[Sca-cooks] OOP - help my stews!

Kingstaste kingstaste at comcast.net
Sat Nov 13 20:33:00 PST 2010


I think skipping the step of searing the meat is the reason you have dry
meat.  Searing keeps the juices in so that it doesn't dry out.  It may seem
like cooking in water would keep it moist, but not so. 
Not sure why it would be bitter, unless your garlic powder had some
bitterness to it.  
Some fat would probably help out, if you make your flour paste with oil,
even cook it some into a roux (use one pan to sear the meat, then cook your
roux in the same pan, keeps all the meat flavors and doesn't create more
than one extra pan to clean).  
Sorry it isn't as wonderful as it smelled!
Christianna

-----Original Message-----
From: sca-cooks-bounces+kingstaste=comcast.net at lists.ansteorra.org
[mailto:sca-cooks-bounces+kingstaste=comcast.net at lists.ansteorra.org] On
Behalf Of Amy Cooper
Sent: Saturday, November 13, 2010 10:30 PM
To: Cooks within the SCA
Subject: [Sca-cooks] OOP - help my stews!

So today I made a crockpot stew, and yet again, I'm highly
disappointed in how it tastes. There's a bitter edge, and I always
find that with my stews, plus I find the beef isn't really moist. It
falls apart, but feels dry to eat. I'll list my ingredients below -
then can ya'll tell me what I'm doing wrong?

Stew beef (30% off club pack)
flour
water
fresh white button mushrooms
frozen baby carrots (put in frozen)
garlic powder (forgot the real garlic and onion this time)
pinch of dried rosemary
half a small bag of skin on random baby potatoes - some red, some
blue, some yukon gold

The flour was in a slurry with some of the water - maybe 3 heaping TB?

This all cooked in the crockpot for about 5 or 6 hours on low, and a
little while on high. I did NOT brown the beef first - this was to be
quick and easy, and not generate lots of pans to wash *sigh*.

So it tastes icky - even my adventurous baby didn't want much for
dinner. Smelled GREAT while cooking, but just doesn't taste right....

Thanks - I HATE wasting ingredients like this :-(

Ilsebet
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