[2 - 2] hey everyone it's kenji we're going to
[2 - 6] be making some beef stew
[6 - 7] so this is not you know this is just a
[7 - 9] beef stew it's uh
[9 - 11] got some flavors in it it's going to
[12 - 13] um you know a little bit like a beef
[14 - 15] bourguignon but i mean you could
[15 - 17] transform this into a before ginon or
[17 - 19] into a prolonged soul or into a you know
[19 - 21] american beef stew doesn't really matter
[22 - 23] the the technique is the same for
[23 - 25] everything um it's just the flavors that
[25 - 28] would change um so i've got here a chuck
[28 - 30] roast um so you can see lots of
[30 - 31] intramuscular fat that's the little sort
[32 - 34] of marbling inside the meat
[34 - 35] you want that in a beef stew because
[35 - 37] that has fat and connective tissue it's
[37 - 38] going to keep it juicy as it cooks
[38 - 39] because even though you're cooking in
[40 - 43] moisture it can dry out so one thing
[43 - 47] it can dry out so one thing that i like to do when i make beefs do
[49 - 52] rather than cubing the beef
[52 - 54] uh before searing it i like to actually
[54 - 56] just sear it as sort of steaks
[56 - 58] the reason being that i can get a much
[58 - 61] better sear when i don't have all that
[61 - 64] excess surface area of the cubes where
[64 - 65] moisture starts to come off and lowers
[65 - 67] the temperature of the dutch oven
[67 - 70] so you can get plenty of good
[70 - 72] browned beefy flavor just by searing it
[73 - 76] um and you don't run the risk of um
[76 - 79] uh steaming the meat instead of searing
[79 - 81] it at least you lower that risk
[81 - 83] all right so i got these nice thick
[88 - 88] season them reasonably well with salt
[88 - 103] and pepper okay
[103 - 104] okay a little bit less than i would do if i
[105 - 107] cooking an actual
[107 - 108] steak that i was gonna eat on its own
[108 - 109] because we are gonna be adding some
[109 - 110] other ingredients here and we can always
[110 - 137] season a little bit more as we go
[139 - 139] plenty of black pepper
[140 - 142] okay now just a little vegetable oil actually
[142 - 143] now just a little vegetable oil actually says rice bran oil
[143 - 145] highest heat possible
[145 - 147] pre-heat that dutch oven we want to wait
[148 - 150] until that oil is kind of just barely
[150 - 153] starting to smoke
[157 - 157] um by the way this recipe is basically
[157 - 159] the same as what i have um published on
[159 - 161] sirius eats and i can send you a link to
[161 - 162] that uh if you look in the description
[162 - 164] below the recipe the link will be there
[166 - 169] along with uh some very sort of in-depth
[169 - 171] explanations of why i take certain steps
[174 - 175] you know those steps are something that
[175 - 177] you might consider taking or you might
[178 - 179] all right so meanwhile i'm going to take
[181 - 183] stock here this is chicken stock i use
[183 - 185] chicken stock instead of beef stock even
[185 - 187] when making beef stew because
[187 - 188] well first of all i never i very rarely
[188 - 190] make homemade beef stock you know you i
[190 - 194] don't have beef bones at home very often
[194 - 196] i do often make homemade chicken stock
[196 - 198] but if you're using store-bought it's
[198 - 200] pretty much always better to use
[200 - 201] store-bought chicken broth than beef
[201 - 204] broth because beef broth has a lot less
[204 - 206] actual beef in it and a lot more
[206 - 209] sort of fake meat flavorings in it so
[209 - 211] store-bought beef broth is generally
[211 - 212] just not very good whereas store-bought
[212 - 213] chicken broth usually has a lot more
[213 - 215] actual chicken in it so i'm pouring a
[215 - 217] little bit of powdered gelatin on top a
[217 - 218] couple tablespoons of powdered gelatin
[218 - 220] on top of about four cups of chicken
[220 - 223] stock if you were using homemade stock
[223 - 224] that already has a lot of gelatin in it
[224 - 228] don't bother using the um the um
[228 - 229] the powdered gelatin there
[233 - 236] we are sort of ready to
[236 - 246] start searing here [Music]
[246 - 255] [Music] we'll just nestle them in
[266 - 266] all right so my stock is here my gelatin
[266 - 267] is hydrated so now what i'm going to do
[267 - 269] is i'm going to take my blender
[269 - 270] and what we're basically do is we're
[272 - 274] bump up the umami in this sauce so we're
[274 - 276] going to add a lot of things that are
[276 - 277] sort of high in
[277 - 279] glutamic acid
[279 - 281] which is what gives us our that
[281 - 284] sensation of savoriness so i got my
[285 - 287] stock i'm gonna add a couple tablespoons of
[287 - 291] i'm gonna add a couple tablespoons of tomato paste
[293 - 293] this is miso i think the published
[293 - 295] recipe i have calls for maybe soy sauce
[295 - 296] and worcestershire i'm just using miso
