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How to make a tender, flavorful stew
Which cuts to choose, why to brown the meat, how to cook it gently, and why a stew tastes even better the next day.
Beef bourguignon, blanquette de veau, Basque-style chicken: stews come back as soon as the evenings turn cool. They take little hands-on work and a lot of patience. Four things make the difference between dry meat and meat that falls apart under a fork.
Choose the right cuts
For a stew, skip the tender, expensive cuts: tenderloin or sirloin dries out in long cooking. You want hard-working cuts with plenty of connective tissue: chuck, shin or cheek for beef, shoulder or breast for veal, thighs and drumsticks for chicken.
That tissue is tough in a skillet, but it melts with time and gentle heat. It gives you moist meat and a sauce that coats the spoon, with nothing added. Ask your butcher for stewing or braising beef, and cut it into large, even cubes so they cook at the same pace.
Brown before you simmer
For a brown stew like bourguignon, start by browning the meat. Pat the pieces dry with paper towels, heat the fat well and brown them in batches. Crowded in the pot, they release their juices and boil instead of browning. That brown crust gives the sauce its color and much of its flavor.
Then pour in the wine or stock and scrape the bottom with a wooden spoon to lift the browned bits. A spoonful of flour sprinkled over the browned meat will thicken the sauce. Blanquette is the exception: it is a white stew. The meat starts in cold water, without browning, and you skim off the gray foam that rises as it boils to keep the broth clear.
Cook low and slow
Once the liquid is in, turn the heat down. The cue to look for: small bubbles rising slowly, never a rolling boil. Over high heat, the fibers tighten and the meat turns dry and stringy, even after a long time. Cover the pot and keep enough liquid to almost cover the meat. Vegetables that should hold their shape, like carrots, can go in partway through.
The meat is ready when it falls apart easily with a fork; if it resists, keep cooking. A pressure cooker cuts the time a lot, and it is the method our bourguignon uses. For blanquette, the egg yolk and cream go in off the heat, at the very end. After that, warm it through without boiling, or the sauce will curdle.
Why it’s better the next day
A stew gains from waiting. As it cools, the flavors of the sauce blend and soak into the meat, and the gelatin released during cooking makes the sauce thicker. The fat rises and sets on the surface, so you can simply lift it off with a spoon.
As soon as the pot has cooled a little, cover it and put it in the fridge. The next day, reheat it over low heat, stirring now and then, with a splash of water if the sauce has thickened too much. Made the day before, a stew becomes a dinner ready in advance: all that is left is to cook potatoes, rice or pasta.
