Why did this happen?

lynzpower

OK
Yesterday I decided to make steak & veg pies.

I popped to the shops and came back with
carrots
onion
mushrooms
frozen peas
and some rump steak

Now I parboiled the carrots meanwhile did a gravy with comptons.
once carrots sufficiently soft, transferred carrots along with peas, mush, onion to the gravy pan & simmered on a low heat for about 25 mins till the mushrooms had shrunk

I then cut up the rump steak and mixed into the gravy ( off the heat) transferred this to the pie dishes- topped with frozen puff pastry which needed 25 mins. I gave it 15 as we have a fan oven

result- filling &pastry completely perfect- steak- tough as old boots, only 15 mins cooking? I would have expected it to be fairly tender?

What can I do differently next time?


( i usually do a cheap braising steak in SC for these, but im worried about the fat content - oh has high cholestrol- so I used rump steak this time for a change)

kathyd_2

I would have started the cooking process with the meat as you would have normally done but with less time as it was rump steak. Rather than using rump next time you can buy extra trimmed stewing steak in supermarkets (or just trim off any excess fat yourself). Remember when you grill a rump it has quite intense heat which is why it only takes minutes to cook. Having it encased in pastry will protect it somewhat from the intense heat so 15 mins probably wouldn't have been long enough.

squeaky

I normally braise the meat for pies very slowly (three hours) skim any fat off the top then make the gravy nice and thick before using it as a filling.

The SC is ideal for this, just give it the normal cooking time.

lynzpower

i wouldnt have thought that rump steak would need that long given the fact that Id fry it only for about 3 mins on each side. Is that right then should I have cooked it for longer- OR is it that theres no fat to soften it so it would have gone tough whatever?

We arnt allowed any visible fat anyway, so the meat that Ive been using in the SC we really shouldnt be using at all

wendym

Cooking meat in liquid gets quite different results from grilling, roasting etc, and takes longer than you think (clearly!).

Is shin of beef relatively unfatty? You have to cook it for about a fortnight, but it's inexpensive, and very tender after gentle treatment. (As indeed are we all).

Hope all the moving !!!!!! is going OK.

Wx

lemontart

For pies with meat the meat should always be cooked at least partialy first.............the best way is to cook in pressure cooker as making a stew then transfrer to pie dish with pastry lid then bake for time takes pastry to cook.............puff pastry works well for this, then carefully remove pastry lid, serve filling and pop pastry on top again once on plate.

Beth
xx

foreign_correspondent

I have heard that some cuts of meat either need to be cooked hot and quickly (eg couple if minutes in the frying pan either side) or slowly (eg, stewed in SC or oven) and anything in between results in tough meat.
Dont know if thats of any help, but I always stick by it and it seems to work. For pies I would tend to go for the slow braised/stewed method personally.

redballoon_2

i used tesco's own brand of tinned stewing steak and it was soo delicious!

Idiophreak

foreign_correspondent wrote:

I have heard that some cuts of meat either need to be cooked hot and quickly (eg couple if minutes in the frying pan either side) or slowly (eg, stewed in SC or oven) and anything in between results in tough meat.
Dont know if thats of any help, but I always stick by it and it seems to work. For pies I would tend to go for the slow braised/stewed method personally.

I tend to agree here, I think of different cuts as being for different things.
If I were going for grilled steak, I'd do fillet/sirloin/rump and cook it as hot and fast as possible.

If I were doing a stew/pie I'd tend to use braising/stewing steak and cook it really slowly, I wouldn't really think of using rump, especially as it's generally more expensive.

That said, I'd expect a rump pie to be very nice, I think it might just have been a question of you not cooking it for long enough. 3 minutes either side is fine when you have direct heat from the pan, but in liquid and protected by pastry, it's quite different.

As suggested above, I'd try searing it in a pan first, get some colour on it, then cook it along with the rest of the pie contents for as long as possible, then slap the lid on and cook the pastry.

I'm no expert, however, so that might be a dumb idea.

lynzpower

cheers

Well I wont make thart mistake again anyway