Butter and Flour Times Two

• Most beef bourguignon recipes call for a thick butter and flour paste, called a beurre manie, added to the pot a few minutes before serving. Make the paste with equal parts butter and flour stirred into 1/2 cup of the stew liquid outside of the pot. Then, stir the mixture back into the stew and cook it for a few minutes. You can repeat the process two or three times until the sauce has the consistency you want.

Slurry on Down

• A slurry works on the same principle as a beurre manie, with a few additional tablespoons of flour or cornstarch added at the end of the cooking process to about 1 cup of hot liquid that you have removed from the cooking pot. Whisk, stir or shake a jar with the flour or cornstarch and the hot liquid until they are completely combined. Then, while stirring or whisking constantly, pour the mixture back into the pot and continue stirring or whisking until the sauce thickens.

A Note of Caution

• Use caution with either a slurry or a beurre manie, and add only 1 or 2 additional tablespoons of flour at a time -- if you add too much flour, the sauce will become gummy, will mask the taste of the meat, vegetables and wine with the taste of flour, and will turn the rich, red wine sauce a dusty red. Ironically, if you add too much flour, it can also lose its thickening capacity.

Cook It Down

• Reducing the sauce in quantity offers you another method of thickening. This method eliminates the risk of your adding too flour or cornstarch, but it does take five or 10 minutes to accomplish. Remove the meat and vegetables from the pot and strain the liquid into another saucepan. Then, cook the liquid at a full boil until it loses enough water to almost reach the consistently you want. Add the meat and vegetables back in and thicken the sauce a bit more by adding the beurre manie.