Kyl Haselbauer has 20 years of experience working in fine-dining and modernist kitchens, including Bar Cotto and Anchovies &amp; Olives in Seattle. He is also the owner of Bright Spot, a café and coffee shop in Seattle.

Kyl Haselbauer

Ever since Julia Child burst onto the food scene, Americans have been in love with boeuf bourguignon—beef braised in red wine. As she notes in the inaugural episode of The French Chef, the dish offers a crash course in French culinary technique: How to brown and braise meat, how to sauté mushrooms, how to cook vegetables, and how to make a “wonderful” sauce. For the same reason, beef bourguignon is a great dish to demonstrate how precision temperature control can yield spectacular results. Not just how to brown meat, but how to brown it and then gently simmer it so the collagen in <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/decoding-tough-and-tender-cuts">tough stewing cuts</a> transforms into gelatin without hammering the meat into chalky shreds. Not just how to make a sauce, but how to regulate the temperature of the liquid so that once the meat is cooked, it will reduce into a silky, gelatin-rich sauce without overcooking the meat. With the temperature control of precision induction cooking, you can choose the final texture of the braised beef simply by extending or shortening the cooking time, just like with sous vide. Since the exterior of beef pieces braised in red wine can take on an unappealing texture and muddy appearance, we reduce the wine separately at the start and incorporate it into the braise toward the end of the cooking process. To ensure the sauce has enough gelatin to produce a silky sauce, we fortify the braising liquid with our <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/beef-bouillon-cubes">Ultimate Beef Bouillon Cubes</a>, which also add tons of browned beefy flavor and a healthy dose of seasoning in the form of salt and MSG. Once you get the braise started, it’s almost entirely hands-off, and you’ll be rewarded with one of the best beef stews in the world. We’re sure Julia Child would approve!

Precision Boeuf Bourguignon