Farmer David’s Beef Stew | Wishbone Heritage Farms

Everybody thinks they know how to make beef stew. Beef, broth, carrots, potatoes, and a long afternoon. Most of the pots made that way are perfectly fine, and that is the problem. Fine is what you get when you stop one step short.

This is the last Sunday in the bundle, and it carries the lesson that makes every braise you will make hereafter better. A pot that cooks all day comes out round and soft and a little flat, and the cook's real job is the five minutes at the very end. Salt, acid, and heat, in that order. Farmer David has finished a lot of pots, and this is the one he uses to teach it.

30 grams of protein, 360 calories. Broth that coats a spoon, and not a speck of flour.

The potatoes do the thickening

There is no flour, no cornstarch, and no roux in this pot. At the end, a handful of the potatoes get mashed against the side of the crock and stirred back in, and their starch turns the broth into gravy. The rest stay whole. Three pouches of our beef bone broth give it body, because it is simmered for a full day until it sets up like jelly in the refrigerator.

The lid stays on all day. There is nothing to reduce and nothing to watch.

Season the beef, then roast it

The salt on the beef is the only salt that will ever make it inside the meat. Anything added at the end seasons the broth, not the beef. So measure it, toss the beef in a bowl until every piece is coated, and spread it on parchment over a rack in a sheet tray. Fifteen to twenty minutes in a 400°F oven. No batches, no spatter, no standing over a pan, and the parchment catches every drop of the drippings.

That twenty minutes is all the prep time this pot needs, because three things happen at once. The beef browns in the oven, the broth comes to a boil on the stove, and you cut the vegetables. Boiling the broth first means the crockpot starts hot instead of starting cold.

Ingredients

This is the eight quart version, one crockpot, low and slow all day.

From Wishbone Farms in our Sunday Braise Bundle

3 packs beef for stew
3 pouches (14 oz) beef bone broth, thawed

Everything else

1 can (28 oz) whole peeled tomatoes
3 lb mini potatoes (two small netted bags), left whole
1½ lb carrots, cut in 1 inch chunks
2 large yellow onions, diced
1 bunch celery, sliced
½ cup dry red wine
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 T Worcestershire
1 T fresh thyme (or 1 tsp dried)
2 bay leaves
3 tsp sea salt and 2 tsp black pepper, for the beef

To finish

Sea salt
Apple cider vinegar
Black pepper and cayenne

A note on the wine. Any dry red you would drink works. Pour yourself a glass while you are at it.

The beef for stew and beef bone broth are both in the Sunday Braise Bundle. Order for Pickup on Thursday or Saturday, or have Farmer David deliver to you.

Method

Season and roast the beef. Pat it dry. In a large bowl, toss it with 3 tsp sea salt and 2 tsp black pepper until every piece is coated. Set a rack in a sheet tray, lay parchment over the rack, and spread the beef on it in a single layer. Roast at 400°F for 15 to 20 minutes, until browned.
Boil the broth. While the beef roasts, bring the broth to a boil in a pot on the stove.
Crush the tomatoes. Empty the can into the crockpot and crush the tomatoes by hand or with a potato masher. It is the easiest place to do it, and there is nothing to clean.
Add the vegetables. Put the potatoes, carrots, celery, onions, and garlic in the crockpot over the tomatoes.
Pour in the broth. Once it boils, pour it over the vegetables. Add the wine, the Worcestershire, the thyme, and the bay leaves.
Add the beef. When the beef comes out of the oven, lift the parchment by its edges and slide the beef and all of its drippings into the pot.
High for 1 hour, then low for 6 to 8 hours, lid on the whole time, until the beef gives way under a fork. Do not lift the lid.
Pull the bay leaves and thicken. Mash a handful of potatoes against the side of the crock with a fork or potato masher and stir them back in. Then finish the pot.

Finish the pot

Eight hours in a crockpot rounds every flavor off. Everything has melted together, and that is the point, but it also means the stew tastes flat straight out of the pot. That is not a flaw in the recipe. It is the last step, and it is the one most people skip.

Do it in this order, and taste between every addition.

Salt first. The beef went in seasoned and the broth carries its own salt, but nothing else in the pot was salted. Let the broth be your guide. Add sea salt ½ teaspoon at a time, stir it through, and taste a spoonful of broth on its own. Stop when it tastes like a soup you would happily eat by itself. The vegetables will catch up as the stew sits.
Then acid. Add apple cider vinegar 1 teaspoon at a time. You are not trying to taste vinegar. You are trying to wake the pot up. When the broth goes from heavy to bright, stop.
Then heat. Add more black pepper first, then a pinch of cayenne if you want it. Heat goes last because salt and acid change how it reads.

Three adjustments, five minutes, and it is the difference between a pot of stew and a perfect one. Learn it here and it works on every braise you will ever make.

What you might add

Parsnip, turnip, or rutabaga in place of some of the carrots and potatoes, when they are fresh and in season
Fresh parsley, at the table
Crusty bread, for the last of the broth
Pasta, barley, farro, or rice. Farmer David would rather double the potatoes, and that is why there are two bags in this pot. If you want a grain, cook it separately and add it at the end or right in the bowl. Grains cooked in the pot drink up the broth and turn soft, and they only get softer over time.