Slow cooker beef stew question

[PoesyCherish]

I've bought a joint of beef to use in a stew as it was half price. Do I cut the beef and then put it in or do I put the joint in whole, cook it and then take it out and cut it?

Brown the joint off in a pan, cut it and then slow cook.

I would reverse seal it, put the whole joint in on top of a few onion rings sprinkle with pepper adding salt towards the end. Brown the joint at the end in frying pan or in oven on high. You can also rub additional seasoning just before browning. My fav is sumac + sweet paprika

Beef on the joint tends to be less fatty than stewing or braising steak.

It's not ideal for stewing, which uses liquid and a low temperature, where the collagen in the fibres of stewing meat breaks down slowly leaving it tender.

You'd be better off leaving it as a joint and roasting it. Why do you want to stew it?

If you really want to casserole it, cut it up into large-ish chunks, and cook it slowly with stock or half water/ stock / wine and some root veg.

Why do you want to stew it?

We'd planned to have beef stew and the joint was cheaper than the stewing beef

@Mondrian what does reverse seal mean?

Sorry ignore my advice - I thought you wanted to roast the joint. For slow cooker roasting the meat comes out more tender when sealed at the end (reverse sealing) than the beginning (normal sealing).

For stewing I'd follow @SemperIdem advice.

You can't really substitute joints for braising or casserole steak; they are completely different cuts of meat. If you casserole a joint, it might come out dry or tough. I'd be tempted to braise the whole joint in the slow cooker on a bed of root veg with some liquid poured round it.

If you really want to, do as I suggested earlier which is cut it into large chunks- about 3 to 4 inches square, then brown it in a pan, add your eg and plenty of stock.

I cut mine and put in the slow cooker on its own for 10 mins on high. Stir and leave for another 10 mins... The add the rest of ingredients, we love gravy so cover the lot in water, add a premade pack of sauce mix, and leave to cook.

The 20 mins is normally while I am getting dressed before work.

It might come out dry - is it silverside or topside? I'd chuck it in the slow cooker whole add a little wine and stock so it's pit roasted. Or just roast it in the oven.

I do need in the slow cooker - add onions, carrots, stock and brown the beef them add. Add more veg throughout the day and turn the beef.

• beef

Not sure what type of joint it was. We cut it into chunks, browned it and then ended up doing the stew on the hob. It actually came out really nice.

Whenever we do lamb stew we always end up using a leg of lamb and that always comes out really nice. I assumed using a joint of beef would've been similar to using a leg of lamb.