Wyoming · Soup
Wyoming Cowboy Stew
- Intermediate
- 2 h 30 m
- roughly 3 of 4 for cost
Leads with savory depth stacked from the pantry’s bass notes, aromatics blooming from the first bite, fading in warm spice.
Ingredients
- 1kg beef chuck, cubed
- 3 tbsp oil
- 2 onions, diced
- 4 garlic cloves
- 3 tbsp flour
- 1.5L beef stock
- 400g crushed tomatoes
- 4 potatoes, chunked
- 4 carrots, chunked
- 200g corn kernels
- 1 tbsp Worcestershire
- 2 bay leaves
- Salt and pepper
The skills inside
Searing: the hard crustSweating aromatics: soft, never browned
Allergen screen
Found: gluten · fish
Screened for: gluten, dairy, egg, nuts, peanuts, fish, shellfish, molluscs, soy, sesame, celery, mustard, lupin, alcohol. Not screened: sulphites.
Screened by keyword from the ingredient list, not reviewed by a person; check every label for what the list cannot show.
Method
- Brown the beef hard in the oil in batches; set aside.
- Sweat the onions and garlic, sprinkle in the flour, and cook 2 min. 2 min
- Add the stock, tomatoes, Worcestershire, and bay and return the beef. Simmer 90 min. 90 min
- Add the potatoes and carrots and cook 30 min until tender. 30 min
- Stir in the corn, cook 5 min more, and season well. 5 min
How to tell it is going right
This dish has no standard of its own yet. It is judged on the techniques it exercises: checked at the pan, while there is still something to be done about it.
Searing: the hard crust 141 recipes
- The pan keeps a hard, steady sizzle from the moment the food lands and does not fall quiet; silence within the first half minute means the pan lost its heat and the surface is now steaming rather than browning.
- It releases itself when tested: slide a thin edge under and it lifts without tearing. Anything that grips the pan has not formed a crust yet and is not ready to be moved.
- Deep even brown across the whole face, edge to edge, when it is turned under the light: no pale ring left around a browned centre, and no black patches that taste bitter on their own.
- The pan floor carries a dry browned layer that dissolves and lifts the moment liquid hits it: not a wet grey film, and not black flecks that stay put and stay bitter.
- Cut into it: the browned band is thin, a few millimetres at most, sitting straight on top of correctly cooked interior; a thick grey collar under the crust means the heat was too low for too long.
Where it goes wrong The pan was not hot enough, or too much went in at once, so the food released its water and sat in it: the surface goes grey and steams, it sticks when moved, and the crust that eventually forms arrives over an interior already cooked through.
Sweating aromatics: soft, never browned 198 recipes
- No colour anywhere: tipped under the light the pieces are translucent to pale gold, with no tan edges, no brown tips, and no browned flecks suspended in the fat.
- The pan is quiet: a low steady hiss, not a crackle. A crackle means the moisture has gone and browning has already started.
- The largest piece pressed against the side of the pan collapses without resistance and with no crunch left at its centre.
- The fat is still clear and loose in the pan and the pan floor is clean: nothing caught, nothing browned on to deglaze, because there was never any fond to build.
- It tastes sweet and mild with no raw allium bite at the back of the throat, and none of the roasted sweetness that belongs to the next technique up the heat scale.
Where it goes wrong The heat was too high and nothing covered the pan, so the pieces took colour before they softened; the finished dish carries a roasty sweetness where it wanted a clean one, and the pieces are still firm at the centre under browned edges.
At the Table
- The Pour
- Syrah (northern Rhône) or Nebbiolo
- Also Right
- The braising wine itself, better bottle
- From the Taps
- Belgian dubbel
- Zero-Proof
- Beet & blackcurrant shrub
Long-cooked beef trades bite for depth: savory, structured reds echo the pot; and pouring the braise’s own region is law.
Saved on this device and kept across visits: export from My Menu to move them.