[296 - 298] because i saw it in my fridge and i
[298 - 302] grabbed it this is red miso very high in
[302 - 308] umami flavor and
[308 - 311] and then a few anchovy fillets
[312 - 315] anchovies um fermented seafood in
[315 - 317] general is high not only in
[317 - 320] glutamic acid but also inosinic acid
[320 - 322] which sort of
[322 - 324] work in tandem to increase
[324 - 326] umami flavor um all right now i'm just
[326 - 328] gonna blend that all up
[328 - 330] and don't worry it's not gonna even
[330 - 331] though we're adding some anchovies in
[331 - 333] here it does not taste fishy at the end
[333 - 335] in the slightest you won't tell that you
[335 - 336] won't know that they're there all you'll
[337 - 339] the beef stew is much meatier than you
[340 - 341] expect you know than any beef stew has a right
[341 - 344] you know than any beef stew has a right to be all right
[344 - 346] oops i gotta go plug that in hang on a
[346 - 376] second all right
[376 - 378] all right that there's our brazing liquid so now
[378 - 379] what we're going to do
[379 - 382] so the final stew is going to have in it
[382 - 385] um mushrooms potatoes pearl onions and
[387 - 390] carrots now those ingredients
[390 - 391] now those ingredients um some of those ingredients are also
[391 - 393] going to go into the actual brazing
[393 - 394] process itself actually so the carrots
[394 - 398] are are and white onions are
[399 - 401] separate carrots at the end because the
[401 - 402] ones that braise along with the beef
[402 - 404] they end up getting like
[404 - 406] pretty much to total mush um the same
[406 - 408] with the onions so i'm gonna what i'm
[409 - 414] is i'm going to separately
[414 - 415] separately cook off some onions
[415 - 418] pearl onions mushrooms and carrot chunks
[418 - 419] that i'm gonna save and then add back to
[419 - 421] the soup sort of towards the end
[421 - 424] the reason being that by separately
[424 - 425] cooking them off
[425 - 428] uh i also am able to build up some brown
[429 - 431] flavors in the dutch oven
[431 - 433] in the dutch oven that then get transferred to the stew
[433 - 436] you'll see what i mean in a second
[436 - 438] so when cutting mushrooms like this this
[438 - 439] is uh one of those situations quartering
[439 - 441] them where you actually don't do the
[441 - 443] claw grip at least i don't i like to
[443 - 444] straddle it and stick my knife in the
[444 - 448] middle and then rotate it quarter turn
[448 - 449] just do it like that
[449 - 451] this is one of the things i had to do
[451 - 453] one of my early restaurant jobs was
[453 - 455] quarter mushrooms for roasting them um
[455 - 458] and i remember i used to
[458 - 460] not be very knife skill oriented and i
[460 - 461] would sit there going like that and then
[461 - 464] turn it like this and i would go i would
[464 - 466] go like that and then i would go like
[466 - 467] this and you know i would just kind of
[467 - 469] roughly try and get them in the right
[469 - 471] place and my old chef there jason bond
[471 - 473] you know he kind of
[473 - 476] lit a fire under my butt and said
[476 - 477] you know when you're in the kitchen you
[477 - 478] got to work with a little bit of urgency
[478 - 480] and think about efficiency and so that's
[480 - 481] why i started doing that rolling
[481 - 482] technique which i think works a lot
[482 - 485] better um but at home whatever do it
[485 - 486] however you want all right so those are
[486 - 488] the onions that are going to get browned
[488 - 490] i got my pearl onions there oh sorry the
[490 - 491] mushrooms are gonna get browned i got my
[491 - 493] pearl onions here those are frozen
[494 - 495] frozen pearl onions are great
[495 - 497] big time saver because it's a pain in
[497 - 499] the butt to peel fresh pearl onions and
[499 - 501] especially for something like this where
[501 - 502] they're gonna go into a stew
[502 - 505] the frozen work just
[512 - 512] let's check out
[512 - 514] the status of our beef here
[514 - 516] starting to smell some brown
[516 - 518] brownness going on
[518 - 519] looking pretty good we don't need it
[521 - 522] um this is one of those things where
[522 - 524] it's actually so we're going to be doing
[524 - 526] finishing this off in the oven
[526 - 527] um and so we're going to be developing a
[527 - 529] lot of brown flavors
[529 - 531] i mean that can stay a little bit longer
[531 - 532] in the oven itself
[532 - 535] by by doing this in a lid with a
[535 - 538] in a pot with a sort of cracked lid
[538 - 540] lid cracked open
[549 - 549] looking good all right so for our the
[549 - 550] carrots that are going to finish in the
[550 - 552] stew we're going to do
[552 - 556] a little roll cut so
[558 - 558] like that at a 90 degree hold your knife
[558 - 560] at a 45 degree angle then roll the
[560 - 562] carrot 90 degrees and give it another
