For the liquid, use about 2/3 chicken broth and 1/3 red wine or beer. The chicken broth gives a meatier flavor to the stew than beef broth does, for some reason. Plus I always have chicken broth around and I never have beef broth.
I add the potatoes and carrots about 40-60 minutes before the stew is done. This avoids mushy potatoes/carrots.
Lately I have been cooking stew in the oven at about 250-300, as opposed to making it on the stovetop. It seems to give more consistent results.
Turnips, rutabagas and the like need long cooking, so in from the start. Mushrooms at the end. Pearl onions, per Lightray, are a great idea for onion haters. I keep a bag in the freezer for just this sort of recipe, since the wife hates onions, while I adore them. Carrots depend on how they are sliced. If they are the carved, faux-baby carrots, toss them in early. Otherwise go for the same time as the potatoes.
Here’s a Scandinavian recipe for kalops (beef stew), which I simply think is amazing and has gotten positive reviews here at the Dope before, so I encourage you to try it. It’s got detailed instructions and pictures, and the Scandinavian twists on beef stew (allspice, cloves, and optional sardines [you can use fish sauce as a substitute for the same basic effect]) make it outstanding in its simplicity.
As a sidenote, I have made several of the linked to Bridgestone’s recipes and they have all come out wonderfully. I highly recommend doing a search for him there. There’s a link IIRC to all of his recipes and they are all as well photographed and described as this one.
Some recipes call for coating the beef pieces in flour and browning them as the first step. Opinions?
Dittos here. His recipes have opened my eyes to Scandinavian cooking. The kalops are a fall/winter mainstay here, as is his dill-veal stew (which reminds me of a dish that my Polish mother would cook.)
While we’re at it, here’s my recipe for Hungarian beef stew with homemade egg noodles/dumplings aka Marhapörkölt nokedlivel (Goulash w/ spaetzle).
I almost always like to brown the meat before a stew–it helps develop the flavor. The flour helps the browning along as well as (I think) providing a little bit of a thickening agent for the final stew.
Essential step to great flavor.
Oh, and one more lesson:
To ensure good browning, get your (preferably) cast-iron skillet nice and hot, do not disturb the meat as you’re browning each side, and do not crowd the pan. If you crowd the pan, the water doesn’t get a chance to evaporate and the meat ends up steaming and turning gray instead of turning brown and properly developing flavor.
Also, my favorite stewing cut has got to be short ribs. Loaded with flavor and a nice texture, I think these are one of the ideal cuts for stewing. Obvious, chuck, shank, and the like work well, but I think short ribs are a little more flavorful and better textured. Plus, if you don’t like bones, you can get boneless short ribs, too. Oxtails are another one of my favorites.
I like a little spice to my stew (maybe it’s more like pseudo chili) so I throw together the following:
stew meat dredged in flour and browned- set aside
If there is beef liquid still in the pan, I will cook garlic, 1 diced jalapeno and onion to taste for a couple of minutes. I throw this in the crockpot with baby carrots, celery and potatoes. Add beef broth and a can or two of tomatoes mexican style or tomatoes with green chilies. Season as desired- I vary it between more cayenne or chili powder (or both), the occasional bay leaf or extra garlic- whatever I’m in the mood for. Then add the most crucial ingredient… a splash of beer. Cook for the day and sprinkle cheddar cheese in the bowls before serving with bread.
Mm… beef stew.
Mom made some a couple weeks ago, and already I want it again.
Our (general) recipe is dredge the meat in flour and brown (we usually just buy some steaks on sale and cut it up, venison also makes a wonderful stew). Once that is done add water to cover and a little extra with some ketchup (not sure why this one instead of tomato paste or using broth of some kind, but it’s the family recipe so I don’t question… too much ;)) and let simmer for half an hour before adding in potatoes and onions, quartered and rutabagas, parsnips, and carrots cut into nice big chunks. Toss in some thyme and rosemary and let simmer until the veggies are all cooked. If the gravy is a little thin, add some cornstartch slurry and let simmer until thickened.
