How long stew beef

Compare that to two hours for the other cuts I tested except shanks, which also needed three hours. Verdict: Their flavor is hard to beat, and they'll deliver more gelatin to your stew than you'll know what to do with, but it comes at the expense of an extra-long cooking time, low meat yield per pound, and plenty of bone-picking work.

Brisket comes from the breast of a cow and is most often smoked for barbecue and cured to make pastrami, though braising it whole is also popular. It's divided into two parts: the leaner flat or "first cut" and fattier point "second cut" or "deckle".

The lean flat is far easier to find than the point, which is a shame because the point is far juicier and moister, thanks to all that fat in it. For stews, I'd steer clear of the flat, since it'll end up tough and dry, which means that hard-to-find point is what you'd need.

One of the best things about brisket is how cheap it is—at my butcher, it cost less than the chuck. After a couple of hours in the stew pot, it was moist and had a pronounced beef tallow flavor, much more so than the other cuts due to its ample fat. The muscle fibers themselves are thick verging on ropy, which I didn't love in a stew context.

Verdict: The point cut of brisket wins on cost and moistness, but it's otherwise not my favorite, given its ropy muscle fibers. This cut is best known for its use in osso buco , though it traditionally comes from veal in that dish. It's a cross section of the cow's legs, which is why you get that single big bone in the center. Beef shanks aren't usually cheap, and on top of that, you have to account for the fact that a good third of each piece is bone weight though, as a bonus, you get to eat the marrow after!

As you can see in the left-hand photo above, some of the muscles in the shank have more visible threads of connective tissue than others; those lacking them can come out a little on the dry side after long cooking, though overall the meat is pleasantly moist.

Those thicker strands of connective tissue, though, require longer cooking than average—mine took about three hours of simmering to soften up. Verdict: Given the time it takes to cook these, the cost, the bone weight, and the variation in moistness, I'd avoid using shanks for stew meat.

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Measure content performance. Develop and improve products. List of Partners vendors. Pin Share Email. Featured Video. Read More. More Serious Eats Recipes. Your Privacy Rights. Cook beef stew in a slow cooker for really tender meat.

Add button mushrooms or smoked paprika for extra flavour — it will be an instant family favourite. Fry the onion and celery in 1 tbsp oil over a low heat until they start to soften — about 5 mins.

Clean out the frying pan and fry the beef in the remaining oil in batches until it is well browned, then tip each batch into the slow cooker. Cook on low for hrs, or on high for 4 hrs. If you want to thicken the gravy, mix the cornflour with a splash of cold water to make a paste, then stir in 2 tbsp of the liquid from the slow cooker.

Tip back into the slow cooker, stir and cook for a further 30 mins on high. Stir in the parsley and season again to taste. Serve with mash, if you like. Leave to cool before freezing. Try more slow-cooker recipe inspiration from our sister title olivemagazine. Subscriber club Reader offers More Good Food.

Back to Recipes Pumpkin recipes Butternut squash See more. We respectfully disagree. There's no rule that beef stew needs a thickening agent. In fact, many recipes skip it, not just ours. Wine adds a layer of rich complex flavor to your stew. If you don't have any leftover cooking wine on hand, your stew will be delicious without it—just sub in more beef stock! For cooking. For drinking So yes, that half glass of Pinot from September will work just fine.

Have more leftover wine burning a hole in your fridge? Make our red wine poke cake! This recipe makes amazing leftovers.

And yes, you can make it ahead! Cook all the way through step 6, then cool the stew to room temperature before refrigerating in a resealable container. Before serving, reheat in a large pot over medium-low heat. While beef stew is a perfect meal all onto itself we also love beef stew served in the most classic way, over some al dente egg noodles.

Want something a little heartier? Try ladling a bit of stew over some garlic mash. Something untraditional? Make a beef stew sandwich with homemade bread! This stew also freezes well! This beef stew can last up to 3 months in the freezer. Made this? Let us know how it went in the comment section below!