[564 - 567] cut and this turns them into nice little
[567 - 568] and this turns them into nice little chunks that you can sort of alter the
[568 - 570] site you can make the chunks a little
[570 - 572] bit longer as you get closer to the end
[572 - 573] of the carrot but
[575 - 578] [Music] they still remain relatively similar
[578 - 579] they still remain relatively similar in dimensions no matter how far down the
[580 - 581] carrot you get um
[581 - 584] just because by by the nature of the
[584 - 586] the way those shapes work out
[586 - 587] um which is good because you want your
[587 - 590] carrots to be relatively similar in size
[590 - 593] the pieces at the end
[593 - 605] but we'll do some nice chunky cards
[607 - 607] those can go right in
[607 - 610] with our onions here
[610 - 611] um the links in the description will
[611 - 612] also leave a few links in the
[612 - 615] description below um to a bunch of
[615 - 619] what i call stew science so sort of
[619 - 620] posts that explain
[620 - 621] posts on serious seats i've written that
[623 - 626] explain [Music] [Music] various
[626 - 628] scientific aspects of the stew and why
[628 - 630] certain things work the way they do
[630 - 632] why you might consider doing certain
[632 - 633] things the way you would you know for
[633 - 635] instance like i talk about
[635 - 637] meat breakdown and the structure of
[637 - 639] animal muscles and why uh meat breaks
[639 - 641] down the way it does and how it actually
[641 - 644] is very possible to overcook meat in a
[647 - 648] if you're going to be
[648 - 649] even if you're cooking in liquid it's
[649 - 651] still possible to cook meat until it
[651 - 653] turns completely dry in a completely in
[654 - 655] even when it's completely submerged in
[655 - 658] liquid um there's some very good
[658 - 660] good reasons behind that all right i'm
[660 - 661] gonna let this meat continue browning
[661 - 662] it's probably gonna take about 10
[662 - 664] minutes total so i will be back in just
[664 - 668] about five more minutes so our steak is
[670 - 672] browned quite nicely let's see
[672 - 674] quite nicely let's see um by the way you can do this with any
[675 - 677] stewing cut chuck roast is great because
[677 - 679] there's a lot of that intramuscular
[679 - 681] fat and connective tissue it's
[681 - 683] relatively cheap
[683 - 684] but you could also do something like
[686 - 690] meat that would be great you could um
[690 - 691] you could do it with like you know and
[691 - 693] even the even the uh the stuff that they
[693 - 694] just sell is random stew meat at the
[694 - 696] butcher at the um butcher counter at the
[696 - 699] supermarket um will work that stuff is
[699 - 700] is usually chuck anyway but as long as
[700 - 702] it's got enough of that intramuscular
[702 - 704] fat you're good to go all right so into
[704 - 711] this pan now go my mushrooms
[713 - 713] and i'm going to let those now
[726 - 726] so making a stew like this is really
[726 - 728] just about building up flavors layers of
[728 - 731] flavors so we want to in this case we
[731 - 732] want you know we want our stew to have a
[732 - 734] really nice brown flavor so we're going
[734 - 736] to brown virtually everything that we
[738 - 739] and all those flavors we're not going to
[739 - 741] discard anything everything is going to
[741 - 743] end up going back
[744 - 746] into the into flavoring the broth from
[747 - 750] um and into or or into the final dish um
[750 - 751] the only parts we're gonna discard are
[751 - 753] the the large chunks of carrot and
[753 - 756] celery and an onion that uh basically
[756 - 757] give up all their flavor to the broth as
[760 - 764] but all this brown pond at the bottom
[767 - 769] good stuff all right so our onions and
[769 - 770] mushrooms are starting to get a little
[770 - 772] bit nicely browned
[772 - 776] i'm gonna go in with my carrots and my
[786 - 786] you could go even more with the
[786 - 789] mushrooms if you really wanted to but
[789 - 791] put on a little
[791 - 793] i got a sick kid upstairs right now
[793 - 796] who's waiting for me to go uh
[796 - 797] make her some tea or something so i'm
[799 - 800] a little bit of a rush to get this in
[806 - 806] all right so we're going to let this sit
[807 - 809] just a little bit
[809 - 810] meanwhile i'm going to take the steak so
[810 - 813] now that it's seared
[813 - 816] really nicely browned
[816 - 821] i'm going to cut it into chunks
[827 - 827] when you cut meat into chunks for
[827 - 829] stew you always want to remember that it
[830 - 833] probably about half in size
[833 - 835] so you want to keep it really
[835 - 837] nice and chunky
[837 - 841] don't go very small okay
[841 - 851] okay something like that it's good
[853 - 853] and some people might want to cut off
[853 - 856] the um you know the big chunks of uh of
[856 - 859] fat in here um you can by all means if
