Beef Stew- Meat Always Ends Up Dry, Help Please?

Question

I am such an amateur.

The beef stew recipes always call for cooking the meat for an hour and a half to two hours, or "until meat is tender". The meat never seems to get to "tender", just directly goes to dry & hard. Yes I have tried shortening the cooking time before.

This is regular stew meat that is already in one inch cubes.

Help a lady in culinary distress?

Answer 1

Next time, you could try buying a different cut of meat and cubing it yourself. Ask your butcher, he knows. ALso the cooking time for tender meat has to be long, really long. Have you ever cooked in a pressure cooker? that would work for sure. Make your stew and put it in the pressure cooker, close the lid and when it starts to fizzle, count 45 minutes and voila! you have tender meat. You can also do it slowly in a crock pot. Make your stew and put in crock pot when you go to bed, at a low setting. Come morning you'll wake up to tender delicious stew.

Answer 2

Browning the meat first definitely helps on a number of levels - looks, taste and texture. Just brown in a little vegetable or canola oil until browned on all sides. You may have to do this in batches, because you don't want to crowd the pan - if you do that, the meat will not brown like it should. There is no need to mess with the flour-I gave that up years ago and never noticed the difference. Once the meat is browned add your stock, a little wine if you'd like, some onions, and garlic and simmer on the stove covered for about 1 1/2 hours. Be careful not to boil the meat - this can make it tough and dry.

Add your chopped veggies and potatoes, taking care not to cut them too small or they will become mushy. Continue to simmer for another hour or until veggies are tender. You can modify this by, after browning the meat, doing it in a crockpot on low for about 8 hours - add veggies the last 3 - or in a 300F oven for about 3, adding the veggies after 1 1/2.

Answer 3

Chances are you are cooking the stew at too high a temperature.



Stews should be brought to the boil and then the heat reduced to a slooooooow simmer. Make sure there is enough liquid and add stock or water if it gets too dry.



You cannot spoil a stew by simmering it for five hours or more, as long as you make sure there is enough moisture there. If you have enough patience you can make elephant meat as tender as veal.

Answer 4

Some people put them in the beginning, during the cooking process, and even in the end. As for me, I would put salt when the stew is finished, or at the end of the cooking process. Reason for this is that it depends on the ingredients that you will be putting in. Some ingredients are naturally salty and the flavour will be extracted into the stew, and soy sauce is quite salty in a way ^_^. If I did put the salt in the beginning of the cooking process and then add my other ingredients and sauces after that, the stew might become too salty and I will have to add water so that it wouldn't be too salty. Hope this helps!

Answer 5

I cook my stew on low heat, 275 degrees for 4 hours and the meat is very tender. Here's my recipe:

Layer in large casserole dish with lid:

2# beef stew meet, cut in 1" cubes

1 onion, sliced

2-3 ribs celery, cut in pieces

6 or more carrots, cut in pieces



Blend together and sprinkle over meat/veggies:

1-2 tsp salt

1 tsp sugar

2 TBS tapioca



Add a layer of 5 peeled potatoes, cut in 1" cubes



Combine 2 Cups tomato juice and 1 cup beef broth and pour over potato layer. Cover and bake at 275 for 4 hours.



Do not stir during the baking process. Let sit a few minutes when removing from oven and gently stir together.



Enjoy!

Answer 6

Don't brown the meat first.



Lower your cooking temp, or use a crock pot so that you let it cook for 4-6 hours.



I'm not sure how it could get DRY. Tough, maybe, but dry is hard to picture. You should be using atleast 2 cans of beef broth or water per 1 pound of stew meat.

Answer 7

Hi, try rolling the beef pieces in flour and browning them gently in a bit of olive oil. Chop up an onion and add, saute a few minutes, stirring it around then cover with water (or broth), and bring to a gentle boil and add your other vegetables. Stew does take at least two hours, (may have to add more liquid). For some reason it's usually better when reheated or the next day. (refrigerate overnight).

Answer 8

You should dredge the meat in flour and brown it in bacon grease or vegetable oil on fairly high heat to sear and brown it on all sides. Then add the rest of your stew ingredients, bring boil, reduce heat and simmer for 1 1/2 - 2 hours. It sounds like you may be "browning" the beef for 2 hours and that sure won't do it!



Bert

Answer 9

add the meat to the stew raw if this is homemade stew then it needs several hours to cook and the meat cooked from the raw stage is always tender plus it helps the soup get the flavor of the meat through out the stew.

Answer 10

Coat the meat in either corn starch or flour first. Brown the meat in some olive oil and then add your liquids and veggies. Cook as directed. Meat will never dry out if you have enough liquid in pot. When finished eat. If too thin add a roux. Enjoy

Answer 11

I cook my beef stew in the crock pot with Lipton dry onion soup. I also slice some onions in there with it. My family loves it over rice. It's delicious!!! Good Luck!