How to flavour stew

[Stillmonday]

I know it's bad but I normally add 8 oxo cubes to a large beef stew which serves 6 people.
How would you season without t make more healthy? I'm worried about the salt content but it doesn't taste as nice without :/

You may have to admit that your family don't like beef stew, they like oxo.

As people have asked above, are you browning your meat? Frying your veg a bit before stewing? Allowing enough meat the the veg quantity?

I also like other flavourings such as (not all together) balsamic vinegar, mustard, wine, rosemary and/or mint (for lamb), tarragon (for chicken), onion and garlic salts, mace, bovril. Sometimes a small amount of brandy used to deglaze the pan after browning everything is nice.

The 'trick' is to build flavour using several different additions and methods rather than going heavy on one pre-blended ingredient.

But fecking hell you use a lot of oxo!

Brown the beef and onions. Add carrots and mushrooms. Boiling water and two stock cubes. Bay leaves, Rosemary, thyme, garlic puree, tomato puree, can Tomatoes. Once Beef is tender check the gravy/sauce and if needed thicken with Bisto.

Sometimes vary the herbs/spices...... Sage, Basel, Worcester Sauce, Mustard, Horse Radish, Etc

thyme (chicken & beef) sage (chicken &pork) rosemary (chicken or lamb) marmite for beef

Thyme is good with beef or rosemary and garlic. I use loads of onion in mine and slowly caramelise it to bring out the flavour. Or if you are using tomato sauce, you could use an italian herbs mix - basil, oregano etc.
Or you could add a bit of chilli and ginger and even slip a drop of orange juice or soy sauce in with it.
Or you could invest in mushroom ketchup or a fish sauce but the wretched mushroom ketchup doesnt keep so unless you want to use loads of it, its a bit wasteful.

After cutting out the things that are non alcoholic and not made in a factory list above, I'd go for the bay leaves and other herbs before anything else.

Also don't forget that if you use alcoholic drinks in recipes, 99.9% of the alcohol will actually dissipate during cooking, so if you're cooking for a person who wants to avoid alcohol it really won't be there any more by the time it gets to table.

Beef or wine, but failing that tomatoes. Lots of Worcester sauce and herbs.

Then cook a long time.

I sometimes add balsamic viniger glaze or mushroom ketchup

Also to thicken the gravy, if you don't want to use Bisto or anything else made with ten tons of E numbers, just put in some flour and stir it about in the fat towards the end of the frying off period, it'll make a roux which should stick everything together nicely when you start to add the fluids.

Celery is good too for adding different flavour and shredded cabbage adds another flavour. You can chop up a head of celery and freeze it so you can take out a little to use as needed. Kale is nice in a tomato sauce - wash a bag ful, freeze it and add a half a fistful when cooking.

As battleax said you need to cook it a long time to get a deep rich flavour. It's better if it's cooked longer on a lower heat, than less time on a higher heat. I'd cook it for 3 hours then let it 'sit' for half an hour before serving.

Allspice makes beef taste more meaty.

I find the jellied 'stock pots' have better flavour and are not as salty as Oxo or other cubes. I'd probably put two in a stew.
Today we had a Spanish style pork casserole with diced pork, pancetta chunks and little chorizo sausages, seasoned with two types of smoked paprika, (dulce and picante) plus a Tesco ' rich and smoky' stock pot , a chicken stock pot, a tin of tomatoes, onions, garlic and cooked butter beans. Meat, onions and garlic browned first, everything else added and cooked for about two hours.
It was good.

Sounds divine, tarty.

Add bistro as well as the oxo not sure I would put 8 in tho
Pinch of mixed herbs and black pepper

Your answer is... blending!

At the end of cooking, take a small portion of stew out, blend and add back in! That, tomatoes, salt, pepper, paprika and garlic pepper... all you need!

Stirring in tomato purée and cooking for a couple of mins before adding the liquid adds nice flavour with beef.

I use packet mixes from Colemans etc.

Is the no alcohol for religious or kids reasons? If kids then no alcohol gets left one you’ve reduced it down.

Beef stock was the saviour for my stews, together with a bay leaf, parsley, rosemary and thyme!

This is good if you use stock rather than stout.www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2011/feb/03/how-cook-perfect-beef-stew

Brown the onions. This is a must for all meaty savoury things or curries.

For ages I couldn't work out what I was doing wrong with curries, but many are Thai style with lightly cooked onion. Now I've gone back to browning the onions in the frying pan (takes 15 mins and need stirred so they don't stick and blacken) and do this for all beef stews and curries. Yum. For 400g of cubed beef I use one oxo.

My stews are lovely and tasty OP. I use 700g of diced beef, 3 large carrots, 2 large onions, half a big swede, 2 parsnips, couple of sticks of celery and 2 of those stockpot jelly stock cube things. Salt, black pepper and loads of Henderson's relish or Worcestershire sauce. 2 tablespoons of flour stirredin before I add water and normal gravy granules in standby if it doesn't thicken.

I whack everything in the slow cooker for about 6 hours on high. I don't brown the meat or faff about. It makes enough for 4 people twice.

Are you adding too much liquid? You don't need much in a slow cooker.

Lots of herbs and spices. I barely use any stock and no salt but stews have lots of flavour. Lovage is excellent, and marjoram, thyme, paprika and tarragon too.

Brown meat in oil and remove and set to one side
Sweat onions in same pan, add carrots, mushrooms, celery, garlic and the meat with the juices
Add a teaspoon of flour and stir it in, add a knor stock pot, dash of Worcester sauce and some tomato puree and a bay leaf
Then top up with water or wine, beer and allow to stew in oven or slow cooker

I make in bulk from butchers deal for a huge bag of shoulder steak which makes 5 x meals for 3 (think it’s 2.5 KG of meat)

Coat meat in flour and brown in a frying pan in batches

4 Oxo
Generous sprinking of Steak seasoning (Schwartz jar of spices)
Worcester sauce
Freshly ground Pepper
Cayenne pepper
Tomato purée
8 onions finely chopped and browned

Simmer on hob on very low heat for 4-6 hours until tender gives a basic beef stew which we freeze and have with veg or make into a steak pie.

Can of soup