[859 - 861] you want to um i personally kind of like
[861 - 864] them um i like the way fat gets really
[864 - 866] soft and melt in your mouth when uh when
[866 - 869] it cooks in a stew so i leave it on but
[869 - 878] by all means do what you wish
[880 - 880] yeah let's leave these in
[880 - 888] nice real big chunks like that
[909 - 909] all right so again we don't we don't
[909 - 911] want to lose any flavor so that means
[911 - 912] even the juices that came out of that
[915 - 927] cut it we're gonna get them all back in
[930 - 930] and so our stew is going to be mostly
[930 - 932] thickened by that gelatin as it reduces
[932 - 934] um which is a texture that i really like
[934 - 936] it gives it a sort of you know
[936 - 938] what you would call unctuous or what
[938 - 939] what someone who isn't afraid of the
[939 - 941] word anxious would call anxious
[942 - 943] mouth feel also if you're not afraid of
[944 - 945] the word mouthful i know a lot of people
[945 - 947] are grossed out by it um
[947 - 948] but it gives it a sort of unctuous mouth
[949 - 950] feel but you could also describe it as sort
[950 - 952] but you could also describe it as sort of rich
[953 - 955] and sticky or velvety um as opposed to a
[955 - 957] sticky or velvety um as opposed to a stew that's like completely thickened by
[957 - 959] flour which has a little more of a
[959 - 961] flowery mouse feel but we are going to
[961 - 962] add a little bit of supplemental flour
[966 - 967] to help thicken it up just
[971 - 973] more um you do want to avoid things like
[973 - 975] um you do want to avoid things like cornstarch
[975 - 977] or potato starch when thickening up a
[977 - 979] stew um or basically anything that's
[979 - 981] going to be reheated um if you've ever
[982 - 984] you know chinese food with a sauce
[985 - 988] that one day was nice and rich and glossy and
[988 - 989] one day was nice and rich and glossy and thick
[989 - 990] and then you put it in the fridge
[990 - 991] overnight and the next day it's all
[992 - 994] watery that's because cornstarch loses its
[994 - 996] that's because cornstarch loses its thickening power once it cools down and
[996 - 998] gets reheated so
[998 - 1001] uh for something like a stew where
[1001 - 1003] i am almost 100 definitely going to wait
[1003 - 1005] until tomorrow to eat this because it
[1005 - 1006] tastes better the second day um
[1006 - 1008] definitely want to avoid using
[1008 - 1010] cornstarch to thicken it because
[1010 - 1018] the thickening will not last
[1021 - 1021] all right we got nice and brown there
[1021 - 1029] so now we're gonna save these vegetables
[1035 - 1035] because if we were to let these carrots
[1035 - 1037] and onions cook the entire time that the
[1037 - 1038] meat does meat takes way longer than
[1038 - 1039] carrots and onions to cook so they would
[1040 - 1041] just turn to complete mush so we're
[1042 - 1046] going to save them
[1049 - 1049] so i've got all new
[1049 - 1050] mirepoix here
[1050 - 1053] i got half an onion left the skin on
[1053 - 1055] big chunks of carrots a couple of them a
[1055 - 1057] couple ribs of celery the bottoms of
[1057 - 1059] those mushrooms i like to trim out the
[1059 - 1060] bottoms of button mushrooms or cremini
[1060 - 1062] because they get a little woody and then
[1062 - 1067] a few garlic cloves whole
[1076 - 1076] all right i won't bore you with the
[1076 - 1077] browning here but i'm going to get let
[1077 - 1078] these get nice and brown it'll take a
[1078 - 1081] few more minutes so i will see you in
[1081 - 1083] a couple more minutes all right so i got
[1083 - 1085] a little bit of browning on that onion
[1085 - 1087] and carrot and celery going um if i go
[1087 - 1088] too much longer i'm just kind of at risk
[1088 - 1090] of burning this fond down there so i'm
[1090 - 1092] gonna i'm gonna call it a day right
[1092 - 1093] there so what i'm going to do now is
[1093 - 1097] return the meat
[1099 - 1099] which has had a little bit of flour just
[1099 - 1103] a couple tablespoons of it added to it
[1104 - 1104] put as much of those juices in there as
[1113 - 1113] and then i'm going to deglaze with
[1116 - 1117] dry red wine
[1117 - 1120] any kind of dry red wine will work so if
[1120 - 1121] you're if you're not familiar with wine
[1121 - 1123] terms when i say dry i mean someone
[1123 - 1125] asked me this in another video
[1125 - 1126] in my bolognese video
[1126 - 1128] when i say dry i just mean very little
[1128 - 1130] residual sugar so wine that's not sweet
[1131 - 1132] it's a different
[1132 - 1134] it's or it's an orthogonal measure to
[1135 - 1137] say like you know fruity a wine can be very
[1137 - 1139] like you know fruity a wine can be very fruity but still dry like a pinot noir
[1139 - 1141] for example can be very
[1141 - 1143] fruity and bright but still have very
