What Kind of Meat to Buy for Beef Stew
Winter is coming, and that ways 1 affair! It's time to get stewing. Nada quite beats a hearty, rich, warming beef stew on a cold, dark, winter'due south evening. Beefiness stew is condolement food for the cold, but before yous crevice out the cooking pot, you might exist wondering: what is stew meat, and what is the all-time cut of meat for beef stew?
In today's article, we'll explore what stew meat is and why information technology's so essential for your beef stew that you get the right cut of meat. Grab your Dutch oven from the closet, prepare the potatoes, and get set up to showtime stewing!
Spoiler: the all-time stewing beef might non be the beefiness that's actually labeled 'stewing beef.'
Keep reading to notice out more!
What is stew meat?
Stew meat, or stewing meat, is the principle cut of meat placed into a stew. Stewing is 1 of the oldest forms of cooking on the planet. It's been around for every bit long as we've had firepits and pots. It's a simple, yet effective way of cooking that can exit tough cuts of meat as tender every bit a tenderloin steak!
The premise backside stewing is tedious cooking. Cuts of meat are slowly, slowly simmered in a broth, soup, or gravy. This gives the meat time to be slowly tenderized as it'due south exposed to low heat in a large pot or Dutch oven. The best stews accept the longest time to prepare, only there are relatively few ingredients that need to go into a skillful stew.
Stews are found all over the globe. There's Irish gaelic beef stew from Republic of ireland, beef stroganoff from Russia, and goulash from eastern Europe. Every land has its national stew, and traditionally, it'due south been the country's poorest that take eaten it. That's considering stew meat is oft considered to be the lowest quality meat. It'south the leftover scraps and morsels that have been scrounged or scavenged.
You can technically stew any part of the brute, but that'due south not necessarily the all-time thing to do. Equally, the almost expensive beef cutting isn't going to be the best pick for stewing (and you're wasting your hard-earned money and a expert cut of beef past cooking it the wrong way). As you'll see, though, the best stewing meat isn't the worst meat either, but we'll accept a good, cheap stew over a rare and expensive wagyu cut any day!
And while a beef stew is the nigh popular fashion of stew, it's not the but ingredient. You tin have craven stews, sausage stews, cabbage stews, and so much more.
What kind of meat practice you use for beefiness stew?
Beefiness stew is a hearty, winter-warming favorite. Irish gaelic stew is served in a rich, gravy-like sauce with carrots, potatoes, and whatever other leftover vegetables you lot can detect. In French republic, beef bourguignon might sound very fancy, but it's really but a tender, tiresome-cooked beef stew. Even chili con carne is technically just a slow-cooked beefiness stew with a Tex-Mex twist.
Beef is clearly a stewing favorite, and that'south because when information technology'south boring-cooked and simmered in thick sauces and gravies, you can really bring out the flavors while producing tender parcels of meat. But to bring out the flavor and tenderness through stewing, y'all demand to know what kind of beefiness for stew to choose.
Before we tell you the prime cutting of beef, we're going to tell you which cutting non to apply!
You've probably picked upward a packet of beefiness labeled 'stewing meat' or 'stewing beef'. Information technology's normally packaged upward and sold in supermarkets, and it's remarkably inexpensive. It'southward also the worst kind of beefiness y'all can purchase for stewing (yes, despite its name!).
'Stewing meat' is comprised of the worst parts of the animal. It's the offcuts, the scraps, and the leftover gristle and fatty from the amend cuts. The butcher simply throws everything into a packet and labels it as fit for stewing. Unfortunately, information technology'south not the best option, purely because it's fabricated of all the leftovers.
Information technology's too a adept idea to proceed your chunks consistent. If the pieces of meat aren't uniform in size, they will cook at different rates. If some of the cuts are not suited for stewing, you'll be left with an uneven stew. Some parts will be tender, other pieces non and then much.
Every bit, you don't want to exist using the most expensive cuts, either. These cuts tend to be the tenderest to begin. While what we're aiming for by stewing is a tender issue, we actually need cuts of meat that aren't already tender. The most frail cuts of the beef are the cuts that are going to be toughened upwards by the stewing process. Tender steak is adept for grilling quickly at high heat, but it's non made for stewing slowly at low heat.
The best beef stew meat contains collagen
So, what is the all-time stewing beef if it'south not 'stewing beef' and not the tender cuts?
At that place are a few contenders. You need a cutting that's not fatty or tender, just that'southward lean and full of what's called collagen. This is your surreptitious stewing ingredient. The more collagen, the improve the cut is for stewing.
Collagen is also known as connective tissue. Collagen takes a long time to break down, but information technology gives you an incredibly tender cut of beef when it does. That'south why collagen-rich meat is all-time for stewing. The slow stewing process allows the collagen to slowly breakdown, gently tenderizing the meat every bit it does.
Now then, there are a few cuts of beef that do the chore well when you're looking for stewing meat, but the best cutting is always going to be the archetype chuck roast. The chuck roast is a collagen-heavy cut that comes from around the shoulder. Information technology's bully for stewing and is also commonly used for roasting.
The loftier collagen content allows you to simmer the beef for hours, slowly breaking downwardly and tenderizing for a autumn-off-your-fork cease. You purchase the chuck roast equally a big, whole cut, and then you have to do the chopping yourself. However, that works in your favor as you're able to dice information technology up into even-sized chunks for a uniform stew.
Other contenders include the oxtail, which is packed full of collagen but is also quite fatty. Oxtail is incredibly bony, too, so you'll take the de-boning process to deal with if you lot opt for this cut. The brisket is also a skilful choice for stewing and is often a great value also. You can get a lot of brisket for not a lot of money. Brisket cooks best when information technology'south cooked slowly, but it can be quite tough to break down due to a lack of collagen compared to the chuck roast.
How to cook stew meat?
Whichever blazon of stewing meat you choose, y'all'll need to make sure that information technology'south equally evenly cut as possible before y'all offset cooking. Uneven pieces will effect in parts of the stew being cooked through and others being tough.
Stewing beef should be lightly braised before yous add information technology into your stew. Heat upwards the skillet with a drizzle of oil and sautee your beef on either side. It doesn't need long, but until it has a brown outer layer.
When it'south browned, yous can add the meat to the residual of your stew (y'all tin employ enameled dutch oven or double dutch oven for that) and allow it to simmer in the gravy slowly. Stews tin have various other ingredients, so this depends on what sort of stew y'all're looking to cook. Irish stews are heavy in seasonal vegetables, while a beefiness bourguignon is awash with ruby wine, mushrooms, and bacon!
What is stew meat? Now you know the all-time meat for stewing!
And then in that location we have information technology, at present we accept a decisive answer to the question, 'what is stew meat,' and permit's be honest, the all-time stewing meat isn't always the meat you would await information technology to be.
Our beefiness stew investigation's primal takeaway is that any meat labeled 'stewing meat' in the supermarket probably isn't the best for stewing. That sounds counterintuitive, we know, but that'south what you lot get when you throw all the offcuts and worst parts of the cow together.
The best stewing meat is, without a doubt, the chuck roast, a big, tough cutting of meat that's packed with collagen—slowly stewing a chuck roast releases all that delicious collagen juice, giving you a tasty and tender beefiness stew!
Why not bookmark our beef stew meat guide for afterward?
Enjoyed this? Check our article on more Dutch oven uses!
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Source: https://unocasa.com/blogs/tips/what-is-stew-meat
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