My wife wants to cook a beef stew so I picked up a package of stew meat from Costco this past Saturday. I thought about cooking the meat with my Joule to tenderize the meat before we mix everything together and throw it on the Big Joe in a cast iron dutch oven. I am just looking for some opinions or recommendations as to time and temp in the water bath, I have found anything from 8 hours to 48 hours on other websites. My thinking was at least 24 hours at around 135 degrees, I just don't want to turn the meat into mush, I want it to have some chew without being tough. Has anyone tried this method and if so any advise or tips you can throw at me would be greatly appreciated.
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Sous Vide Stew Meat
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Well the meat is usually soft when cooking without a SV. I would be at the 8 hour mark for those small pieces. Then again, what exactly is stew meat. Various cuts with a definition that escapes me.
You have different cuts that may cook at different ranges. I wouldn't Sear it and go the shorter time and the cook will take care of the rest.
Full disclosure. I'm a beginner SV guy but have cooked many, many a stew with chuck and others. I'm just not a "Stew Meat" kinda guy.
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Same response, what kind of meat is it? I gotta assume it's probably chuck. Second question would be what type of end result are you looking for, i.e. just a bit tenderized but still rare? Stews usually tenderize the meat pretty well on their own so I'm not sure I see the value of the added step. I like the 130-133* range at 24 hours. That would leave you with a medium-rare result and fairly tender. Again once in the stew would it then fall about during the stewing process? Sorry never tried what you are about to do.
Maybe Potkettleblack has some experience with this.
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So, there's stew and there's stew. There are two SV processes you can do.
Process 1: Make the other stuff for the stew, then add the meat at the very end. I do this for stroganoff type dish. If you want traditional stewed texture, go 155x24, assuming chuck. Only salt on the meat in the bag. This will produce a braised texture to the meat, making it easy to break up in the stew.
Here's a process like that:
Process 2: Sous vide 130x24-48, let it get tender, then use just like raw. Will be more tender than traditional stew in shorter time. Or you can cook the whole stew in sous vide, after you have processed the stew meat.
Here's an example of process 2.
You can definitely sous the veg to speed the final cook.
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The package of meat I got from Costco just said stew meat so I assume it is probably top round or chuck, it was already cubed but I cut it into some smaller cubes and it felt pretty tough when cutting it. We stopped cooking beef stew a long time ago because we could never get the meat tender enough so it was always tough in the final results, that is why I thought about SV the meat then put all the veggies and what ever else in a pot with the SV'd meat and hopefully it will be tender and not so chewy. After getting the meat tender with the Joule I thought I would throw the meat and veggies in a pot with some beef stock and something to thicken it up a bit then put it on the KJ at around 225 to 250 until the veggies are probe tender. I have never tried anything like this either so I don't know how it will work or if it is even worth trying. I thought maybe someone on here has tried this at some point and could say whether it is worth trying.
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Yeah, for that, I'd go with 155x8, shock, chill. Dust cubes with flour, sear to get browning on meat. Add onions + veg you want browned, Add purge, beef stock, red wine, veg, throw in oven at 350 (or the KJ or whatever), pull when tender. Finish with a tablespoon of fish sauce.
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Thanks EdF that was my logic when my wife mentioned she would like to cook a beef stew, so when she is ready with all the other ingredients I think I am going to try this out. I will try to take pics along the way to post with the final result.
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I finally had a chance to cook this beef stew. I cooked the stew meat straight out of the freezer into the water bath at 131 degrees for around 20 hours then I started the veggies and all the other ingredients in the cast iron Dutch Oven on the stove to get it cooking for a while. When the veggies started feeling tender I mixed the meat in the mix and put the pot on my big joe at around 250 for about 4 hours with the lid off. The meat was very tender cooking it this way plus it had a touch of smoke flavor from the grill. I will definitely do this again.Last edited by vandy; March 20, 2018, 12:44 PM.
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Sounds great. I usually just do stew in a slow cooker, but a touch of smoke would kick it up a notch. Thanks.
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We have always cooked beef stew in the slow cooker also but never could get the meat tender the way I wanted it so that is why I tried this. I must say the smoke flavor really made a big difference, this will be my go to method for beef stew from now on. The Joule did it's job on making the meat nice and tender but with still a little bit of chew to it.
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