[1143 - 1145] little residual sugar all right and so
[1145 - 1147] i'm going to use that wine to deglaze
[1147 - 1148] which means i'm going to
[1155 - 1155] the brown bits around the bottom
[1155 - 1156] and the sides
[1158 - 1159] okay once that wine
[1160 - 1161] once that wine is about the point where we are now so
[1164 - 1165] um about as evaporated as i think it's
[1165 - 1166] going to get before it starts to
[1166 - 1168] actually burn on the bottom again
[1168 - 1181] i'm going to go in with my stock mixture
[1190 - 1190] it's indian bay it's just what i what i
[1190 - 1193] have you can use regular bay leaves
[1193 - 1199] and some time sprigs
[1201 - 1201] shave them like that
[1201 - 1202] if you want to make it easier on
[1202 - 1203] yourself later
[1203 - 1205] you know if you want to be considerate
[1205 - 1207] to future you you can tie those time
[1207 - 1208] sprigs up into a bundle to make them
[1208 - 1210] easier to fish out later but
[1212 - 1214] current me doesn't feel like doing it in
[1214 - 1216] future me's
[1216 - 1226] it's a jerk anyway all right is about
[1226 - 1227] is about it so now what we're going to do is
[1227 - 1228] we're going to let this come up to a
[1230 - 1231] simmer and then i'm going to transfer it to an
[1231 - 1233] and then i'm going to transfer it to an oven i have oven set at 300 degrees um
[1233 - 1235] the reason i like to do stews in the
[1235 - 1237] oven is a couple of reasons one of them
[1237 - 1239] is that a oven
[1239 - 1241] is a constant temperature
[1243 - 1245] instrument whereas a stovetop is a
[1245 - 1248] constant heat output cooking instruments
[1248 - 1249] so on a stove top
[1249 - 1251] when you have a large volume of stuff um
[1251 - 1253] and there's heat going into it uh it
[1253 - 1254] behaves a certain way but if you have a
[1254 - 1255] small volume of stuff and you have the
[1256 - 1257] same amount of feet going into it
[1257 - 1258] behaves a different way so as the stew
[1258 - 1260] reduces it'll actually start to simmer
[1260 - 1262] harder and harder and harder
[1262 - 1263] because the temperature start will start
[1263 - 1265] to go up and that's not what we want we
[1265 - 1266] want this to to maintain the same
[1266 - 1268] temperature the whole time so that's why
[1268 - 1270] one of the reasons i like why i like to
[1271 - 1272] stews like this
[1272 - 1274] braises long term braces in the oven as
[1274 - 1276] opposed to on the stovetop because it
[1276 - 1278] takes a little bit less attention the
[1278 - 1279] other reason is that an oven is an
[1280 - 1282] all-around heat so a stove top you're
[1282 - 1283] just cooking from the bottom
[1283 - 1285] and so you're never going to get any
[1285 - 1287] build up any sort of extra browned
[1287 - 1289] flavors what's in there is all that's
[1289 - 1290] going to be in there if you're cooking
[1290 - 1292] on the stovetop it'll reduce and it'll
[1292 - 1294] intensify but you're not going to
[1294 - 1296] develop any new brown flavors whereas in
[1296 - 1298] the oven there's heat from the top and
[1298 - 1299] that's going to all these little bits
[1300 - 1301] that are sticking out
[1301 - 1304] and as the as the broth reduces um as as
[1304 - 1306] it thickens up and as uh the protein
[1306 - 1308] coagulates on the top surface from that
[1308 - 1309] gelatin and from then what's coming out
[1309 - 1311] from the meat um that stuff will
[1311 - 1313] actually brown further um and so you can
[1313 - 1316] stir that into your stew so you get much
[1316 - 1318] better flavor much more brown flavor
[1318 - 1320] when you do a braise in the oven as
[1320 - 1322] opposed to on the stovetop
[1322 - 1323] so i'm going to let this come up to a
[1323 - 1324] simmer and what i'm going to do is i'm
[1324 - 1326] going to put it with the lid just
[1326 - 1328] slightly cracked the reason for that is
[1330 - 1332] because the thermal equilibrium that your meat
[1332 - 1334] the thermal equilibrium that your meat reaches uh changes depending on whether
[1334 - 1335] the lid is on it or not so when the lid
[1335 - 1337] is on it and you're trapping in that
[1337 - 1339] heat and you're trapping in steam uh
[1339 - 1341] it'll very easily come up to a sort of
[1341 - 1343] strong boil in a 300 degree even in like
[1343 - 1345] a 250 degree oven it'll come to a pretty
[1345 - 1346] strong boil
[1346 - 1348] and so you'll be cooking at around 100
[1348 - 1350] degrees celsius 212 degrees fahrenheit
[1350 - 1353] if you're american um whereas with the
[1353 - 1355] lid off and there's sort of constant
[1355 - 1357] evaporation you know or the lid crack
[1357 - 1358] like this and there's constant
[1358 - 1359] evaporation and that evaporation is
[1359 - 1361] allowed to escape um you get evaporative
[1362 - 1364] cooling and so your meat uh your stew
[1364 - 1366] actually ends up reaching an equilibrium
