So, I followed a direction for stew last night. Floured the meat, browned it, added veggies, broth, splash of red wine, cooked it in the slow cooker for hours. It turned out okay, but watery. I really want a think, hearty stew.
What are the tricks?
It sounds like you did everything right, but heartyness is a personal thing.
Make a roux with 1 Tsp Flour and 1 Tsp Oil. Cook to a light brown. Add half of the stew liquid to that. Simmer to your desired consistently, then add back to the stew.
Thicken it some more. After the stew is more or less done, mix some corn starch and water in separate bowl and get all (most) of the lumps out. Add to stew, leave the lid off and the heat on very low, after about 10 minutes the stew will have thickened. If it’s not thick enough keep adding until it gets to your liking.
You can use flour if you don’t have corn starch, but make sure you give it about 20 minutes to cook after adding it to get rid of the bitter flavor that the flour can add.
Bones. You want bones. For a beef stew, buy a bone-in chuck roast. You can make a pot roast, and then make a stew from the leftovers. SAVE all the drippings and all the bones. Simmer them, with the cut and trimmed meat.
Or you can skip the pot roast, and go directly to stew. Flour and brown the whole chunk, and let simmer for a while with the aromatics. When it’s falling apart, take it out and let cool. While it’s cooling, use a degreaser to remove most of the fat from the broth. Use this grease to make a roux, which you stir back into the defatted stock. Now that the beef is somewhat cool, shred it and remove the chunks of fat. Feed to dog, if you have one. Put the shredded beef and the bone back into the soup pot. The aromatic veggies have nobly sacrificed themselves to flavor the stock, so remove them and put in fresh veggies.
I also pour in a single serving can of V8 at the end of the cooking time.
Serve with fresh rolls or biscuits.
Yep, a roux (dbx820’s suggestion) or slurry (Joey P’s advice) are all you need. Personally, I prefer flour to corn starch (corn starch gives the stew a glossy sheen I don’t like), but both work fine.
Usually, ten minutes is enough time to get the raw flour taste out.
I like to add a can of pumpkin. You don’t really taste any pumpkin flavor, it just thickens everything up. I do the same with chili. Nobody even notices.
IME, you added too much liquid.
It took me the longest time to get my stew to come out thick and properly stew-y. Because I always added too much liquid, because I was afraid it would burn.
I think your problem is the crockpot. Because they retain liquid so well, you’re going to have to barely add any at all. Either that, or take the lid off and crank it up towards the end to get some of the water out.
You can add thickener, as suggested. Personally, I’d go for a roux. Or just use more flour in the beginning, it’s basically the same thing. While cornstarch is a lovely thing for some sauces, it’s just not gonna give the right texture in a stew.
But I never could get enough thickener in until I quit putting too much liquid in to start with.
I use corn starch with chili if needed, but for beef stew, I usually go with mashed potato flakes. Same effect, but I think it fits better with the rest of the dish.
Or of course you can just put in more solid potatoes to begin with, but I’ve yet to get that quite right.
That’s true. Depending on the type of stew you’re making, you might not need much liquid at all. Beef and veggies (especially onions) throw off a lot of liquid. I literally add no more than 1/2 cup of liquid to most of my standard stews, and that’s to keep it from burning in the beginning. When it comes to stews like beef bourguignon or carbonnade, though, there’s more liquid. You can make a rich stew either way.
You’ve got 2 options as pointed out above.
Thickening with a starch like flour wether in a slurry or roux, OR a LONG slow simmer with plenty of bones to get the collegen to slowly dissolve into the liquid.
The first method is easier and quicker and can be done at the end of the cooking process.
The latter method gives a distincly rich mouth feel and taste and is the traditional method for making reductions like demi glace. It is however more time consuming as the bones must simmer slowly for a good bit of time.
It depends on how much time you have really and how dedicated you are.
Slow cooker recipes often use some tapioca to thicken. You just toss in a couple of tablespoons of Minute tapioca. No pre-cooking of roux necessary. The little fish-eyes break down and thicken the gravy. I personally prefer flour as a thickener, but tapioca is simple. If I’m using flour, I just shake up some water and flour in a jar and pour it in near the end.
That’s what I do.
Excellent point. Everything in the stew is going to be releasing liquid, so go easy on the front end.
In addition to the bones suggestion:
Put in a few extra hunks of carrot and potato. When it’s just about done, take them out and blend on high until creamy. Add back to stew.
If nothing else works, add potato starch to thicken. A very little goes a long way, and it doesn’t change the flavor or make it gluey like corn starch or raw flour. Of course, the ultimate for both flavor and consistency is a good roux, but it needs to be a nice brown one or it will take away the rich flavor. A nice brown roux take s while and is an awful lot of stirring.
You can actually do it in the microwave with or without oil. Not that hard, and doesn’t require the same amount of constant attention and stirring as a stovetop roux.
I concur with all the recommendations for a nice, dark roux. If you’re looking for substantial thickening, though, I’d suggest making a bit more than dbx820 describes, and cooking it darker. When preparing a roux for stew, I cook it until it’s about the color of milk chocolate* before adding liquid, and I add it to the stew very early.
*If you go for a roux this dark, you must stir it constantly until you add liquid. It’s very easy to burn it, which is an awful mess.
I go the slurry route myself. Might try a roux next time to see if it’s any better.
Oh and I have plans to try some of the recipes at the Inn at the Crossroads blog - here’s their take on a King’s Landing Bowl of Brown
Use double the amount of beef that you think you will need. Use both types of potatoes, waxy ones to stay in chunks cut large, and mealy potatoes to dissolve and thicken cut small. Do not use that much liquid, unless it is a set and forget/go to work just check it every couple hours and add water if it looks like it is going dry. Salt at the end not the beginning. Add a bay leaf, it is the forgotten herb.
[Let me add that shorting the stew on herbs and beef is why it tastes wishy washy and you need to add nastyassed bouillion cube shit. If you want it to be really incredible, toss in a few beef short ribs to the stew to add their lovely lovely marrow to the mix, and some veal knuckles for the gelatin that will extract from the cartillage of the joints.]
If I put potato chunks into the pot in the beginning, they usually melt into the stew (if I want them to stay chunks I have to put them in later).
I also like adding a flour/butter roux in - adds a lovely richness. Butter makes everything better.
I’ll coat the meat with oil and and a heavy layer flour and brown it all around before putting in the crock pot, and then I don’t add any liquid. The veggies can be dredged and browned in the same manner. Plenty of juices will come out of the meat and vegetables. The browned flour coating will soften up and thicken the liquid in the end. If I don’t have time for the browning, I’ll just make a roux and stir it in with the vegetables. If I don’t have time for that I’ll just end up with a thin stew. It’s still good.
Speaking of herbs–summer savory is a most excellent addition to a beef stew.