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.

29 grams of protein, 330 calories. Broth that coats a spoon, and not a speck of flour.

The broth does the thickening

Three pouches of beef bone broth go into this pot. Our broth is simmered for a full day until it sets up like jelly in the refrigerator, and all of that gelatin ends up in the stew. It is why the liquid comes out with real body, heavy enough to coat the back of a spoon, with no flour, no cornstarch, and no roux.

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, put all of it on, and spread the beef on a sheet pan or two in a 400°F oven for fifteen to twenty minutes. No batches, no spatter, no standing over a pan.

Use that twenty minute window to dice the onions, slice the celery, cut the carrots, and crush the tomatoes by hand.

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, crushed by hand
1½ lb mini potatoes (one small netted bag), left whole
1½ lb carrots, cut in 1 inch chunks
2 large yellow onions, diced
3 ribs celery, sliced
1 cup dry red wine
3 T minced garlic
2 T Worcestershire
1 T fresh thyme (or 1 tsp dried)
2 bay leaves
2 tsp sea salt and 1 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 and season it with 2 tsp sea salt and 1 tsp black pepper. Spread it in a single layer on a sheet pan and roast at 400°F for 15 to 20 minutes, until browned. Keep the drippings.
Start the onions. Pour the sheet pan drippings into a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onions and celery and sweat until softened, 8 to 10 minutes.
Add the garlic. Stir in the garlic for one minute, until fragrant.
Deglaze. Pour in the wine and scrape up everything stuck to the pan. Simmer for two minutes.
Build the pot. Put the potatoes and carrots in the bottom of an 8 quart crockpot, since they need the most heat. Add the beef, the onion mixture, the crushed tomatoes, the broth, the Worcestershire, the thyme, and the bay leaves.
Low, lid on, for 8 to 10 hours, until the beef gives way under a fork. Do not lift the lid.
Pull the bay leaves and 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, when they are fresh and in season
Fresh parsley, at the table
Crusty bread, for the last of the broth