Stewing Beef Recipe's

[marmalady]

Originally Posted by jennyema

Interested to know why sirloin and why you marinate it.

Must depend on cooking time. Is this a quick stew?

Me too! Inquiring minds want to know!

[Lifter]

Why sirloin?



Oh. crap, you were asking me!!!

A number of reasons: Sirloin is a very flavourable cut, and is also quite tender, compared with (neck) stewing beef; because sirloin tip was on sale last week, and so it was cheap...I probably paid a $2.00 premium to get a meat more tender and more flavourable...so why not?

Why do I marinate meat? To accentuate flavour(s), to tenderise it further, because I like fooling around with food to see "what happens when you..."

(Another reason you don't want me flying a space shuttle!)...or I'm another "button-pusher", like tancowgirl...

An no it wasn't a "quick" stew, I started around 1130, and fed at 1800...on the other hand, it was probably "edible" a lot earlier, after the pot barley set up ready...

Lifter

[marmalady]

Well - here's my take - marinating doesn't tenderize, just imparts some flavor; which is also imparted through the melange of ingredients added to the stew. Look at traditional stew recipes from all over the world - they all have these basic components -

-inexpensive cuts of meat
- a flavorful 'bouquet' of savory vegetables and herbs
- a long, low and slow cooking time, which both tenderizes the meat and imparts a wondeful flavor.

I guess I'm just wondering if you're trying to reinvent the wheel, and also emptying your pocketbook when you don't really need to. There's lots of other things I'd use sirloin for besides stew!

[Lifter]

I would "gently suggest" you are wrong on the marinades, in regards tenderising...there have been a number of posts on marinades of lactic acid rich buttermilks tenderising various cuts, and, of course, lemon product and or vinegars will certainly soften (if not, indeed, "cook" meats)...but I digress...

I will cheerfully grant that "stewing" meats will impart flavours from meat to veggies and backwards from that, but did you add the "bay leaf"?

Can it be done "better"? If it can, why not do so?

If it costs two bucks CDN$, this gets pretty cheap...

If you can get sirloin tip for an unrealistically low price, is this not the "window" to try some different things in cooking?

Admittedly, I do not cook to the "Zellar's Rule" of "The Lowest Price is the LAW", but we kind of like it...

While we are a bit short of "rich", if a $2 investment into two dinners will "break" us, its about time to quit, and fry up some bologna as a complement to the generic version of KD...

On that note for $1.95 or less, you can add some beef kidney, chopped up...or redo it in mutton/lamb, adding their kidneys, and the results will be spectacular, if you care to invest the "nickle"...

And give your head a "shake" on marinades..."brining" is a "marinade" and God knows there are enough of us crowing over how well it works!

Okay, I could go on, but suggest you read other posts on adding "weird and wonderful" ingredients to the improvement ...if this is "re-inventing the wheel" so be it! This is how in some cases, recipes and methods "move forward"

With the fullest feelings of respects to your cooking, and my Mom's (Dad's does NOT bear mention!) and grandparent's and so on...

Lifter

[Psiguyy]

I prefer my beef stew made with boneless chuck. It has a good balance of fat and connective tissue. It's the connective tissue that gives the stew that great mouth feel like you get from a stock made from bones.

Next time you make a stew, give boneless chuck a try. I think you'll like it.

[jennyema]

Here's Shirley explaining marinades: http://www.taunton.com/finecooking/pages/c00157.asp

Brining isn't marinating, just for the record. It works in an entirely different way.

I'd buy sirloin too if it were that cheap. But I'd probably not stew it. And would probably not mask its flavor with too much other stuff. If beef tenderloin were the same price as a piece of round, I'd still not make pot roast from it.

But there are some recipes out there for "quick" stews (an oxymoron, IMO) that call for sirloin. RR's "beef burgandy" is one.

And, come to think of it, when you make real Beef Bourguignon, you traditionally marinade the beef in the wine at least overnight to flavor it.

Experimentation is good! :D