozen small glazed onions and the same amount of small heads of mushrooms (which, if fresh, should first be sauted in butter); give one boil to the stew, and serve it in a well-heated tureen."

Meyer was born in the Alsace, but became chef of the Union Club in New York. As both Meyer's and Escoffier's recipes were published independently in the same year, this implies that there are earlier origin for the modern recipe. While there are several recipes published before 1903, the most likely source of Escoffier and Meyer's recipe is the brilliant "Dictionnaire Universel de Cuisine Pratique" (1894) by Joseph Favre. Favre's masterful work anticipates Escoffier and is often refered to by Escoffier. Both chefs worked at "La Maison Chevet", a hugely important caterer at the Palais Royale in Paris. Favre mentions that Chevet supplied food not only to Paris high society, but also catered to high society all over Europe. Could it be that "Bœuf à la Bourguignonne", rather then being a cheffy refinement of Burgundian peasant cookery, is actually in origin Parisian catering to high society?

Favre's recipe gives a clue to this origin.

 "Bœuf  braise à la bourguignonne

Couper le boeuf en morceaux, le mettre dans un sautoir avec du beurre; et lorsqu'il est bien roussi, le degraisser, poudrer de farine et ajouter, selon la quantite de boeuf , une ou deux gousses d'ail, autant d'echalote, le tout hache. Mouiller avec du bon vin rouge et un tiers de boullion. Ajouter un bouquet garni, saler, poivrer a point et laisser cuire jusqu'a parfaite tendrete.

D'autre part, faire glacer des petis oignons avec petis lardons, les poudrer de sucre pour les faire dorer, les ajouter au boeuf lorsqu'il est aux trois quarts cuit, et au moment de servir des champignons sautes, ou cuites selon la regle.

Retirer le bouquet garni et dresser dans un plat creux chaud."

Favre's recipe is essentially the same as most modern recipes, to date I have not found an earlier recipe, so at this point it is indeed likely that the modern dish originates with Favre, and possibly high class Parsian catering. A clue to the latter point is in Favre's description of the recipe as "Cuis[ine] de restaurant", in other words restaurant level food. Seperately Favre describes "Garniture a la bourguignonne" as being composed as glazed small onions, lardons, small meatballs and sauted mushrooms, moisted with red wine. Drop the meatballs and we have the what is still now the modern garnish for the dish. Interestingly the orgins of this garnish "a la bourguignonne" are much older then Bœuf à la Bourguignonne itself.

It was during a period of modernisation and codification of of French haute cuisine in the late 18th and early 19th century that references to a Burgundian style ragout (garnish and sauce) began to appear. However, this was never paired with beef. This is  Careme's typical recipe for both a Burgundian style red wine sauce and ragout for fish from early part of the 19th century

SAUCE A LA BOURGUIGNOTTE

 Apres avoir habille une moyenne anguille, vous la coupez par troncons et la mettez dans une casserole a ragout ave deux oignons, deux maniveaux eminces, deux gousses d’ail, deux echalottes, un bouquet assaisonne, une pincee de poivre en poudre, une demi-bouteille de vin de Volney; faites mijoter et reduire un peu sur un feu doux; ensuite vous passez cette essence avec pression a l’etamine; puis vous y joignez deux grandes cuillerees a ragout d’espagnole travaillee, et deux maniveaux tournes et leurs fonds. Faites reduire a grand feu et selon la regle; puis vour y versez de nouveau un verre de volney. Lousque la sauce est reduite a point, vous la deposez dans une casserole a bain-marie. Au moment de service, vous y joignez beurre d’ecrevisses, une trentaine de queues d’ecrevisses, et le meme nombre de petits champignons bien blancs. Servez.

Cette sauce est des plus savoureuses, et convient pour le poisson de riviere cuit au court-bouillon et a l’eau de sel.

 J’ai servi cette sauce pour la premiere fois a la princesse de B***.

 RAGOUT EN MATELOTTE A LA BOURGUIGNOTTE

 A l’egard de ce ragout, vous procedez sa preparation ainsi qu’il est demontre ci-dessus; seulement vous employez la sauce maigre matelote indiquee a la bourguignotte; pius vous ajoutez a la garniture de l’entrée quelques groupes de queues d’ecrevisses, six croutons pares en Coeur passes au beurre et glaces, et quatre belles ecrevisses prepares pour garniture; servez le reste de sauce dans une sauciere avec quelques champignons, onions et queues d’ecrevisses.

 

Recipes for "Bourguignotte" (Burgundian) style fish are in most French cookery books of the early 19th century, and often in English language cookery books of the period. Parallel to this was the the increase in Matelote dished in English language cookery books. This is a Scottish example.