[1366 - 1368] at a relatively lower temperature so
[1368 - 1370] with the lid off in the oven you'll get
[1370 - 1372] to maybe a bare subson or a bear simmer
[1372 - 1375] at 300 degrees whereas with the lid on
[1375 - 1377] you'll get to a hard simmer and that
[1377 - 1379] actually makes a difference in terms of
[1379 - 1382] uh the texture of the meat at the end so
[1382 - 1383] in in general the rule of thumb with
[1383 - 1385] with braises is that the lower the
[1386 - 1388] temperature you cook your meat at
[1388 - 1390] you cook your meat at the more juiciness it'll retain when
[1390 - 1391] it's done the trade-off is that it takes
[1392 - 1393] a lot longer
[1393 - 1394] so but this will end up
[1394 - 1397] reaching equilibrium about
[1397 - 1400] maybe 90 to 95 degrees
[1400 - 1402] celsius so around 190 degrees fahrenheit
[1402 - 1405] something like that um which is a good
[1405 - 1407] point for beef to be at um it'll be
[1407 - 1409] tender in about two and a half hours uh
[1409 - 1411] and so you know
[1411 - 1413] again if you follow the links below
[1413 - 1415] you'll see some charts um especially if
[1415 - 1416] you if you have a sous-vide device you
[1416 - 1417] can really test this pretty easily to
[1417 - 1419] see how long it takes meat to tenderize
[1419 - 1421] at different temperatures and what the
[1421 - 1423] final texture uh and flavor differences
[1423 - 1426] are but i find that 300 degree oven lid
[1426 - 1428] cracked a nice steady sub simmer the
[1428 - 1431] whole time is a really good
[1431 - 1433] balance for beef stew
[1433 - 1436] all right so this is just about i can
[1436 - 1438] see it quivering a little bit which is
[1438 - 1441] basically means that it is at a
[1443 - 1445] which is where it's going to maintain
[1445 - 1447] virtually the whole time it cooks
[1447 - 1450] so what i'll do now is i will just
[1450 - 1458] pop it into my 300 degree oven
[1462 - 1462] crack the lid just a bit
[1463 - 1465] and then you know i'll keep a very lazy
[1465 - 1467] eye on it you can just completely ignore
[1467 - 1469] it if you want for an hour and a half um
[1469 - 1471] but i'll probably come in and stir it
[1471 - 1472] every once in a while just to get some
[1472 - 1474] of those brown flavors worked back into
[1474 - 1476] it but in any case i will see you all in
[1476 - 1478] an hour and a half or so a little bit
[1480 - 1483] anyhow i went for a walk and i came back
[1483 - 1485] all right and i stirred it once maybe
[1485 - 1487] half an hour ago
[1487 - 1489] all right so at this point let's pull it
[1490 - 1491] out we're not done yet by the way because
[1491 - 1493] we're not done yet by the way because we're about half done
[1494 - 1496] but everything has been largely hands
[1496 - 1498] off so at this point we're ready to
[1498 - 1500] take out those
[1500 - 1502] carrot the big chunks of carrot and
[1502 - 1504] celery and half onion and garlic and all
[1504 - 1506] those other aromatics that are there
[1506 - 1507] basically just to
[1507 - 1509] give up their flavor
[1509 - 1510] which they have done
[1514 - 1514] and we're going to add our final
[1514 - 1516] vegetables and the ones that are
[1516 - 1517] actually going to make it into our
[1517 - 1519] mouths at the end of course if you have
[1522 - 1524] pets you can save those
[1524 - 1526] carrots and celery don't give them the
[1527 - 1530] onions but give them the carrots and celery
[1530 - 1537] but give them the carrots and celery and they will appreciate you forever
[1539 - 1539] and so this is where
[1542 - 1544] says damn you passed kenji why are you such a
[1544 - 1549] damn you passed kenji why are you such a jerk and left all that time in here
[1552 - 1552] what i found as i get older is that
[1552 - 1555] future me becomes present me much
[1555 - 1558] quicker than it used to
[1558 - 1565] and that present me
[1565 - 1566] present me who future me who is now present me
[1566 - 1568] doesn't always appreciate what past me
[1568 - 1571] has done to him
[1571 - 1573] whether that's
[1574 - 1577] leaving the time
[1580 - 1580] uncut or you know more important things
[1580 - 1582] like not exercising enough present me
[1582 - 1584] does not like to past me didn't exercise
[1584 - 1588] enough i try to make up for it now
[1589 - 1589] but i should have made up for when i was
[1591 - 1592] younger all right
[1592 - 1596] all right so got most of that stuff out
[1598 - 1598] it doesn't have to be perfect i mean it
[1598 - 1599] can be perfect if you want but it
[1599 - 1602] doesn't have to be
[1604 - 1604] and by the way this smells really really
[1604 - 1607] really good um
[1607 - 1608] so i'm going to add my carrots and
[1608 - 1611] mushrooms and onions
[1613 - 1615] i'll leave this on the simmer just while
[1615 - 1617] i finish cutting up those potatoes i
[1617 - 1618] don't want it to cool down too much um
