Ok faggots, its time to discuss stews and the preparation there of...
How do you go about it?
Whats your favorite?
I can't get enough of it personally. Currently making my stock right now.
>>7158443
(op's stock)
>3 Pounds chick thighs
>One large carrot
>Half large onion
>Garlic
>Button Mushrooms
>Two celery stalks
>seasons n shit.
It's set to reduce in about a gallon of water, and in about an hour, I intend on draining pulling the chicken stock, pulling the chicken. (some people discard all the solids, but i plan on using the chicken because ima poor fag)
After that, add all the ingredients above mentioned, into the stock, reduce for another hour. Make a 4-5 tsb butter roux, and voila..
Stew.
How does it sound?
>>7158459
Draining the stock*
I saute the onions, carrots and other fresh vegetables I want to use.
Slice the mettwurst or bacon and slightly saute them.
Add potatoes or pearl barley and remaining vegetables.
Add water, let it build up pressure and then leave it to rest a couple of hours.
>>7158521
But this is about stew. That and i've already started the thread so, meh...
>>7158526
Right on. I've never used barley in a stew before. I've eaten it, and its a wonderful addition though.
I just cut up my veggies, set them aside, and added water, and i'm letting it reduce a bit faster. Going to add some potatos to it (wish i'd bought some reds...) for some texture. Other wise, the house smells amazing, and i'm hungry.
I thought about adding some 100% pork brats to it. or maybe making some pork meat balls....
Much of what I eat classifies as stew.
The most recent I made is sausage & potatoes stew with paprika but the next one I make will be either dilled chicken stew with yeast dumplings, parsley beef stew with beer & barley or lentil stew with spätzle.
Chicken stew:
chicken backs, necks, wingtips, ribs or bones, 1kg
water, 2L
chicken grease or oil, 5tbsp
flour, 5tbsp
onion, minced, yield from one medium/medium-small
chicken meat, boneless, 400-500g
potato, 100-200g
carrots, 100-200g
pearl onions (or shallot), 100-200g
celery or peas, 100-200g
dill, a handful
flour, 200g/1½ cups
active yeast, 5-6g
egg at room temperature, 1 large + 1 yolk
>or 1 jumbo
water, warm, as necessary to just make a stiff dough.
Put chicken bones & water into a pot & set to high heat.
When it starts to boil, lower to maintain a simmer & cook, skimming scum from time to time as it forms, until liquid is reduced to half its original volume.
Strain & reserve liquid, discarding solids.
Cook flour & grease together in a pot over high heat until a paste is achieved then add the minced onion, salt generously & off the heat.
>i like to cheat & use chicken stock powder instead of salt
Keep stirring until hissing stops, then re-up the heat & add the chicken, cut up into cubes.
When the chicken is coloured, but not cooked through, add the stock & whisk to dissolve the flour paste.
Bring the thickened stock to the boil; meanwhile, boil some water separately & parboil the potatoes, carrots & celery to about halfway to desired doneness then drain & add to the stew pot.
Lower heat to maintain a simmer & cook until veg are done to your preferences.
Set more water to the boil; meanwhile, whisk together flour, yeast & a pinch of salt.
Make a well in the centre & add egg, then mix in flour.
Add water a little at a time until a stiff, kneadable dough is just achieved.
Form into a loaf & boil/steam until cooked through, then remove.
Slice & serve with stew.
>>7158459
That doesn't sound like long enough to get the gelatin and flavour out of the bones. I'd stew the bones for at least two hours more.
>>7158443
I love me some beef stew and sourdough. I'm stuck in a 15x10 cell at uni so I have to do most of my cooking in a slow cooker. Heres my current recipe for my tiny 4qt:
2lbs beef bottom round
3 russet potatoes
3-4 large carrots
1 large yellow onion
4oz tomato paste
beef stock/broth to cover
1 guiness tallboy
2 tsp black pepper
flour
canola oil
1 metric fuckton of garlic
salt
I just toss the beef cubes in flour and cook them up with the garlic/onions then do a half ass "deglaze" on the skillet with the guiness and throw it all in the slow cooker for 8 hours after covering with broth. I add the carrots after 6 hours so they arent mushy af and add flour if I need to thicken it up a bit.