"The cook and housewife's Manual (1828) by Meg Dods

Sauce d la Matelote for Fish.—To a large pint of brown roux heated, or of Espagnole, put six onions sliced and fried with a few mushrooms, or a little mushroom-catsup, a glass of red wine, and a little of the liquor in which the fish was boiled. Give it a seasoning of parsley, chives, or bay-leaf, salt, pepper, allspice, and a clove. Skink it up, (using a large spoon) to make it blend well. Put veal-gravy to it if wanted more rich, or a good piece of butter. Strain it, and if wanted exceedingly rich, add small quenelles, (forcemeat-balls,) proper for a fish-dish, glazed onions and mushrooms, a little essence of anchovy and a squeeze of lemon. Serve over stewed carp or trout.

Obs.—This sauce is exceedingly admired by some gourmands, indeed preferred to all other ways of serving fish"

Fish stews known as "Matelotte" ("Sailor style") were common enough all over France, but the Burgundian style indicated the use of red rather then white wine. Denis Diderot's 18th century Encyclopédie indicates defines a Matelotte as a strong ragout, flavoured with salt, pepper, onions, mushrooms & wine and commonly made in the inns located along the rivers. So why "Burgundian? Almost certainly because of the use of red wine. We may see the pairing of red wine and beef in cookery as "natural", but odd as it may sound the use of red wine in French cookery prior to the 19th century was rather limited. The Burgundians seem to have been unusual in their use of red wine in cookery, enough so that a sauce described as "Burgundian" came to mean "with red wine". A 19th century description of these sauces (for fish) in "Mémoires de lʹAcadémie des sciences, arts et belles-lettres de Dijon"

"This mode of preparation, always used, is known in Burgundy, under the name of "môrette", pronounced "meurette", which is a picturesque expression whose name indicates the dark color of sauce".

Meurette was seen as an interchangeble name for a red wine based Matelotte, which was extremely popular at the begining of the 19th century:

"Mais la manière la plus générale, et certainement la meilleure de la manger, est celle qui est connue sous le nom de matelotte ou de meurette"

It is by the name "Meurette" that these red wine sauces are still known in Burgundy.  So it would seem that this Burgundian regional way of preparing fish made its way into Parisian cookbooks by during the period of the late 18th to early 19th century.  Rather then use the regional name of "Meurette", the authors of thee books used the general term for fish stew with wine ("Matelotte") and described it as Burgundian due to the use of red wine. "Oeufs en Meurette" (Eggs in a red wine sauce) is considered to be another classic dish of Burgundian cookery, yet again in the 19th century, recipes for "Oeufs en Mattelote" are far more common in cookery texts, then "Oeufs en Meurette".

This Burgundian sauce and garnish combination also was used for a very few non-fish items, such as woodcock or hare.

The red wine Matelote also began to be combined with beef.  Not as "Bœuf à la Bourguignonne", but as perhaps what was the poor cousin of this dish, "Bœuf bouilli en Matelote". Due to the large quantities of beef stock/broth used in the early 19th century haute cuisne for sauces, soups and braises, there was always a large amount of boiled beef in excess. By and large these were considered not to be very nourishing as the "goodness" had been extracted into the bouillion. But a way to use up all this beef was found. Generally these chunks of sodden beef were sliced thinly, and warmed through in a range of sauces. One such combination was boiled beef combined with the now vary familar Burgundian style Matelotte sauce. At the end of the 19th century Favre refers to these Boulli Matelotte as "Cuis[ine] de cabaret". In other words, unlike "Cuisine de restaurant", this was a recipe that was only worthy of a venue where the food was not a major focus of the diners attention. There was no reference to Burgundy, as this wasn't a dish worthy of the name.

"Bœuf bouilli en matelote à la Bourgeoise.

Épluchez des petits ognons, que vous mettrez dans une poêle - avec un peu de beurre ; faites-les roussir avec un feu qui ne soit pas trop ardent; quand ils le seront, mettez plein une cuillère à bouche de farine; sautez-la avec vos ognons; mettez un verre de vin rouge, un demi-verre de bouillon, quelques champignons (si vous en avez), du sel, du poivre, une feuille de laurier, un peu de thym; achevez de cuire votre ragoût; quand il le sera, vous le verserez sur les tranches de bouilli que voifs aurez mises sur le plat; faites-le mijoter une demi-heure pour que le bouilli se pénètre de la sauce."

So it would seem that by the end of the 18th century the use of red wine as a basis sauce for fish was recognised as being typically "Burgundian", both in Burgundy itself and also amoungst the new wave of professional chefs working in Paris. These chefs worked in the recently developed restaurant trade, but also as private caterers. In this environment a "Burgundian" sauce and garnish were codified. The haute cuisine method of making a Matelotte required the production of a seperate sauce which was combined with the other elements of the dish.  This "sauce matelote a la bourguignotte" eventually began to mean not only an individual dish, but "Matelotte" became a culinary technique, an ingredient cooked in a wine sauce. This was a way for the professional chef to produce a vast arrange of different dishes by combining a few basic recipes. In Parallel to the development of the Matelotte as a culinary technique, the Burgundian style sauce and ragout became codified. So from the local Burgundian manner of cooking fish, haute cuisine developed a Burgundian style sauce and ragout (later a garnish) and "Matelotte" style of cookery.