[1618 - 1620] you know what especially smells good is
[1620 - 1621] if you leave the house which is what i
[1621 - 1623] did if you leave the house
[1623 - 1625] then you come back
[1625 - 1627] so that your nose
[1627 - 1628] uh you know all the receptors in your
[1628 - 1630] nose that got used to feeling to
[1630 - 1631] smelling certain smells are no longer
[1632 - 1633] used to those smells
[1633 - 1634] and so they're like all refreshed and
[1634 - 1635] then when you get back in the house oh
[1635 - 1638] my god does it smell good um all right
[1638 - 1640] i'm using yukon gold potatoes uh you can
[1640 - 1642] use other types of potatoes but i tend
[1642 - 1644] to prefer for a stew like this i tend to
[1644 - 1647] prefer kind of waxier type of potato so
[1647 - 1649] yukon gold or even a red potato would be
[1649 - 1651] fine um what i don't generally like for
[1651 - 1654] stews is russet potatoes because they
[1654 - 1656] will um they are starchier and they'll
[1656 - 1658] break down and they'll turn the stew
[1659 - 1662] flowery and cloudy um i already have
[1662 - 1665] these peeled oop a little eye
[1665 - 1668] all right that must be perfect and we're
[1668 - 1669] going to leave these also
[1670 - 1671] nice and chunky i would have if i had
[1671 - 1673] more potato if i had one more potato i
[1673 - 1674] would have used probably one more
[1674 - 1676] actually maybe i don't know maybe this
[1676 - 1677] is all right but we're going to leave
[1677 - 1679] them nice and chunky like we did
[1679 - 1681] the meat potatoes don't shrink but i
[1681 - 1692] still like a nice big chunk
[1695 - 1695] by the way this kind of braise
[1695 - 1697] um you know whether you're doing like a
[1697 - 1698] br you could you could use the same
[1698 - 1702] exact technique
[1704 - 1704] uh for other types of braids as well so
[1704 - 1706] like if you're bracing short ribs if
[1706 - 1707] you're braising
[1707 - 1709] lamb shanks if you're braising oxtail
[1709 - 1711] you could use essentially the exact same
[1711 - 1713] recipe and it will come out delicious
[1713 - 1715] um or you can use all the same
[1715 - 1716] techniques and braised even this same
[1716 - 1718] cut just change out the flavors and it
[1718 - 1719] would come out delicious so like to make
[1720 - 1722] this into a bourguignon you would use a
[1722 - 1724] you know burgundy style wine um
[1724 - 1726] mushrooms are still still going there
[1726 - 1727] onions would still go in there um
[1727 - 1729] instead of carrots um you start off by
[1729 - 1731] rendering some
[1731 - 1735] big chunky lardons of a pork belly or
[1735 - 1737] salt pork or bacon and then i'll add
[1737 - 1739] those all back in at the end
[1739 - 1741] but same basic idea same basic
[1741 - 1744] principles apply browning to get flavor
[1744 - 1746] layering to get flavor
[1746 - 1748] adding a few ingredients to enhance the
[1750 - 1751] savoriness and then going
[1751 - 1753] and then going relatively low and slow in a slightly
[1759 - 1759] dutch oven in the oven oh wow that
[1759 - 1760] tastes good all right so this is going
[1760 - 1763] to go back in the oven now
[1765 - 1766] [Music] let me make sure we're at a simmer first
[1766 - 1767] let me make sure we're at a simmer first um this is basically going to go back in
[1767 - 1769] the oven for about another hour and in
[1769 - 1772] that hour of time the carrots are going
[1772 - 1773] to finish cooking the potatoes are going
[1776 - 1779] the beef is going to finish braising
[1779 - 1780] when you're braising beef there's like
[1780 - 1781] basically three levels of breakdown
[1781 - 1783] you're looking for so there's primary
[1783 - 1785] breakdown where all the sort of um real
[1785 - 1787] interconnective tissue and an
[1787 - 1789] intramuscular fat starts to break down
[1790 - 1791] um but the beef chunks still kind of
[1791 - 1792] hold their shape so they're nice and
[1792 - 1794] juicy and they hold their shape which is
[1794 - 1796] where i like a beef stew to be and then
[1796 - 1798] there's a secondary breakdown where the
[1798 - 1800] um the stuff that's holding the muscle
[1800 - 1802] fibrils together um
[1802 - 1803] starts to break down and so the muscle
[1803 - 1805] fibrils shred
[1805 - 1806] and that's what's something you would
[1806 - 1807] get you know that's a texture you would
[1807 - 1809] get for something like a ropa vieja you
[1810 - 1811] know where you cook it a little bit
[1811 - 1813] longer like a cuban style ropa vieja you
[1813 - 1816] could a little bit longer um i call that
[1816 - 1818] secondary breakdown these are all my own
[1818 - 1819] terms by the way i don't know this is
[1819 - 1820] generally what people would refer to
[1820 - 1822] these stages as or if people even think
[1822 - 1825] about these stages um and then finally
[1825 - 1827] there's you know tertiary state
