Meat for beef stew........

[lottiejenkins]

Whats the best meat to use? I used frying steak on Sunday and it was ok but quite chewy!!

Use chuck or braising steak - dust with flour and black pepper and fry off in the pan you are doing the casserole in and then cook for as many hours as you can - the longer the better.

I agree with MC it doesn't really matter what you use its the time you cook it for that works - the cheaper the meat the longer you cook it and it all goes tener in the end. If you leave it soakingin beer overnight it tastes good and tenderises it too!!

Shin, if you can get it. Needs to be cooked for hours, but just falls apart and is gorgeous.

Shin of beef very good too and cheaper cut though you will need to cook it for at least three hours with plenty of root veg, tin of tomatos and some wine or stock.

you can use most cuts but the trick is to cook long and low. i use gasmark 2 for about 2-3 hours.

i get stewing steak from the butcher can't remember what cut is is.

sorry too slow typing, didn;t mean to repeat what everyone else said!

IMO its best to do the beef just with plenty of pre-softened onions, garlic and a bottle of dark beer. Don't you find that the long cooking overdoes root veg?

Agree - shin of beef (sometimes just called 'stewing steak') is the best. Steak is too lean to make a good stew - even if you cook it for a long time it will still be tough and dry.

Put the veg in a bit later then you can cook it for as long as you want

Any apart from frying steack

Steawing steak, shin or chuck are all good - cover in flour, season, fry with onion,add stock/red wine/veg, and cook for at least 3 hours - preferably closer to 5 at 160 degrees - onc the meat falls apart its cooked - you can keep it in the oven at 100 deg for ages until you are ready to serve