Hm Beef Stew ??

Penelope_Penguin

HappyIdiotTalk wrote: »

Whenever I make beef stew the beef comes out a little bit dry and slightly hard. Whats the secret of making a stew so that the meat is soft and juicy and falls apart in your mouth?

Where's your beef from? Buy it from a butcher or direct from the farm, and you'll get far better quality than from the supermarket

Alternatively, cook your beef long and slow.

wssla00

a reeeeeeealy slow cooking time- at least 3 hours, a but of wine or beer, and acid- usually tinned tomatoes for me and some fine veins of fat through your meat will make it really tender

champys

wssla00 wrote: »

a reeeeeeealy slow cooking time- at least 3 hours, a but of wine or beer, and acid- usually tinned tomatoes for me and some fine veins of fat through your meat will make it really tender

Agree - and really, those 'veins of fat' are important! You think you are doing the healthy thing if you buy very lean meat - but for a juicy stew you really need a bit of fat in there. Some chopped streaky bacon in the stew can help as well.

meritaten

agree with previous posters - but I do like to 'seal' the meat before stewing it by coating with flour and frying it over a very high heat (my OH complains that i get fat splashes everywhere). you wouldnt think that meat cooked in liquid could get dry would you??? I only do this with cubed meat - with meat on the bone it goes in the stew as is! dont ask me why this meat doesnt go dry - I have no idea - i just know it doesnt!

McKneff

I prefer stewing steak to stewing beef, its much more tender when slow cooked.

HappyIdiotTalk

Thats the thing I do cook my beef for a long time on a low heat, more like 4 to 5 hours for me. My beef comes from a good local butcher - I dont know of any farms around here that sell meat... interesting idea though.

And Merititen it always amazes (and frustrates me) that after cooking all afternoon is water the beef still dries up!

I dont use tomatoes or wine though, maybe thats my problem. I'll try that next time.

I would just like to say, that I quite should shoulder of lamb which is on the bone and that always comes out brilliantly! Maybe it is the bone thing. Can you get a shoulder of beef with the bone... or something like it?

hotcookie101

You want shin of beef-has really good marbling, and a hefty bit of connective tissue, its really good (I got 1.5kg the other day from butcher for 4.99/kg) You can ask for the bone too, but I dont have it on the bone, I just shove the bone in sometimes (or a few skinny little bits of oxtail if the butcher has some going cheap)
Cut it chunky-at least 1.5cm thick and min 5cm x 5cm.
Cook it slow-this recipe is my favourite-but I use the original from the Meat cookbook and I think its 1.5kg, and I usually just use onions rather than shallots (CBA peeling them)
Its never dry, melts in the mouth and the stew is rich and thick.
A shoulder of beef on the bone would probably weigh at least 30kg, and wouldn't fit in any of my pots (its a fair while since have been involved in butchery of a beef carcass but I know when I worked in the meat factory the live weight was around 4-600kg)
A lower limb cut like shin has done SO much work its ready for a long slow cook. the connective tissue melts with the slow cooking to make it really tender and moist. YUM
(BTW I made this at the weekend with 1.5kg meat, 2 packs pancetta-130g or so, and 500g mushrooms and got 5 LARGE (600-700g) portions for 2 people-so 10 greedy person portionsm, its so rich you don't need much. I also added carrots cos I love them )

rowsew

HappyIdiotTalk wrote: »

Whenever I make beef stew the beef comes out a little bit dry and slightly hard. Whats the secret of making a stew so that the meat is soft and juicy and falls apart in your mouth?

If you've got a slow cooker, use that. It's the best thing for
a) a long slow roast which it needs to be soft and
b) keeping all the lovely juices in that keep it flavour-y! (not good English I know, but it's late).

You can use a big casserole dish with a lid in a low oven too, but this consumes much more energy, and doesn't seem to keep quite as much moisture in either. Good luck!

ben500

Slow, low and no salt. Don't "seal" the meat beforehand this lets the fluids in the pan and the meat exchange during the cooking process, idealy add the meat before bringing the liquids to boil, meat doesn't need sealing before stewing or casserole as the intention is for the flavours to flow between the ingredients not to isolate them.

Grebe

You know when the recipe states best chuck steak:laugh: Nah, what you want is beef hough ( sorries I am a Scot and that is what I know it as probably is known as something else in these sceptered isles) Then what you need, as an adorer of Martin "we are not worthy" a slow cooker. Just chuck the meat in with any old herbs, spices, a little salt, a little water ( go to slow cooker gods and godesses thread) or what you fancy and leave it to cook all day on low. If you are using a normal ( money grabbing cooker) I recommend you marinade your meat for a wee while in some tenderising mushed up papya or kiwi or pineapple, for about 30 mins before cooking as a normal stew.
WARNING do not leave your chosen meat too long in the tenderising fruit too long, it will I swear dissolve in to nothing:eek::eek::eek: I know this to be true:D Okay it did happen when I was distracted from my hostessing to my guests when they had brought a selection of rather cheeky wines, but who would have thought that two hours of marinading would mean that meat was now mush:eek::eek::o