[1827 - 1829] tertiary breakdown which is where the
[1829 - 1831] actual muscle fibrils themselves start
[1831 - 1833] to break down and that's when you end up
[1833 - 1834] with a sort of like a
[1836 - 1838] pulpy really chalky dry
[1838 - 1840] really chalky dry braised beef and nobody really likes
[1840 - 1842] that that's
[1842 - 1843] that's way too far so there is such
[1843 - 1845] thing as over braising
[1845 - 1848] your beef or over over cooking a stew
[1848 - 1850] with beef with chunks like this i look
[1850 - 1851] just for that primary breakdown which
[1851 - 1852] generally takes about two and a half to
[1852 - 1854] three hours at a sub-simmer um so i'm
[1854 - 1855] gonna throw this back in the oven now
[1855 - 1857] that we're back at the simmer
[1857 - 1859] throw back in here
[1859 - 1865] let it finish
[1867 - 1867] and i will check on it um i'll check on
[1867 - 1869] it after an hour and then see where
[1869 - 1871] we're at and uh if it needs to go a
[1871 - 1872] little bit longer i'll let it go a
[1872 - 1873] little bit longer but hopefully we'll be
[1873 - 1875] done in about
[1875 - 1878] another hour maybe an hour 20 minutes or
[1879 - 1880] someone will look at the clock i'm sure
[1880 - 1882] and tell me exactly where but let's see
[1889 - 1889] all right smells good
[1889 - 1891] looks good so you see how we get all
[1891 - 1893] this little extra browning going on
[1907 - 1907] yeah looking good all right so at this
[1907 - 1909] stage what we can do
[1910 - 1911] is we can put it in the fridge overnight
[1911 - 1913] or let it cool to room temperature and
[1913 - 1914] then put it in the fridge overnight um
[1916 - 1918] as i was cooking this today when my
[1918 - 1920] daughter came into the kitchen she
[1920 - 1921] smelled it and said she wanted it for
[1922 - 1923] dinner and for breakfast so we're
[1923 - 1925] probably going to eat some tonight
[1926 - 1927] and eat some tomorrow but now what i'm
[1927 - 1928] going to do is i'm just going to have it
[1928 - 1930] on the stovetop i'm going to scrape off
[1930 - 1932] all these extra brown bits on the sides
[1932 - 1934] because you don't want to lose those
[1934 - 1940] because those are all flavor as well
[1941 - 1941] and i'm going to let it reduce just on
[1941 - 1943] the stove top by simmering
[1943 - 1952] until it's about as thick as i want it yeah here
[1952 - 1954] yeah here here you go
[1960 - 1960] good boy all right
[1960 - 1961] let me make sure all my vegetables are
[1961 - 1965] cooked the way i want them
[1967 - 1967] get a potato out
[1967 - 1970] get a carrot out
[1970 - 1971] and we'll make sure the meat is also
[1977 - 1977] it's looking good so the meat chunks are
[1977 - 1980] holding they're holding their shape
[1980 - 1996] which is a good sign potato potato perfect
[2001 - 2001] so it's holding its shape but when we
[2001 - 2003] push it with a fork
[2004 - 2013] cuts right through oh yeah um um that is
[2014 - 2014] exactly where i want it
[2014 - 2030] so they are
[2030 - 2033] they are incorrect i mean you can if you want if
[2033 - 2037] you like kind of dry stringy
[2037 - 2039] chalky meat by all means cook your stew
[2039 - 2040] all day but if you want your meat to
[2043 - 2046] still super tender but really nice and
[2046 - 2048] moist and juicy
[2048 - 2050] uh you cook it just until it's done
[2050 - 2054] no longer right
[2055 - 2055] let's pull out one more piece of that
[2061 - 2061] just to show you one more time nice
[2061 - 2075] nice meaty chunk here shape but
[2075 - 2078] shape but the little
[2082 - 2082] holy fork and shirt balls you cut right
[2082 - 2088] through it see
[2091 - 2091] tell me how this is guys
[2091 - 2095] no good girl
[2095 - 2098] good girl good boy
[2098 - 2099] really good
[2099 - 2100] all right so the last thing i'm going to
[2102 - 2104] just because i know my daughter's gonna
[2138 - 2138] so you see how that's
[2138 - 2139] what looked kind of a little bit greasy
[2139 - 2141] and broken when i first pulled it out of
[2141 - 2142] the oven it's a little bit of a hard
[2142 - 2145] simmer and a little bit of reduction
[2145 - 2150] um it emulsifies into this nice glossy
[2152 - 2152] sauce and if you like it thicker you can
[2152 - 2153] let it reduce more or you can always add
[2153 - 2155] a little more flour than i did i like
[2155 - 2158] mine to be a little bit brothy like this
[2158 - 2159] let me grab a bowl and i'll show you
[2159 - 2167] what we got
[2169 - 2169] i'm in the pacific northwest and it's
[2169 - 2170] what time's enough
[2172 - 2174] which means that it's pitch black
[2178 - 2180] pretty shots by the window during dinner
[2217 - 2217] now that is a stew
[2217 - 2246] huh so good
[2246 - 2249] so good all right
[2251 - 2251] i'm gonna call my family to dinner
[2251 - 2254] guys gals non-binary pals beef stew i
[2254 - 2255] will see you next time