I Made Beef Bourguignon Recipes by Julia Child and Ina Garten and There Was a Clear Winner

One of my most treasured cookbooks is Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking; it was passed down from my grandmother. It’s a world apart from the recipe cards my mother gave me — more complex, more demanding — yet following it feels like learning directly from a culinary great, and the recipes are worth every bit of effort.

Ina Garten, on the other hand, embraces the classics with a more relaxed, streamlined style — making impressive food feel accessible. Her recipes are reliable, and her approach inspires me to cook smarter; there’s an ease and level of effortlessness that delivers solid, satisfying flavor.

Both of these iconic chefs are beloved for classic recipes like pot roast, coq au vin, and French onion soup. I often turn to one or the other depending on the occasion: Julia for “project cooking” and a French perspective, and Ina for everyday approachable meals.

Cooking through Ina and Julia’s versions of beef bourguignon back-to-back highlights not just two chef’s takes, but also two philosophies: one old-school French, one more modern American. Beef bourguignon is a classic French stew made with beef that is slowly braised in red wine (traditionally wine from Burgundy), along with onions, mushrooms, and herbs. It’s rich and known for its velvety sauce and melt-in-your-mouth tender beef. Both of the versions I tested are delicious and comforting, yet a few differences in ingredients and technique make the end results surprisingly different.

So, Whose Beef Bourguignon is The Best?

Julia’s version is the definition of a perfect beef bourguignon — deeply flavorful and unmistakably classic. The velvety sauce coats melt-in-your mouth tender pieces of beef, mushrooms, and pearl onions, delivering the slow-cooked caramelization that long, careful cooking can achieve. It’s a stew that feels both celebratory and deeply comforting.

Meet our Beef Bourguignon Contenders

It’s surprising to see how seemingly small choices affect the final dish. Julia Child delivers a classic, beef-and-wine-forward stew with a perfectly thickened, velvety sauce that coats every bite. Ina Garten offers a slightly more accessible, but bold interpretation with Cognac (it’s flambéed when it’s added in!) and a brothier, more abundant sauce.

Both recipes use similar amounts of beef, broth, mushrooms and wine; sear the meat in rendered pork fat; and rely on the oven to braise the stew. Both also use a traditional French thickening method called beurre manié (it’s like a roux, but used at the end of cooking rather than the beginning to thicken sauces and stews), stirring in a mixture of softened butter and flour before serving the dish.

Ina Garten’s Boeuf Bourguignon. Ina’s recipe is noticeably streamlined. All of the cooking (except for the mushrooms) happens directly in one Dutch oven — including thickening the sauce. Her method also involves a dramatic (and a touch frightening) flambé of Cognac. I found her suggested 1 1/4 hour braise not to be long enough. The beef needs a full 2 hours for proper tenderness (a point which is echoed in the user reviews).

Julia Child’s Boeuf Bourguignon. Julia’s version (which you can find in Mastering the Art of French Cooking) is a master class in French technique — in fact, she even notes on her television show that if you can make this stew, you can make any stew. Her method includes separately cooking most of the ingredients and then combining them. She even pours the braising liquid out of the Dutch oven into a separate saucepan to thicken it — an extra step that gives the sauce the perfect texture. The process uses an almost comical amount of cookware, but it pays off. The final flavor is rooted in tradition.

Key DifferencesIna

Smaller (1-inch) cubes of beef

1 1/4 hour braise in a 250°F oven

Adds a generous 1/2 cup of Cognac plus a full bottle of red wine

Calls for smoked applewood bacon

Adds carrots and regular onions in addition to frozen pearl onions

Uses just one pot and one skillet

Julia

Larger (2- to 3-inch) beef chunks

2 1/2 hour braise in a 325°F oven

No Cognac; red wine is the star

Calls for unsmoked pork belly

Uses one frying pan, two skillets, one 4-quart casserole dish (Dutch oven), one pot, and two saucepans

How I Tested the Beef Bourguignon Recipes

Same ingredients, same day. All ingredients were purchased from the same store on the same day, and when both recipes called for the same item, I used the exact same brand. I also cooked both versions back-to-back to eliminate any variability.

Followed each recipe exactly. I measured precisely, and followed the recommended steps, oven temperatures and cooking times.

Cross-checking with videos. Because both recipes leave certain techniques open to interpretation, I watched videos of each chef preparing their dish to confirm details.

Side-by-side tasting with tasters. I invited four tasters to sample the stews with me. We tried each one on its own and then over mashed potatoes. The tasters provided detailed notes on flavor, aroma, texture, and overall balance.

Why You Should Trust Me as a Tester

I’ve spent 15 years immersed in recipe development, testing, and food styling. This includes five years rigorously testing recipes in Martha Stewart’s Test Kitchen, followed by time at Food & Wine magazine. Experience teaches you to recognize when something works and when it doesn’t. That discernment, paired with my genuine interest in both classic cuisine and accessible weeknight cooking, shapes how I test and evaluate recipes. I also carefully selected a group of testers with varied culinary interests to broaden the perspective and ensure the feedback reflects different types of cooks.

Beef stew with mushrooms and pearl onions served over creamy mashed potatoes, garnished with parsley.

