Spices for beef stew

Cafe Society
1

I made a nice crock pot beef stew last week, and I did think it was yummalicious. I seasoned it with mostly rosemary, plus some pepper and thyme. Here is the recipe if you are curious:

However, I could not help but think that the whole thing would be more savory and tasty if I had a better sense of spices- I just don’t seem to have the imagination for that. That’s where you come in. Tell me a better way to season this and you will earn my gratitude.

I go shopping tonight, around 8. Please hurry, dopers, you’re my only hope!

2

You actually mentioned all the spices I would have. They only thing missing is a bay leaf (ETA: which is in the recipe). I don’t think you need much more than that. If it’s not savory enough, it’s the quality and quantify of the stock you’re using, the amount of salt you’re using, etc. Usually salt. And a bouillon cube will always really pep things up. For regular beef stew, I don’t want any flavors besides salt, pepper, and rosemary/thyme/bay leaf.

If you’re really into something more aromatic, look up recipes for Jamaican beef stews. This might be more up your alley. Or try adding a hefty bit of curry powder into the stew, but then you’ll get something more curry-ish.

For me, though, honestly, I just kick in a bouillon cube, because it’s got the salt and MSG and general spices to kick it up a notch. If MSG scares you, just add a bit of Marmite, fish sauce, or anchovies. Or, if I want to be “pure” about it, I reduce the liquid by cooking more and make sure I have enough salt in it. Bland means lack of salt to me most of the time.

3

You said crockpot so I understand if this is more work than you’re looking for but I found my stews really shot up in terms of flavor and savoriness when I stopped using a crockpot and switched to a dutch oven. I brown the meat in the d.o. and some butter and then set it aside. Diced onions and a bit of butter go in next and once they are soft and translucent, I add a couple tbs. of flour. and another knob of butter. Cook out the flour for a few minutes to get something sort of roux-y. Add your stock, your spices and herbs and the meat back in. (I also add a shake or two of Accent aka MSG at this point.) Cover and let simmer for at least an hour. Add your chopped potatoes, carrots, celery, etc and cook for another hour.

Crockpot stews are always blander if the meat lacks that initial browning and letting the stock, spices and meat simmer together by themselves before you add the vegetables really lets the gravy develop, in my opinion.

tl;dr: I’m guessing you lack umami. Brown your meat more or add soy sauce, miso paste, marmite, or something else that’s got a lot of MSG in it.

4

That’s kind of what I’d do with a beef stew. Maybe not curry, per se, but cayenne power, smoked paprika, loads of cumin, hot sauce, etc.

5

Also, the thing missing from the recipe you linked that REALLY makes beef stew great, is browning. A lot of flavor in traditionally cooked beef stew comes from browning the meat (and onions), getting that Maillard reaction and caramelization, deglazing, and going on with your day. But you’re not going to get that with a “throw everything in a pot and walk away for eight hours” type of crockpot recipe. You can do it in a separate cooking vessel, if you wish, and then just dump everything into the crockpot. But a lot of that savoriness you desire is from those cooking reactions, not really herbs and spices.

ETA: Looks like Inner Stickler beat me to it.

6

Drop the “cooking red wine” and use real red wine. I made beef stew this Tuesday. I marinated the beef for a few hours in a cup of red wine, a heaping tablespoon of minced garlic, bay leaf, thyme, cumin and some rosemary.

Lightly floured the marinated beef and browned in a stew pot. Took 'em out and put onions, peppers and (more) chopped garlic in the pot to soften them. Once softened I added about a quarter teaspoon each of the above dried spices plus some paprika, salt and pepper to the pot and mixed that up with the sauteing veggies until it was smelling lovely. And then I dumped all the other stuff in the pot.

Also added to the pot (along with the beef broth), the marinade with two tablespoons of corn starch mixed in good.

Dunno how that’s gonna help you with your crock pot stew though.

7

Agree that a crock pot is NOT the best place to make a stew, but if you must I say bump up the onions and garlic by a LOT. One measly onion and a teaspoon or two of minced garlic is pitiful. I did a crockpot pork stew recently and I thin sliced about four onions, six or seven cloves of garlic (chunked, not minced) and used a bottle of stout for the liquid and it had flavor and to spare, even without the meat being browned. I put it over mashed potatoes and it was amazing.

8

I may be a bit weird, but I find that a lot of beef stew recipes wouldn’t mind a little bit of curry powder added. Not too much because you don’t want it to be overwhelming.