Any suggestions? I tried peas and celery for veggies too but they come out mushy and kind of fuck up the rest of the stew imo. Red wine? Tomatoes instead of paste? mushrooms?
>>7159026
for clarification since I forgot to mention I obviously brown the beef in canola (olive has a pretty low smoke point so i switched) and then throw in the salt/pepper/potatoes. Should I brown the beef with the s/p instead of adding later?
>>7158972
That's what you choose to harp on? Not the fact that he's boiling all the flavour out of the meat?
>>7158459
Get yourself to a proper butcher next time and ask to buy backs, ribs, necks and wingtips. In the US, some butchers, those in predominantly white areas anyway, will just give them to you if you ask for them about a day ahead of time and you're already buying something, otherwise, the bones get discarded into a bin full of sweepings and other unhygienic shit and you wouldn't want those.
If you live in the US and such a butcher shop isn't available, find a grocer that caters primarily to immigrants.
Poultry and pork bones other than feet go for anywhere between 39¢/lb-59¢/lb. Feet go for 79¢/lb to $1.49/lb.
Beef and lamb are considerably costlier, from 99¢/lb to $2.99/lb, depending on what bones you're getting. Goat seems to always be either $1.99/lb or $2.49/lb.
If you're making your stock from bones rather than from meat and bones, you're going to spend about the same (most often less, but occasionally only marginally more) as if you'd used thighs only. Thighs are $1.49/lb around here and yield a 55% edible portion and 45% meat portion. Using 2lbs of bones and 1½lbs of thigh can cost as little as $3.06 and yield a tastier stock. You'll have less meat, true, but you won't miss it because of how tasty the stock itself will be.
Debone the thighs yourself and add those bones to the stock bones, too.
Also, remove the skin from the thighs to render it for its fat. Chicken grease is a tastier option than butter for making roux.
Actually, you can buy whole, bone-in breasts cheaper than you can whole thighs (99¢/lb around here for some reason), so that might be more your thing. Leg quarters are even cheaper, anywhere from 49¢/lb to 79¢/lb in my area. I like whole drums in my chicken soups and curries, actually, but not in my stews. I like my stews boneless.
>>7159037
I use grape seed oil, it's expensive, but does the trick nicely.
>>7159076
While making my stew, that honestly turned out kinda dull this time around. I think I'm going to go the route of buying a whole chicken, cut it up, and make a stock out of the carcass.
My stock was flavorful, but poorly executed. And I had way to much water. It turned out eddible by every means, but would more, or less constitute as a soup, rather than a stew.
As of late, they have been hit or miss, and the best one I made so far was in a small saucepan, when I was sick. Thick, flavour bursting at the seems.
I'm definitely going to take your advice with the backs. I live close to a local bucher, and in fairly certain I can get my hands on some things for cheep, likely not free.
>>7158972
I've never cooked a stock longer than 2 hours, didn't think it was necessary.
>>7159114
>whole chicken
That's another thing, actually.
About once annually, I buy three whole chickens at a time which comes to about $12 at 79¢-99¢/lb. I break them down into wings, backs, leg quarters and breasts then break those down into drumettes, wing-flats, wingtips, thighs, drums, ribs and boneless breast then debone the thighs.
With the necks, backs, thighbones, ribs and wingtips between the three chickens plus all the skin from the breasts and thighs, I've got enough bones for 1-1½ litres of stock since I make my stocks much, for lack of a better English word for it, "heavier" than what you may be used to.
1kg of bones makes 1L of stock for me, but I know others who stretch that into 2, 3 or even 4 litres.
Then, I use the drums to make chicken soup or chicken curry, the breasts in stir fries, the thighs as "chops" (anywhere you'd use a pork chop, I'd use a boneless chicken thigh; try smothered chicken "chops" in mushroom-and-sauerkraut gravy because that shit is fucking magical) and fry the wings for deliciousness. Makes for good eating.
>>7158972
I only cook my stocks for about 45 minutes, but I'm using a pressure cooker. If I'm making white stock, I use four parts water to one part bone and boil it it down to 1:1 ratio in an open pot rather than a pressure cooker. That takes about four hours, but regular, clear stock only takes me about one hour, from cold water to finished stock.
Favorite stew? Burgoo aka Brunswick Stew. Ideally with venison, boar and chicken, but you can make do with beef, pork, and chicken.