Credit: Photo: Alex Lepe; Food Styling: Rachel Perlmutter

Julia Child’s Beef Bourguignon

Julia’s approach is traditional and unmistakably French. She begins by cutting pork belly into lardons (the French term for small 1/4-inch strips) and crisping them in a frying pan. The rendered fat is poured into a large skillet, where generous large pieces of beef are browned before being removed to a 4-quart Dutch oven. After discarding the excess fat, she deglazes the skillet with a full bottle of red wine, then pours that into the Dutch oven along with the cooked lardons, tomato paste, garlic, dried thyme, and bay leaf. The stew is brought to a simmer on the stovetop, then braised, covered, in a 325°F oven for 2 1/2 to 3 hours.

Meanwhile, Julia sautés mushrooms in another skillet and boils fresh pearl onions, peels them, and then cooks them until tender in another pot. Once the beef is finished braising, the cooking liquid is poured out of the Dutch oven and thickened in a saucepan with a butter-and-flour mixture before being returned to the pot along with the mushrooms and pearl onions. Then, finally, it’s ready to serve.

Results: All of this effort pays off with a richly satisfying, truly classic rendition of beef bourguignon. I worried the larger pieces of beef might feel cumbersome, but they were so tender and juicy that they fell apart with a spoon. The thick, flavor-packed sauce gave the dish real stew-like heartiness, and the pork belly added gentle richness without being overwhelming.

What I loved: This version feels especially cozy, with a caramelized depth. The flavors are simple and classic, letting the wine and beef truly shine. The sauce had just the right consistency — velvety, balanced, and deeply satisfying. And the fresh pearl onions added a sweetness you simply can’t get from frozen. I thought I might miss the smokiness of bacon, but I ended up loving how clean and smooth the overall flavor was.

What I would tweak: Pouring the sauce out of the Dutch oven at the end of the braise was difficult and messy, given how heavy and hot the pot was. Using a ladle to remove the braising liquid would make this step easier. I’d also streamline the number of pots and pans used to cut down on cleanup — cooking the beef directly in the Dutch oven instead of using an additional skillet. Although not listed in this version of Julia’s recipe, I loved the carrots in Ina’s version and I would consider adding them (Julia mentions carrots as an optional ingredient in her book, From Julia Child’s Kitchen, so I know she would approve).

Savory beef stew with carrots, onions, and mushrooms served over creamy mashed potatoes, garnished with parsley.

Credit: Photo: Alex Lepe; Food Styling: Rachel Perlmutter

Ina Garten’s Beef Bourguignon

Ina’s version is modern and streamlined. Smoky bacon is browned in a large Dutch oven (I used a 6-quart Dutch oven), then removed. In the rendered fat, small pieces of beef are seared and set aside. Again in the same pot, she cooks thinly sliced onions, carrots, and garlic. A generous 1/2 cup of Cognac is poured into the pot and flambéed (see more on that below). When the flame subsides, an entire bottle of red wine is added, along with beef broth, tomato paste, and fresh thyme. The stew is covered and braised in a 250°F oven for 1 1/4 hours.

Like Julia, Ina cooks the mushrooms in a skillet. When the stew is finished braising, she thickens the sauce directly in the pot by stirring in a butter-and-flour mixture. Then the cooked mushrooms and frozen pearl onions are added and the stew is simmered on the stovetop for an additional 15 minutes before serving.

Results: Ina’s stew has a lighter, more sauce-forward consistency with less concentrated flavor — falling somewhere between classic beef bourguignon and French onion soup in both texture and taste. The Cognac provides a prominent, forward note throughout the dish, while the bacon adds a gentle smokiness that is noticeable but never overwhelming. The beef is moderately tender and slightly dry, with smaller, bite-sized pieces that make it easy to eat by the spoonful.

What I loved: While Cognac and smokiness aren’t traditional to beef bourguignon, they do create a rich, inviting flavor that keeps you coming back. Along with the smoky bacon it also helps compensate for the depth that’s missing from the shorter braising time. The addition of carrots enhances the dish further; they soak up the sauce beautifully and brighten the presentation. On its own, this stew tastes quite delicious, but when compared side-by-side to Julia’s beef bourguignon, the difference is clear.

What I would tweak: Braising a stewing cut of beef can’t be rushed; time in the oven makes all the difference. I would extend the braising time to 2 to 2 1/2 hours — as in Julia’s version — which would also help enrich the sauce. While the Cognac diverges from the traditional beef-and-wine profile, it introduces a unique flavor that I find appealing, so I wouldn’t rule out keeping it. However, I’d skip the flambé (it produced a big, 45-second flame that felt unsafe), and instead boil the Cognac to cook off the alcohol. If time allowed, I’d use fresh pearl onions instead of frozen for better texture and sweetness.

Overall Key Takeaways

Both versions are delicious, but they satisfy different cravings. For a classic beef bourguignon, there’s a clear winner (although I don’t think you need as many pots as Julia uses to make a delicious beef bourguignon). The addition of Cognac to Ina’s version dramatically shifts the flavor profile; and while it tastes good, it transforms the dish into something different, yielding a boozier, more dramatic stew, while Julia’s version is steadier and more wine-forward.

Ina’s streamlined approach is smart, but it needs more oven time to reach that classic, slow-cooked depth. Braising time is nonnegotiable — truly tender, melt-in-your-mouth beef and a deeply reduced, flavorful sauce requires a longer cook time than Ina calls for. If her recipe were tweaked with a longer cooking time and a higher oven temperature, I really think it could be a much stronger contender — and the Cognac might mellow, too.

This post originally appeared on The Kitchn. See it there: I Made Beef Bourguignon Recipes by Julia Child and Ina Garten and There Was a Clear Winner