Gordon Ramsay’s beef bourguignon is 600g of shin beef browned in goose fat, then braised with smoked bacon, pearl onions, chestnut mushrooms, and a whole bottle of Burgundy at 150°C for 3 hours. He serves it over a celeriac mash scented with cardamom, and the whole dish feeds four.
This is his published recipe, demonstrated step by step in the video on YouTube, and it’s nothing like the versions most sites print. The only thing he’s said about bourguignon in his own words is short and telling, from his recipe of the week back in 2011: “A speedy beef bourguignon simple and impressive if you are entertaining.” Simple is the point, because the oven does almost everything.
Two details separate his version from the copies. The beef browns in goose fat rather than oil, which takes higher heat and gives the crust a depth olive oil can’t reach. Then the browned chunks rest in a colander over a bowl, so the escaping juices drain off instead of steaming the bacon and onions, and every drop goes back into the pot with the wine.
Gordon Ramsay’s Beef Bourguignon with Celeriac Mash
Course: DinnersCuisine: FrenchDifficulty: Easy4
25
minutes3
minutes650
kcal3 hr 45 min
Shin beef and smoked bacon slow-braised in a full bottle of Burgundy with pearl onions and chestnut mushrooms, no stock and no carrots, served over crushed celeriac infused with bay, thyme, and cardamom.
Ingredients
- For the bourguignon:
1 tbsp goose fat
600g shin beef, cut into large chunks
100g smoked streaky bacon, sliced
350g shallots or pearl onions, peeled
250g chestnut mushrooms, sliced
2 garlic cloves, sliced
1 bouquet garni (thyme, bay leaf, and parsley stalks tied together)
1 tbsp tomato purée
1 x 750ml bottle red wine (Burgundy is good)
About 100ml water
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
- For the celeriac mash:
600g celeriac (about 1), peeled and cut into cubes
2 tbsp olive oil, plus extra for finishing
1-2 sprigs each rosemary and thyme
2 bay leaves
4 cardamom pods
200ml water
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Directions
- Brown the beef: Heat a large casserole pan and add the goose fat. Season the shin beef and sauté for 3 to 5 minutes until lightly browned, then turn and repeat until the chunks are browned all over.
- Drain: Remove the meat to a colander set over a bowl, so the juices drain and nothing steams.
- Build the base: In the same pan, lightly brown the bacon, then add the onions, mushrooms, garlic, bouquet garni, and tomato purée. Stir and cook for a few minutes.
- Add wine and return the beef: Put the beef and its drained juices back in. Pour in the wine and about 100ml water, so the meat is well drizzled but not completely covered. Bring to the boil and scrape the caramelised juices off the bottom of the pan.
- Slow cook: Cover with foil and cook at 150°C (300°F/Gas 2) for 3 hours, until the beef is completely tender.
- Start the mash: Fry the celeriac cubes in the olive oil in a large pan, then add the rosemary, thyme, bay leaves, and cardamom pods.
- Simmer: Pour in 200ml water, lower the heat, partially cover, and simmer for 25 to 30 minutes until soft.
- Crush and serve: Drain the celeriac, remove the herbs and cardamom, and crush gently with a potato masher with plenty of olive oil and seasoning. Serve the bourguignon in bowls over the mash.
FAQs
What beef does Gordon Ramsay use for bourguignon?
Shin, cut into large chunks, which is about the cheapest beef your butcher sells and exactly why it works. Shin is packed with connective tissue that dissolves into the sauce over 3 slow hours, leaving meat that falls apart and a braise with real body, where a lean cut would just go dry and stringy.
The goose fat matters too, since it handles the high browning heat without burning and leaves a savoury depth under the wine. It’s the same cheap-cut-plus-wine logic behind his beef short ribs recipe, where another unfashionable cut does the heavy lifting.
Does Ramsay put carrots in beef bourguignon?
No, and that’s the quickest way to spot a fake version of his recipe. Almost every site prints a chuck-and-carrots bourguignon, but his garnish is the classic Burgundian trio: smoked bacon, pearl onions, and chestnut mushrooms, nothing else competing with the beef.
He also skips beef stock entirely, using a full 750ml bottle of wine plus a splash of water, so the sauce tastes of reduced Burgundy rather than diluted stock cube. He runs the same trio of bacon, pearl onions, and mushrooms through his coq au vin recipe, which is essentially this dish with chicken and brandy.
What do you serve with beef bourguignon?
His answer is built into the recipe: celeriac mash instead of potato. The celeriac fries in olive oil first, then simmers with rosemary, thyme, bay, and four cardamom pods, which sounds odd until you taste how the cardamom’s citrusy warmth lifts the earthiness. It gets crushed roughly with a masher and finished with olive oil, not butter or cream.
The texture stays loose and rustic, closer to crushed than puréed, and it drinks up the wine sauce better than smooth mash would. A green salad and the rest of the Burgundy handle everything else the table needs.
Can you make Ramsay’s bourguignon in a slow cooker?
His recipe is built for a 150°C oven under foil for 3 hours, but the method converts honestly: do every browning step in a pan exactly as written, then transfer to the slow cooker for 6 to 7 hours on low. Skipping the browning and colander steps is what produces the grey, watery bourguignon people blame on the slow cooker.
Reduce the water to almost nothing in the conversion, because a slow cooker loses no liquid while the foil-covered oven version concentrates as it cooks. For the same low-and-slow approach with a Sunday joint instead of chunks, his pot roast recipe runs on the identical principle.
Are there other Ramsay versions of bourguignon?
Two, and almost nobody knows either. His “speedy beef bourguignon” was a recipe of the week he shared for New Year’s entertaining, the quick route when 3 hours isn’t on the table. And in his Make It Easy book there’s a halibut bourguignon, where pan-fried fish gets the full treatment: lardons, caramelised shallots, button mushrooms, and a reduced red wine drizzle over wilted spinach.
The fish version proves the point of the dish, that bourguignon is a garnish-and-wine framework rather than a beef recipe. His guide to how he cooks halibut covers that technique alongside six other ways he treats the same fish.