9

I get a lot of compliments on my beef stew. Here’s the recipe. You can use it as a guidepost for your own efforts, if you like. Another vote for No Crock Pot.

Hearty Beef Stew with Potatoes, Carrots and Peas

3 pounds beef chuck, cut into 1 1/2-inch cubes, or about 4 1/2 pounds beef shank, meat removed from bone and cut into 1 1/2-inch cubes
salt
ground black pepper
2-3 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 medium-large onions, chopped (2 cups)
3 garlic cloves, minced
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 cup full-bodied red wine (Cabernet Sauvignon, Côtes du Rhône, Zinfandel, Shiraz or Barolo)
2-4 TB tomato paste
2 cups homemade or canned beef broth
2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
3-4 cubed potatoes
4 large carrots, peeled and sliced 1/4 inch thick
1 cup (6 ounces) frozen peas, thawed
1/4 cup minced fresh parsley leaves

Preheat oven to 200°F. Heat 2 tablespoons oil over medium-high heat in a large nonreactive soup kettle or large (5 qt.) saucepan. Add meat to pan in two batches. Sprinkle with 1 1/2 teaspoons salt and 1 teaspoon pepper, divided between batches. Brown meat on all sides, about 5 minutes per batch, adding an additional 1 tablespoon oil if necessary.

Add onions to pot and sauté until almost softened, 4 to 5 minutes. Reduce heat to medium and add garlic. Continue to sauté for about 30 seconds longer. Stir in flour and cook until lightly colored, 1 to 2 minutes. Stir in wine, scraping up any browned bits that may have stuck to pan. Add broth, tomato paste, bay leaves and thyme. Bring to simmer.

Cover and place in oven, and simmer until meat is just tender, 1 1/2 to 2 hours. (Stew can be cooled at this point, covered and refrigerated up to 3 days.)

Add potatoes and carrots to stew. Return to oven, cover and cook for an additional hour. Stir in peas and parsley, remove bay leaves, adjust seasonings and serve.

Serves 6 to 8.

10

Sure. For an Eastern/Central European flavor, you can also drop the thyme and rosemary, and play with caraway, marjoram, and paprika (along with black pepper). It really depends what you’re going for. The spices/herbs really should be the “accents” and character, and the stew itself should provide all the savoriness.

I’m always wary of advising people to just start emptying the cupboard of spices into the stew (this is not directed at you, but rather the OP) when something isn’t quite as flavorful as they want it to be. Most of the time, that lack of flavor has nothing to do with how many spices you have in the dish. You should be able to make a great, kick-ass beef stew with nothing but salt and pepper as your spices/herbs. And maybe not even the pepper. I know this, because that was always my first instinct when I started cooking. If it’s not tasty enough, it must be the spicing. It sometimes is that, but more often than not, it’s not. Be glad you never tasted my early spaghetti sauces. These days, it’s just tomatoes, garlic or onion, olive oil, salt, pepper, maybe some pepper flakes, maybe a little bit of oregano, and it’s perfect (for me). I can’t believe what I used to put in spaghetti sauce back in the day.

11

I posted this one before. Found it online some time ago. It’s lengthy, but worth every minute, as it’s amazing.

• 4 cups homemade or store-bought low-sodium chicken stock (950mL)
• 4 packets powdered unflavored gelatin (1 ounce; 30g)
• 3 tablespoons tomato paste (2.5 ounces; 75g)
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce (15ml)
• 3 oil- or salt-packed anchovy filets, rinsed (or 1 tablespoon Asian fish sauce)
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce (15ml)
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 3 pounds (1.25kg) whole boneless beef chuck roast, cut into 3 steaks
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 10 ounces white button mushroom, quartered
• 4 medium carrots (10 ounces; 275g), 2 left whole, 2 cut into bite-sized pieces
• 8 ounces frozen or fresh pearl onions (thawed if frozen, peeled if fresh) (225g)
• 1 large yellow onion, unpeeled, split in half (10 ounces; 275g)
• 2 small stalks celery (3 ounces; 85g)
• 3 medium cloves garlic, unpeeled
• 1 cup sherry, dry vermouth, or red wine (8 ounces; 235mL)
• 2 tablespoons flour (about 3/4 ounces 20g)
• 2 bay leaves
• 4 sprigs thyme
• 1 pound Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and cubed (450g)
• 4 ounces frozen peas