Serve with homemade bread.
We’ve never had a problem with the potatoes disentegrating or turning mushy. They’re usually nice and tender.
Here is my tip. No matter how you got to your stew, once it is done and ready to serve, add an irresponsible amount of chopped parsley to it. I am not talking a little bit on top as a garnish, I am talking main ingredient here. To my pasta pot, where I normally cook about 3 pounds of beef, I add a large bunch of parsley which fills both my hands together.
It adds a freshness to it that somehow pierces the brownness of stews without damaging it.
If you are feeling doubtful, the good thing is that since it is something you add once it is done, you can try it in one portion and if you don’t like it, then you still have the rest without it, and if you do like it, you can add it to the rest in no time.
Try it.
Water not stock
Potatoes at the end
Yes to flour when browning everything, before adding liquid
No tomato sauce or paste
Garlic is best as whole cloves, just mash them to peel them and throw them in when browning the other veggies. They will disintegrate anyways.
Mushrooms!
Lots of good advise… I guess I just get to second several.
Brown beef but without flour.
Potatos are fine at the start (just cut large chunks).
Small can of V8 (Mom’s secret ingredient).
No way can you use flour at the end… a roux is 100 times better (and won’t taste raw).
I use lots of spices, and like mine a little hot so plenty of crushed red pepper.
I also add a bit of A1 and Worchestershire.
Lots of other good ideas I may try, but it will be hard to do better than my current perfection (one of my favorite things to make)
I’d consider my stew a qualified success.
I used about 3.1 pounds of beef, five medium sized red potatoes, and three large carrots. I threw in half of a medium white onion. (I wound up wishing I’d used more carrots and beef).
I minced 15 cloves of garlic, used some of it while browning the meat (in bacon fat), but mostly tossed it in along with the broth (half chicken borth, half beef stock). There was a about a glass of red wine in there, as well as maybe two teaspoons of tomato paste (man, a little goes a long way). Salt, pepper, lots of Accent (msg). I used I-don’t-know-how-much flour, but it was just enough to bring it not quite up to “thick gravy” consistency. I forgot to use mushrooms, but that’s easily rectified when I reheat some stew for lunch (and dinner) tomorrow.
The meat stewed for three hours, the carrots and potatoes for a little over one, which turned out to be just right. Everything maintained structural integrity, but everything (including the beef) was easy to cut with just a spoon. I purposely made more broth than was needed, and it all went very well with the leftover garlic-parm mashed potatoes.
Thanks much for all the advice; everyone’s posts were helpful in getting my bearings. By all means, lets keep the tips coming.
The only thing I’d add to the suggestions thus far is to drop the potatoes this time. Especially if you are going to be eating a side of garlic mashed. I’d use the stew as the ‘gravy’ on the mashed you already have.
Yeah, there was definitely a potato surplus tonight.
Congrats… it is hard to go wrong with beef stew. I will say that 3.1 pounds of beef makes for a very beefy stew (unless you were making it for a crowd).
Oh, I just can’t get behind this. 3.0 pounds was like mom made. 3.2 was what I learned later. But 3.1 pounds of beef? That’s just communist.
Yes, it improves the flavor. I usually just brown the beef while it’s naked, though. There’s also the option of browning the beef and possibly the onions, carrots, and celery in the oven. This also improves the flavor. I won’t do this when the weather’s warm, though, as turning on the oven adds too much heat to the kitchen.
Someone mentioned Jiffy dumplings. I usually have Bisquick in the house, and so I make their dumplings. Oddly, I really don’t care for biscuits, but I DO like dumplings.
I’ve had stew served OVER cooked rice or noodles. I’ve also read that one should cook the rice or noodles separately, and then add them at serving time, to keep them from getting soggy. I don’t do this, though.
Mushrooms don’t take on water, they already contain water.