Cooking & Baking
Related: About this forumGood grief, what have I done!
When the cold weather hits I always feel the need to make beef stew. Have been doing it for years. Nothing fancy, just a basic stew.
Well, today it is 22 degrees and the urge hit.
I have always made a stew in a very simple manner, using no real extras. Today i decided to use beef broth rather than water after browning the beef. Did all the veggies, it has been simmering for hours. Just tasted it. Yuck. What the heck is in beef broth that is so foreign to a stew?
I used Swanson's. I use their chicken broth all the time(low sodium) but never used the beef broth before. I thought it might enhance the flavor. Never again.
I guess the easy way out is not always the best way. I can't afford to dump this but I sure am not anxious to eat it.
TygrBright
(20,761 posts)Occasionally I use 1/2 and 1/2 chicken stock and water for my beef stew, sometimes I use a little red wine to deglaze the pan after browning the cubes, but that's it.
I tried several times with beef broth, bouillon, etcetera and it just made the flavor bomb out, muddy and undistinguished.
You may be able to rescue this batch a trifle with a few drops of "Kitchen Bouquet" but yeah, just chalk it up to experience.
commiseratively,
Bright
PennyK
(2,302 posts)I always use Knorr Bullion Cubes (beef for beef stew)and water, and I've never had a problem. I also add a bit of red wine, a tablespoon of tomato sauce, and a little bit of Worcestershire sauce. Comes out great.
Paper Roses
(7,473 posts)I'm going to add it now, can only make it better. Wish I had some tomato sauce on hand, it might help.
Always appreciate tips like this. Since I am alone and tend to be a simple cook, mistakes like this hit not only the stomach but the wallet. I always try to cook things that will serve for dinner and will freeze in individual portions. I don't look forward to freezing this stuff. Maybe the w/s sauce will improve things because this is a batch that I planned to make into at least 3 meals.
Warpy
(111,273 posts)It will still taste like stew beef and vegetables with only a hint of nasty canned beef stock.
You might cook some cabbage and add that and call it a boiled dinner. Cabbage always adds something to meat, onions, carrots, and potatoes.
I know I tried beef cubes back in the dark ages when I was first learning how to cook and swore never again, I won't have them in the house. Yuck. I think I ended up washing a stew that time.
The empressof all
(29,098 posts)I substitute with vegetable stock or use a bit of better than bouillion mixed with water The beef stocks are all way too salty as well so if you do use them even the bouillion you shouldn't add salt in the cooking. They taste a little better if you cut it with some tomato...but still....
PADemD
(4,482 posts)We are careful when buying Swanson's beef or chicken broth, and even bouillon cubes, to make sure they contain no MSG. Also, make sure that the broth does not contain Carrageenan.
fadedrose
(10,044 posts)I spoiled creamed chicken in the crockpot (not that bad, but not as good as without the chicken broth)...
We ate it, but when it came time to eat the leftovers, it bothered me that that dumb broth ruined a wonderful dish (as far as I was concerned).
So I washed it in plain water, rinsed it many times to get rid of spices and salt, and gave it to the dog. She loved it.
Fortinbras Armstrong
(4,473 posts)From his The Supper of the Lamb. I have made a half-batch of it. Once, since it took two days. It was wonderful.
10 to 15 pounds meat scraps, bones and fat
2 large onions, sliced
2 large carrots, peeled and sliced
2 large ribs celery, cut up
6 sprigs parsley
⅛ teaspoon thyme
¼ teaspoon savory
2 bay leaves
12 whole peppercorns
Cold water
Use any and all bones and scraps, fat or lean, cooked or raw, from beef, veal, chicken or pork. Beef should predominate, and knuckle bones yield lots of gelatin, but you can achieve decent meat glaze with 15 pounds of almost anything. Do not, however, use cured meats (too salty), lamb (too strong), smoked meats (too pronounced) or (as far as I'm concerned) even turkey (duck and goose are all right). It is possible, of course, to go out and buy 15 pounds of beef and veal bones and make superb meat glaze. But it is unnecessary. Simply keep a meat glaze scrap bag in your freezer and add all relevant leavings until you have accumulated enough for a batch.
DAY I
Rinse the bones and scraps, put them in a roasting pan and roast them at 375 degrees for an hour or so, turning them over occasionally to brown on all sides. Add the onions and carrots and roast a half hour more, or until they, too, are brown (but not black).
Transfer the contents from the roasting pan to a large stockpot (about 20 quarts). Rinse the pan carefully several times. Scraping to loosen the caramelized particles. Add the water from each rinsing to the stockpot. Then add all the remaining ingredients and cover everything with cold water to a depth of one inch. Do not add any salt.
Cover the stockpot, bring it to a boil slowly, reduce it to a simmer and cook it for 4 hours. At the end, strain off the broth into a deep pot (about 12 quarts), using a chinois or an ordinary strainer lined with damp cheesecloth. Cool quickly and refrigerate overnight. Discard the solids - or feed them to the dogs.
DAY II
In the morning, remove the hardened cake of fat from the top of the broth, leaving no particles behind. Discard the fat, or save it for frying.
Bring the broth to a boil and boil it down, uncovered, over high heat until it is reduced to about a pint of viscous, brown syrup. Depending on your stove, the process will take from one to two hours, approximately. In boiling down the broth, you will find that it goes through four stages. In the first, it simply bubbles at its own level like any other soup. In the second, however, it becomes viscous enough to make a ''head'' of fine froth that will rise precipitately and possibly overflow the pot. During this stage, therefore, keep an eye on it. The third stage is reached when the broth becomes more viscous still and makes rather larger bubbles that do not rise so high. And in the last stage, the ''head'' disappears, the bubbles become very viscous indeed, and the danger of boiling over is replaced by the danger of boiling dry. Needless to say, through all the stages, the level of the liquid goes down, the salinity goes up, the color deepens and the flavor grows more rich.
Pour the syrup into a clean ice cube tray (with the dividers removed) and put in the refrigerator, not the freezer, for six hours or more.
Remove the meat glaze from the tray by prying up one end and pulling it out (it will come away cleanly). Cut it into three strips lengthwise and into cubes crosswise. Bag the cubes in plastic and store them in the freezer till needed.
OffWithTheirHeads
(10,337 posts)I've tried both methods and the Amazon one is just as good without spending two days in the kitchen.
grasswire
(50,130 posts)I think the issue for you, PR, is that your stew is a simple Yankee stew like my grandmother used to make in Connecticut. And most "flavorings" have something else in them that is foreign to the taste. The same thing happened to me when making swiss steak. Even though Better Than Bouillon is made from beef itself, and delicious in chili and other dishes, it was just foreign in my swiss steak.
Paper Roses
(7,473 posts)I'd love to make it. I ate the stew last might, it was awful. Too salty and of the wrong flavor. Tomorrow I'm going to rinse the leftovers and see what I can make from the veggies and meat only. Never again will I use beef broth. No cubes, no cans. I have always make a good, simple stew. Never had this happen before. So much for my 'short cut'. I tried 'Better than Bouillon' once and threw away the jar. Did not like it at all.
MerryBlooms
(11,770 posts)I freeze my leftover broth when I make Italian beef and add some to the water for my stew and beef/veg soup, and that's worked well for us.