cooking.nytimes.com

For home cooks craving this deep, savory stew, we've turned to Ginette Mathiot’s “Je Sais Cuisiner” (“I Know How to Cook”), an authoritative cookbook for French housewives first published in 1932, and often described as the French “Joy of Cooking.” Ms. Mathiot’s boeuf bourguignon has just nine ingredients (plus salt and pepper) and takes just five steps. The meat is browned in the same fat as some chopped onions and bacon pieces. Flour is sprinkled in and browned — this is the key to a thick, but not too winy, sauce — then slowly cooked in liquid, with mushrooms tossed in toward the end. The hands-on time for the cook: about 25 minutes.