This old-fashioned New England beef stew recipe from 1974 will warm your soul - Click Americana (2024)

FAQs

How was stew made in old days? ›

Ancient Romans simmered beef in wine, spices, and raisins to craft a dish called copadia. Vikings combined meats, beans, and ground bark in hot water over coals to make a dish called skause. And there's even mention of stewed meat consumption in the Old Testament.

Ingredients can include any combination of vegetables and may include meat, especially tougher meats suitable for slow-cooking, such as beef, pork, venison, rabbit, lamb, poultry, sausages, and seafood. While water can be used as the stew-cooking liquid, stock is also common.

Most braises call for the tougher cuts of meats or poultry. In beef, this means cuts such as chuck, flank, brisket, rump, and round.

The caramelized flavors and notes complement the richness of the meat, making the pairing something you should definitely explore if you enjoy beer. Two of the best beers to try with your beef stew include English Brown Ale and Dark Mild, so why not give it a try?

A report from BBC Science Focus says that when your bolognese, stew or curry is sitting on the shelf in your fridge, it's getting more flavoursome by the minute even though it's no longer on the stove, because the ingredients are still marinating and breaking down like they would in a super slow cook.

Add spices such as turmeric, coriander and cumin at the early stage of cooking, when you are frying onions and garlic, to enhance the taste of the beef stew. Fresh herbs like coriander and bay leaves also contribute a distinct flavour without making the dish too spicy for the younger members of the family.

"Soups and stews really need to simmer for long periods to allow the ingredients to meld together. Taking that a step further, most soups and stews are better if you prepare them the day before serving. Allowing them to cool and then reheating them really helps bring out the flavors and textures."

High heat will cause the meat to tighten and toughen, while low heat allows the meat to become fall-apart tender. Simply cover the pot and keep the heat as low as it goes. What to Serve With Beef Stew: The best accompaniments to beef stew can soak up the sauce. A crusty baguette works well, as does rice.

Tender Beef. The best cuts of stew meat are lean with a high concentration of collagen-rich connective tissues—such as chuck or shoulder cuts—that also have some fat marbling for flavor. Lean cuts of meat come from parts of the animal that have lots of muscle, like the legs.

Top pairings

Stews tend to be intensely flavoured with a rich thick sauce so you could argue that you need a big wine to hold its own. But that can be overwhelming. I prefer a slightly lighter more rustic red - grape varieties such as Syrah, Grenache, Malbec and Tempranillo hit the spot for me.

What is a substitute for beer in beef stew? ›

Easy Substitutions

You can use chicken broth, ginger ale, white grape juice, or white wine if your recipe calls for a light beer. Use beef broth, chicken broth, mushroom stock, apple juice, apple cider, root beer, or co*ke instead of dark beer.

Go for a pinot noir if you like your stews light and fruity, cabernet sauvignon if you like it strong and rustic, and a merlot if you fall somewhere in between. But most importantly, use a wine that you're also happy to drink.

During the Middle Ages it was usually made with wheat, barley, or oats. In Middle English, thick pottages (stondyng) made with cereals, kidneys, shredded meat, sometimes thickened with egg yolks and bread crumbs were called by various names like brewet, egerdouce, mortrew, mawmenee, blancmange and blance dessore.

An ancient soup maker could have simply dug a pit, lined it with animal skin or gut, filled his "pot" with water and dropped in some hot rocks.

Back in medieval times, beef could have been cooked over an open fire, but it could also have been used to prepare a tasty pottage. Some pottages, or meat stews, were made with pre-roasted or pre-boiled meat, before sprinkling in herbs and spices. Others used raw ingredients.

With no ovens or electricity, women prepared meals on the hearths of brick fireplaces. They used different types of fires and flames to prepare different types of food. For example, a controllable fire was used to roast and toast, while boiling and stewing required a smaller flame.