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Sealing the meat helps to stop it tasting dry if oven cooked for a long time.
Whatever you do cook it on day 1 and eat it on day 2.
It will continue to 'cook' overnight and will be very tender and taste ossum!
Rubbish.
No it isnt rubbish. I think in my 15 years working as a butcher I've boned out tens of thousands of houghs. So I reckon I know the anatomy of one.
The achilles tendon runs right up the middle of it, and from that you can see that to attach directly to the bone the tendon needs to flatten and spread out gaining as much areas within the muscle as possible to retain its strength given the strain it will be under as the animal walks about.
Shin of beef, or Hough as we call it in Scotland, is a strong working muscle made up of muscle(flesh/meat) inter layered with connective tissue The shin/hough needs those ligaments to support the animals weight.
We sold it as a boiling cut for soup, or straight into sausagemeat. Can be used for mince, but you need to try to remove as much of the connective tissue/ligaments as possible. Far easier to chop it up and turn it into sausage meat to add flavour.
Perhaps in some households you used it for stew being a very cheap cut, but the wars over mate 😆
Perhaps in some households you used it for stew being a very cheap cut, but the wars over mate
There has undoubtedly been a long period since WWII during which "cheaper cuts" were derided and there was a move towards "aspirational" dishes - sirloin, fillet, etc. More recently the value of using the appropriate cuts for the dish has, I think, reestablished itself. I can't match your 50 years of butchery, merely 50 years of cooking so I won't question your knowledge and experience.
Nice thread. Good ideas and of course it wouldn't be this place without a bit of debate.
I bought some diced venison this week for a stew according to the recipe my mum used. Involves red onions celery red wine, carrots, bay leaves, tomato puree.
Celeriac is always a good addition to a stew. Mary Berry does a nice beef, celeriac and horseradish one.
In fact that’s Sunday for us !
Sweet potato, goes to mush but does thicken nicely and add depth.
Boiling the meat! In water! Sounds like school dinners to me!
Edit. Costco used to do great Scotch Venison.
Celeriac is always a good addition to a stew.
I had a bit of left over fennel in the fridge which went in with the beef short ribs I just did. Very nice.
Plus one for shin,the connective tissue when it goes gelatinous is the best bit and boiling in water WTaf?!
Garlic in almost everything I cook. Bloody love the stuff and good for you.
Celeriac and sweet potato - definitely but not in the stew; boil them then mash with milk, butter and black pepper.
Be adventurous - add some carrot for a threeway mash!
and baby turnips if you can get hold of them. Brisket is a good choice if cooked long enough, very flavoursome.
Vote for dumplings Ideal to soak up a bit of that gravy.
Keep everyone happy - dumplings and four way mash (my celeriac, sweet potato and carrot plus Bill's baby turnips) or threeway with baby neeps on the side.
I've just eaten and am now feeling hungry again!
Another vote for shin of beef, but it does need a long slow cook.
Dust it with seasoned flour, fry in batches in oil and butter, set aside. Fry chopped onions until soft, put the meat back and pour over a bottle of ale. Scrape the good stuff off the bottom of the pan, bring to the gentlest simmer, and leave it for a couple of hours. Add root veg of choice then cook for another hour. Check the seasoning and ideally eat the next day as the flavour improves if left overnight.
Some great recipes up there but if you want stew in less than an hour, this is what I do.
Toss the meat in a bit flour, salt, pepper, onion/garlic granules, paprika or any other seasoning you have (mixed ones are good as they have pretty much all the above in them)
Fry the meat in a pressure cooker pan (lid off obviously).
Add tomato puree, mustard (wholegrain is best) Worcester sauce, beef stock cube (or a spoon of marmite is good) some water just enough to cover the meat. Add the lid and bring it up to a boil and keep it going for about 10 minutes.
Meanwhile fry up some onions (add garlic after the onions have gone soft).
Add the veg to the onions and continue to sauteed untill the meat is ready. Just use what you have but root veg should be the base veg. I use any of the below:
- Potatoes
- Turnips
- Parnips
- Carrots
- Celery
- Squash (pumpkin is good)
- Sweet potato (just be aware that this will pretty much fall apart when cooked in the pressure cooker but will still be tasty)
- Peas
- Green beans
- Onions
- Garlic
- Ginger root
- Handful of pearl barley or lentils (any colour)
Once the meat is cooked and the veg has been sauteed for a bit then add all the ingredients into the pressure cooker. Add some more water so it just covers the ingredients (and add dumplings if you've made some).
Add the lid and bring the whole lot back up to a boil. Only needs 5 minutes once it boils. Take off the boil and add some corn (pre mixed in a bit of water) to thicken it up and then serve.
Does not take long and is very tasty.
Big pot of boiling water with some gravy salt in it. When its fully boiling dump the meat(at room temp) in in the one go. Boil till nearly tender. Go too far and once you do the extra cooking with gravy added etc. it ends up falling completely apart and you get mush.
Dear God!
Go on then, say your piece ....
Clue’s in the name really.
I've been trying hoping to come up with a good punchline for the obvious joke. Literally stewing on it.
Always use a 'poor' cut of meat with plenty of fat. Seasoned a lot with salt and pepper. Aggressively brown the meat in batches making sure not to crowd the pot. Plenty of veg then sauteed in the same pot until it starts to give. Wine added and boiled until all the alcohol is gone. Then whatever wet stuff is going in goes in and is brought to a boil (i.e. canned tomatoes if it is a ragu). Meat back in. Oven at 130 degrees for a minimum of two hours.
A heavy bottomed stew pot with a lid is an essential.
Other than the browned meat (temporarily), nothing leaves the pot.
You want shoulder steak for this, but not fatty. Trim as much fat off it as you can find. Not shin which is mostly ligaments and even boiling for hours hardly does much to break those down, cheek meat possibly, though tendency to be fibrous, tail. Theres little to no meat on a tail, so if you include any it will simply be for flavour. .
Shoulder is best by far.
Big pot of boiling water with some gravy salt in it. When its fully boiling dump the meat(at room temp) in in the one go. Boil till nearly tender. Go too far and once you do the extra cooking with gravy added etc. it ends up falling completely apart and you get mush.
Stew isnt just a matter of boil boil boil, theres a bit of experience needed to get it right.
What I used to do for steak pies, which I suppose holds for stew also is to cook the meat, then remove it when cooked and make the gravy using the water the meat boiled in. This way you can faff about with it, get the consistency right, of an ideal thickness before adding the meat back in.
Tomato [puree really adds to the flavour of any meat gravy.
If you want to add veg, cook that separately, as cooking any veg for the same length of time as the meat will turn it to mush, so cook it by itself and add back in after you’ve made the gravy.
Here he is, Gordon Ramsey. What a load of uneducated arrogant drivel. Get over yourself.
The troll is back.
Indeed - although the tone of the post is a little high-handed, it certainly didn't call for that.
The thread is literally about how you do something - the post explained how they do it.
Maybe someone should start a thread about milk or tea first into a cup?
It definitely did.
See jinxys past posting history.
As for tea - always black and made with leaves in either a brown betty or a japanese cast iron pot; tea bags for convenience only - not flavour.