French · Authentic-ish French
Boeuf Bourguignon
454 kcal a serving, against 564 for the traditional version. That is 110 kcal off, or 20%, with 51.3g of protein. Serves 6. 3 hours, plus overnight chilling.
What the traditional version is
Untrimmed beef chuck and a mountain of pork lardons, browned heavily in a pan. Small pearl onions and chestnut mushrooms fried in plenty of butter. Everything is simmered in a 750ml bottle of red wine until the meat collapses and the sauce becomes thick, glossy and incredibly rich.
What changed, and what each change costs
250g of lardons down to 80g
Pork belly is mostly fat. A small amount still flavours the whole pot with that essential background smoke, but dumping 250g into the stew is entirely unnecessary.
What it costs you. You get fewer chewy, salty little bits of pork to fight over at the table.
60g of butter down to absolutely zero
The classic method insists you fry the mushrooms and onions in 60g of butter before they join the stew. I dry-fry the mushrooms and use a splash of water for the onions instead.
What it costs you. You lose the glossy, buttery finish on the vegetables. The sauce tastes a bit sharper and less rounded, lacking that heavy dairy richness.
Chilling overnight to lift off the fat cap
Even trimmed braising beef throws off a massive slick of oil during a long cook. Letting the pot set hard in the fridge means you can lift 50g of pure grease straight into the bin.
What it costs you. Patience. This is the first and only rule of the recipe: you simply can't eat it on the day you start cooking.
The numbers
| Per serving | Traditional | Lightened |
|---|---|---|
| Calories | 564 | 454 |
| Protein | 56.7g | 51.3g |
| Fat | 19.7g | 9.7g |
| Saturated fat | 9.3g | 3.5g |
| Carbohydrate | 15.7g | 15.7g |
| Protein per 100 kcal | 10.1g | 11.3g |
Every figure is computed from the recipe's own weighed ingredient list against public food composition databases. The appendix in Authentic-ish French prints the exact database row used for each ingredient, so any number here can be checked.
Allergens. gluten, sulphites, celery.
The method is in the book
A proper French stew that still tastes deeply of wine and beef, then. Not a thin, watery imitation, and I'm not going to pretend otherwise. Because there's barely any grease left to coat the roof of your mouth, you get a sharper, beefier flavour. I actually prefer it this way. The sauce is dark, sticky and brilliant, and the meat falls apart exactly as it should. Serve it with a massive pile of green vegetables.
The quantities and the method for this dish are in Authentic-ish French, along with 54 more. Buy the paperback