Some 19th century examples of the development of Burgundy style dishes from English cookery books.

"CARP, A LA BOURGUIGNOTTE. Stew the carp whole in red wine, when done, drain and place it on an oval dish; sauce it with a rich Bourguignotte sauce (No. 28), garnish with soft roes and cray-fish, and send to table.

SALMIS OF WOODCOCKS, A LA BOURGUIGNOTTE. Roast the woodcocks, cut them up, and prepare the croutons as in the foregoing case; make an essence with the trimmings, and add this to a Bourguignotte ragout (No. 195). Warm the salmis with a little of the sauce, dish it up, garnish with the ragout and sauce, place the croutons round the base, and serve."

 

The older "Burgundian style ragout" for fish ( at its basic level glazed onions and mushrooms, moistened with red wine sauce) became a  "Burgundian style garnish", red wine was no longer a vital element, as the use of the garnish implied the use of a red wine sauce. This garnish at its most simple was glazed onions and mushrooms, but could include other elements like meatballs, crayfish tails or truffles. Eventually, these were combined with non-fish ingredients, such as game. Red wine sauce was used to perk up left over boiled beef. At the very end of the 19th century rather then dressing for left over boiled beef, good quality beef was braised in the red wine sauce and dressed with the garnish just before service. The shift from leftovers to original dish, is a subtle, but important change. This late 19th century dish is in essence the old Burgundian style haute cuisine fish Matelotte of the early 19th century, but now the fish had been replaced by beef.

So where does this leave "regionality"? Well from this it seem that there has been a long recognised use of red wine in Burgundian cookery. What is less clear is if beef was typically ever cooked in this manner in the region. To date there is no documentation of this prior to the development of recipe in Paris. Certainly early regional cookbooks like Alfred Contour's "Cuisinier Bourguignon" gives no such recipe. But lack of documentation is in the end, simply that. Potentially the developent of the recipe in Paris was due to parallel developments in Burgundy. Dijon was a well recognised gastronomic centre during this period for instance. More to the point, what ever the convoluted origin of Bœuf à la Bourguignonne, having spent time in Burgundy I would have to say that this dish now seems to be recognised as a local dish. It is difficult to argue that a dish is not authentically regional, when it has a local cultural identity. I would argue that rather then spending time on defining a dish as "regional" due to historical continuity of development, it is better to consider its importance in defining cultural identity. Nothing is local for ever after all.

Effectively one reason why many people suggest that Bœuf à la Bourguignonne is not a regional dish is because we have a decent amount of documentation on the development of the dish. But is this relevant? How many "regional" dishes are considered local/native/ours simply due to lack of documentation? Or if there is documentation, does that help at all? Recently the the origins of the iconically Scottish Haggis were shown to be common to both England and Scotland. This caused much outrage amoungst the easily angered in Scotland. Currently in Italy food as cultural identity is being heavly politicised. When it comes to food and cultural identity, opinions seem to range from the charmingly naïve to savagely racist. Which is one reason why I love living in the UK. The cuisine in the UK is dynamic, respectful of its past, but open to new ideas and most importantly, the British, on balance, are not so paranoid about their own cultural identity that they fall into all the usual depressing cliches. After all, from some perspectives, a well defined "regional cuisne" looks a lot like cultural inertia.

Comments

[Rachel Laudan]

So on the mark Adam. As always.

[maria]

the non-paranoia of the British cultural identity may have to do with the fact that the British have generally not been subject to oppressive regimes; their disinterest in their 'own' "cuisine" may also be a manifestation of more urgent affairs to deal with, making food become less of a quest and more of a necessity, which is why the cuisine in the UK has been picked up from all over the world, and not bred within.

coincidentally, there seems to be a greater move these days towards defining the cuisine of Crete (where i live) for tourism rather than identity reasons

[Adam Balic]

I think that it is probably worth while finding out a bit more about British history, before commenting about the lack of oppressive regimes or the history of British food. "The British" is not synonymous with "The English", and even in the case of the latter group, oppression doesn't have to come from an external regime to be not a great deal of fun. Also, although the British have not mythologised there local food to the same extent as many modern European states (with many exceptions), this does not equate to disinterest in their own regional cuisines.

[diana buja]

The hotel had this dish yesterday, in the Sunday Buffet. Being cooked by a Burundian who had no idea of the dish other than a few ingredients in a cookbook, it turned out ok - too many mushrooms and onions and very little wine, however!

Great blog, Adam.

[Adam Balic]

Really interesting to hear how these types of dishes have travelled.

[Anthony]

Just found this blog and have been enthralled. I don't normally bother posting comments but this merited the attention. The depth of research, sources and open discussion is just great. I was nodding in agreement and pondering even more when reading this final paragraphs about ownership & identity of dishes falling to a historical or cultural importance.
Thanks for sharing with us and keep up the good work.