Ingredient

Stew

A stew turns the cheapest, toughest cuts into the best eating in the kitchen, and it does it by converting connective tissue into gelatine. That conversion needs time at a low temperature, which is why hurrying a stew makes it tougher rather than quicker.

Why the tough cuts are the right cuts

Muscles that work hard are full of collagen, the connective tissue that holds them together. Collagen is tough and chewy — but held at a gentle simmer for a few hours it converts into gelatine, which is soft, rich and gives the sauce its body.

Lean cuts have almost no collagen. Stew a fillet steak for three hours and you get dry strings, because there was nothing to convert and the muscle fibres have simply squeezed out all their water.

So look for shin, chuck, brisket, oxtail, shoulder, cheek and neck. They are cheap precisely because they need this treatment, and they are what makes a stew taste of something.

The method

1. Cut the meat into large pieces — larger than feels right, because they shrink considerably.
2. Dry the surfaces thoroughly and brown them hard, in batches, in a hot pan. Crowding the pan is the single commonest error and gives grey meat and a pale stew.
3. Take the meat out and cook the onions and aromatics in the same pan, scraping up the browned deposits.
4. Add flour if you are using it, cook it out for a minute, then deglaze with wine or stock and scrape the base clean.
5. Return the meat, add liquid to come most of the way up but not to cover, and bring it to a bare simmer.
6. Cook it low — in a 140–150°C oven, or on the gentlest hob setting — for as long as it takes. Two to four hours depending on the cut.
7. It is ready when the meat gives way completely to a spoon. Not when a timer says so.

Why stews go wrong

• Tough meat after hours of cooking — either the wrong cut, or it boiled, or it has not cooked long enough. Boiling makes meat tougher, and it is the usual culprit.
• Watery sauce — too much liquid at the start. Lift the meat out and reduce hard, or start with less next time.
• Grey, weak flavour — the meat was not browned, or was browned in a crowded pan.
• Vegetables collapsed to mush — root vegetables added at the start. Add them for the last hour.
• Greasy — cool it and lift the fat off. This is why a stew is better made the day before.
• Bland — under-seasoned, and needs acid at the end. A splash of vinegar in a heavy stew is transformative.

The variations

Beef bourguignon

Red wine, bacon, mushrooms and small onions, the last three added late so they keep their shape.

Coq au vin

The same treatment with chicken — traditionally an old bird that genuinely needed the hours.

Irish stew

Lamb, potato and onion, no browning at all. A genuinely different technique — pale and delicate.

Tagine

Spiced, often with dried fruit, and cooked with very little liquid.

Goulash

Paprika-led, and the paprika must go in off the heat or it turns bitter.

Ragù

A stew that becomes a pasta sauce. See bolognese.

Common questions