DIRECTIONS

  1. Combine stock, gelatin, tomato paste, soy sauce, anchovies, and Worcestershire sauce in a blender and blend on high speed until homogenous. Set aside.
  2. Adjust oven rack to lower position and preheat oven to 300°F. In a large Dutch oven, heat oil over medium-high heat until shimmering. Season beef all over with salt and pepper and add to Dutch oven. Cook, turning occasionally, until beef is well browned on 2 sides, about 10 minutes. Transfer beef to a rimmed baking sheet or large plate and set aside.
  3. Add mushrooms to Dutch oven and cook, stirring, until liquid is released and mushrooms begin to brown, about 6 minutes, lowering heat as necessary to prevent scorching. Add diced carrots and pearl onions and cook, stirring, until well-browned on all sides. Season to taste with salt and pepper then transfer to a bowl and set aside.
  4. Add halved yellow onion to Dutch oven, cut-side-down. Add whole carrots, celery sticks, and garlic. Cook, turning carrots, celery, and garlic occasionally until all the vegetables are well-browned, about 4 minutes.
  5. Add wine or sherry, scrape up browned bits with a wooden spoon, and cook until reduced by 3/4, about 3 minutes. Add broth mixture and bring to a simmer. Remove from heat.
  6. Cut seared steaks into 1 1/2- to 2-inch chunks and transfer to a large bowl. Toss with flour. Add beef and any juices accumulated in the tray or plate to the Dutch oven along with bay leaves and thyme sprigs. Stir to combine and return to a simmer over medium heat. Transfer to oven, cover with lid partially open, and cook until beef is starting to become tender, about 1 hour 30 minutes. Liquid should be at a slow, steady simmer the entire time. Adjust oven temperature if necessary during cooking.
  7. Remove stew from oven. Using tongs, fish out and discard carrot, celery, thyme, bay leaves, onion, and garlic. Add potatoes and reserved sautéed mushroom, pearl onions, and carrots to stew, return to oven, and continue to cook, partially covered, until beef, potatoes, and carrots are tender and broth has thickened, 45 minutes to 1 hour.
  8. Remove stew from oven. If necessary, place over a burner and simmer for up to 15 minutes to reduce to desired consistency. Stir in peas. Season to taste with salt and pepper if necessary. Serve immediately, or let cool overnight or for up to 5 days and reheat to serve.
12

As others have said, always brown the meat in a frying pan before putting it into the crockpot.

After that, my recipe is pretty simple: beef, potatoes, pre-chopped mirepoix (because I’m lazy), tomato paste, and red wine. For spices, I add this.

13

Needs either Worcestershire or an anchovy or two. Plus more garlic.

14

And lamb is much more flavorful than beef, to my mind. My stew recipe for beef or lamb uses cheap red wine as the only liquid and it comes out really good. Then again, I seal the hell out of the pot I cook it in and bake it in the oven rather than using the crock pot.

15

Woah. Have you made that? That looks amazing. The hot peppers make it not very child-friendly, but my kids won’t eat my beef stew anyway, so that shouldn’t stop me.

16

Mine wouldn’t either, but I sucked at making stew way back then. Nasty, tough pieces of meat and over-cooked carrots.

17

A couple bay leaves and a few dashes of Worchestershire sauce jazz up my stew!

18

Not that one. That’s just one I pulled up as an example, as it was a slow-cooker recipe.

This is the one I make. It’s the oxtail stew (and it’s got a bit of curry powder in it) with butter beans/lima beans, and it’s heavenly. You can sub chuck or shank for the oxtails if you want.

19

Ah, yes, that’s the other thing (and it’s mentioned in your recipe). Another reason I don’t like the “throw a whole bunch of stuff in the crockpot and wait 8 hours” types of recipes is that different ingredients cook at different rates. I usually throw in my vegetables for the stew some time in the last hour of cooking, so they don’t turn to complete mush.

I mean, I understand the convenience, and many, many people don’t seem to mind it, but if you want to take your stew up a notch, you do your meat, onion, garlic, spices, stewy part first, then add your root vegetables once the meat has almost softened until the veggies are done. For me, who does it on the stovetop, that timing might be 2-3 hours for the meat (just taste the meat–it varies), and then another 45 minutes or so for the veggies.

20

Just popping in to say I agree with everyone telling you to brown the meat. Fond is just amazing. I have a lamb mushroom stew(ish) recipe where all the “gravy” consists of fond, via repeated deglazing. It works with beef too (but not in a crock pot), by the way.