My beef bourginion *sp?! doesn't taste quite right, ppl for dinner tonight, help!

[AvadaKedavra]

I've made it in the exact same way as I do beef in ale, but with red wine in place of the beer but it's lacking... something... depth? Whatever it just doesn't taste all rich and scrummy like I would expect - what can I do to enrich it? any ideas anyone?

I have about 2 hours before people are coming!

What's this umami stuff? I thought at first it was a typo but you're all mentioning it so it can't be...

It is said to be an addition to sweet/salty/sour/bitter but comprises savouriness.

Is found in Parmiggiano cheese, Marmite, Bovril and Oxo,. The Japanese 'discovered' it from a taste component of their seaweed called Kombu used in stock.

Think the tube of Umami paste in Waitrose is called

Santtini taste no 5 umami paste 70g
£2.99 (£4.28 per 100g)

it's in a cool silver tube and comes boxed. I have sent it to foodie friends in the USA and they love it. You add a squirt of it to stews, risotto's, soups etc and my Veg DH adores it.

i use delia's cheat's recipe - you just put everything in the dish and bung it in the oven for 3-4 hrs. Always tastes great - i think bacon bits/lardons make the difference i use smoked.

Probably too late now -- hope it turned out okay! But for future, add a bit of port towards the end, gives it that bit of depth

Port -good

Bacon Lardons - good.

Or try chopped Pancetta despite its not-French credentials! I also slosh Marsala in everything. Its about £6-8 a bottle; not cheap but it does add that depth of flavour.

Slubber - that Julie and Julia film inspired me to buy the book but I have yet to make a single thing from it. I might well give her Beef Bourgignon a try this weekend.

At the risk of sounding like an utter philistine, I would lob in an Oxo cube. (And some more red wine and herbs...)

I would take it out of the slow cooker and put it in the oven for the last hour to reduce the sauce and give it some depth, slow cookers don't reduce and thicken stews in the same way that the oven does.

Hassled, do the French onion soup too. Also a revelation to me how something that had been utterly mediocre on previous tastings could taste so wonderful when done right.

I will. And I need to seek out her thoughts on this onion-frying business. And I probably need to buy 1kg of butter before any of this happens.

Ooh, onion soup recipe please?? I made some years ago and sat down all expectant-like (love onions), took a mouthful and was like "Huh. Right. Tastes of Oxo cube and onions." Totally underwhelmed and disappointed.

Talking of onions, I am TOTALLY addicted to Tesco Finest Caramelised Onion Relish. Cheese toastie + onion relish + packet of Walkers Cheese and Onion Crisps = SOOOOOOO good.

well, I went with the splodge of marmite in the end and it was ok, not the best though, I didn't like it very much at all but the others said I was imagining it and it was fine. But one had flu and the other two were blokey blokes who wouldn't know any better pmsl :)