Please help save my stew

[Littleelffriend]

I acquired a slow cooker a couple of weeks ago envisaging lovely hearty stews etc. I made one with beef today. It tastes of nothing and it's too runny. Can I save it?

Cornflour will thicken it.

And oxo will give it flavour

How many stock cubes did you use? Mine used to be like dirty dish water and then I added 6 stock cubes after some advice from a scouser and it was lovely! Could you add more along with a bit of cornflower?

I put 3 stock cubes in and the potatoes normally thicken it as they fall apart a bit. Loads of onions too.

Thicken it as people above mentioned. I'd also put it in a saucepan and boil it down a bit.

This is no use today but did you brown your meat? It'll have no taste it you don't. Don't bother pre-cooking anything else but always brown the meat :)

Or make a roux of butter and flour in a sauce pan, cook out the flour then add the liquid as if you were making gravy.
Things usually taste better if you add a bit of something salty (salt, soy sauce, oxon cube, fish sauce etc) and a bit of something sweet (ketchup, sugar, redcurrant jelly etc) maybe a little of Worcester sauce or marmite or mustard too?

Thank you all so much. No I didn't brown it first, I didn't think I had to with a slow cooker? So in future should I add cornflour at the start? Sorry, I'm totally clueless

Yes to browning the meat, lots of cornflour and fresh beef stock for next time. Or just ditch the slow cooker and use a casserole dish in the oven next time.

And I only used 2 stock cubes

Sorry, cross post. I always toss the meat in flour, brown, then add corn flour at the end if it needs it.

I'd boil uncovered on a high heat on the hob for twenty minutes, add a table spoon of corn flour and also some tomato paste.

Thank you, didn't want to waste everything

I stick mine on high and leave the lid off for the last hour to thicken sauces.

Adding pearl barley to soak up excess liquid can help too, though put it in towards the end of cooking.

Oooh ooh, I got a slow cooker last week and have just put my first stew on so it's ready tomorrow morning!

Let me know how yours turns outlittleleffriend

It's the slow cooker.... I make all mine in the oven, much nicer and thickens up.

Pimmsy it was better with the suggestions above but I'm disappointed. How was yours?

I always make my stew with gravy. Make it thicker and it does become runnier.

You need to use very little liquid when using a slow cooker, less even that given in slow-cooker recipes, because the liquid doesn't evaporate when it cooks. When I use stock I use the jelly ones and no extra liquid added to them.

Hi littleelffriend,

It was okay, but I added an extra stock cube after seeing the suggestions on here and a massive amount of fresh thyme.

I'd browned the meat (and tossed it in flour) as well as the onions and the cubed veg first.

I'd used beef, onions, garlic, parsnip, turnips, celeriac, celery, and a couple of carrots, thyme, rosemary and bay leaves plus 2 stock cubes.

I don't really have a benchmark though because I very rarely eat meat and when I do do beef about once a winter I normally do a "pot au feu" which has a very thin bouillon.

My guests liked it but I think that in the slow cooker I'm going to double the herbs and spices that I would normally use.

I made a chickpea curry last week that was lovely and dhal that was good too as well as a pumpkin curry that was good.

Buzzfeed recently had a article on slow cooker recipes and I might try some of them

www.buzzfeed.com/lindsayhunt/top-slow-cooker-pinterest-recipes

Good luck!