Why is stew meat so tough

An added benefit? These cuts are usually much cheaper per pound than the fancier steaks on the market. Many of us turn to beef stew when we want to make an easy, low-stress meal that can be made in one pot, but you shouldn't be too cavalier about how you assemble your stew.

There's a lot more that goes into a proper beef stew than just meat and broth. You need to add vegetables. They add a balance of flavor, from earthy potatoes to sweet carrots and fragrant onions, and they also help add body to the broth of your stew. But you can't just throw them in the pot and assume everything will cook up perfectly. That's because the meat you use in your beef stew needs to cook for a lot longer than your vegetables before they become tender. If you add the veggies at the same time as the meat, by the time the beef is ready your carrots and potatoes will have turned to mush — we don't even want to think about the state of the peas.

Instead, you should prepare the meat for your stew and start the braising process. Then, about 45 minutes before the meat is done cooking , add your chopped veggies to the pot.

This will give them just enough time to cook through until tender, without turning them into a pile of mush. It's definitely tempting to throw all of your beef stew ingredients into the pot all at once and to start cooking right away — and many recipes tell you to do just that we're looking at you, slow cooker recipes.

But if you simply set and forget your stew, you're missing out on a lot of flavor. To add a depth of savory, meaty flavor to your beef stew, you should always sear your meat before you start the braising process. If you're using a pan on the stove top or using a dutch oven, you can brown your beef right in the pot.

Add the cubed, seasoned meat in batches to a pot over medium high heat you don't want it to overcrowd, or it will steam instead of browning , letting it caramelize on the outside but not cooking it through.

Remove the seared beef and repeat until all of it is finished. The caramelization process adds extra depth of flavor to your stew, and the brown bits at the bottom of your pan can be scraped up with a wooden spoon when you add the broth, which will infuse the liquid with even more rich flavor. If you're using a slow cooker, it's still worth it to sear your meat before adding it to the pot — and don't forget to deglaze the pan you used to sear the beef, adding the prized liquid to the slow cooker too before continuing on.

There's something romantic about letting a stew simmer away on the stove top all day, but if you actually let it cook all day long, chances are you'll wind up with tough, dry, stringy meat. There are actually a surprising number of ways to overcook the meat in your beef stew. The first is simply letting your stew go for too long. In some ways, this is a matter of preference — do you like your meat so tender it falls apart into stringy, individual muscle fibers when it's done, or do you like it tender enough to cut with a spoon but without it falling apart into the broth?

Definitely don't push your meat past the point of stringiness, though — it's a short jump from there to inedible, dry meat. The second way to overcook your meat is to cook it at too high of a temperature. If you don't leave the beef simmering at a low and slow temperature, the proteins in the meat will seize up and become tough, and the collagen and fat won't have time to break down, leaving you with a rubbery, inedible product. Instead, make sure you're using low heat — you don't want your stew to ever come to a rolling boil.

Stew meat is supposed to be silky and tender, not like a toothsome bite of steak you might carve from a T-Bone that's straight off the grill. That means that, yes, you need to cook your meat to well done and beyond.

The key here is using a low and slow method of cooking. Rapidly simmering or cooking at a lower temperature will hasten or slow down the rate at which the meat reaches each stage. Different cuts of meat will also undergo changes at different rates, depending on the ratio of fat to lean to connective tissue, as well as how tough or distinct the individual muscle fibers are.

My advice? Use the timing in any stew recipe as a guideline. Unless, of course, you like eating dry, pulpy stew? No, I didn't think so. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Use precise geolocation data. Select personalised content. Create a personalised content profile. Measure ad performance. Select basic ads. Create a personalised ads profile. Select personalised ads. Apply market research to generate audience insights.

Measure content performance. Develop and improve products. List of Partners vendors. Pin Share Email. The tenderest cuts are those that have very little connective tissue and come from a little-used muscle. For a list of tough and tender cuts, see the diagram on the facing page. So which muscles work the hardest and have the most connective tissue? The large muscles that connect to the hips and shoulders, however, work a lot and have more connective tissue, so meat from those areas round or rump roasts from the hip, chuck from the shoulder is generally on the tougher side.

By its very composition, meat poses a challenge to cooks. The more you cook muscle, the more the proteins will firm up, toughen, and dry out. But the longer you cook connective tissue, the more it softens and becomes edible. By the time connective tissue is becoming edible, the muscle has completely overcooked.

So the trick to getting good results is deciding at the outset what sort of treatment the beef needs. Is it a mostly tender cut that needs to be cooked only long enough to make it safe to eat and develop good flavor? Or is it a mostly tough cut that needs ample time for connective tissue to break down?

Every cut has its own particular needs. Tender cuts with little connective tissue can take high, dry heat. This creates delicious browning on the outside without overheating the muscle inside. Steaks and other small tender cuts take well to quick cooking methods like grilling, pan searing, and frying. Larger cuts like prime rib are good candidates for roasting. I like to start in a hot oven—just long enough to brown the surface—and then lower the heat for the remaining cooking time to let the heat slowly diffuse through the meat, until it reaches the temperature and color I want.

Tougher cuts with lots of connective tissue do best with gentle, moist heat and lots of time. The slow, low-heat cooking allows connective tissue to break down into soft, silky gelatin, which gives the braise or stew a wonderful, rich mouth-feel. A couple of things though: 1. It's stew season! We've been taking advantage of the chill in the air, and making warm, cozy dishes like chili , posole , and chicken stew for dinner.

But there's one stew to rule them all: beef stew. Though it's a staple in most households, this rich, hearty meal can sometimes fall short. It can be too thin or too thick; the meat can be dry and stringy or gray and flavorless; veggies can be too mushy or not cooked enough. It's a tough balance to strike, but you should know how to cook this classic cold-weather dish like a pro. We asked senior associate food editor Alison Roman for advice on making the best batch of stew humanly possible, and she pointed out the 7 deadly sins everyone should avoid.