[Sca-cooks] OOP - help my stews!

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

On Nov 13, 2010, at 10:29 PM, Amy Cooper wrote:

> 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

One thing that comes to mind is that the beef may had enough time to begin to go a bit off on low heat. Not a definite, but a possibility to consider. You might also look at the rosemary; maybe it's not a quantity designed to be cooked for so long?

Adamantius  





"Most men worry about their own bellies, and other people's souls, when we all ought to worry about our own souls, and other people's bellies."
			-- Rabbi Israel Salanter