Where do you think the juices came from? It left the meat!

As you can see, you can definitely overcook things in the crockpot, especially meats that don't have a lot of fat. Are you sure your meat was really stew meat? My grocery store cuts a leaner sirloin into cubes and sells it as stew meat but it doesn't cook up the same as fattier chuck.

The meat I don't know, but the tators were in there way to long.

Moni

What was the temp of your crockpot? Mine only has a low, high and warm setting. If it is in there all day I put on low. Maybe you cooked it too hot?

I hear new crockpots cook at a higher heat; don't know how old yours is? I cook a dinner like yours on auto-shift. Which is 1.5hrs on high and then it turns itself to low. Cook it for 8 hours. If I plan on leaving for long periods of time.... I use a light timer to turn it off in 8hrs. Then it sits in the juices for awhile....and maybe that helps rehydrate it too.

I notice my meat gets tough if my husband or I open the lid too much. I've actually stopped adding any veggies later on while it's cooking.

I only open the lid when it's time to take out and eat. I really notice a difference.

I sympathize because I did the same thing with some ribs last week in the crock pot. Dry as a bone sitting is yummy BBQ sauce. Could hardly eat 'em. I think you (and I) left the meal cooking tooooo long. Ten hours is really long.

I'd venture a guess you had two issues: 10 hours in an uncontrolled crockpot was one problem. I'm suspect of the meat you used too.

The problem with crockpots is there's no standard for heat. Years back I did some research on what temps crockpots actually cook when set to low or high. Crockpot cooking is the textbook definition of "cooking by the seat of your pants"! There's no consistency at all (which I why I use roasters now). Crockpot low can be from 140ð-220+ð and high can range from 180ð-300+ð! If you cooked at 300+ð for 10 hours... well you know what would happen.

For a pot roast I like a very thick chuck roast but I cut out the excess blobs of fat. Potatoes and most any root veggie really should need only a couple hours in a slow cooking method however for flavor it's good to put some on the bottom to use as a rack, knowing they'll become mush later.

Have you used this appliance before or is it a first time? Have you used the recipe before? If so, what differences were there? By chance could someone have fiddled with the settings? Sorry to hear it wasn't good. Pot roast is one of my favorite meals. For that matter most anything slow cooked rates highly with me!

BTW, did you sear the meat before cooking? Was it thawed? Pot preheated?

Not a comment on the problem, but on the recipe. You added plain water, right? Always aim for adding flavor, and water doesn't do that. Instead, you could use broth (or bullion cube in water), red wine, even various juices.

Usually I put the meat into a flour mixture and pan fry it first, sometimes with a bit of onion. Then put it into the crockpot and add the amount of water/beef broth/or even chicken broth the back of the onion soup mix calls for, or even a bit more and let it cook--until I think it needs more stuff. Yes it could depend on the meat-type. Here venison or bison are mixed with beef. I add the veggies about 2 hours before serving, and then kick up the heat so they cook thru. (you can tell I am not one for measuring--reading the recipe yes, to get ideas)

1/4 of a cup of water? That must have
been a typo, yes? A 1/4 of a cup is like, what? a
couple of drops for all that meat and veggies.

Is this post a joke?

Molly, you don't really have to add much liquid to meat in a crockpot. I often add just about that amount. The meat and veggies give off a lot of liquid.

Wow, really? I've never seen a recipe that
called for that little liquid. Especially
using trimmed stew meat. Or was it left
fatty?

Paula, I'm 'assuming' it was stew meat, cause that's what the package said it was. My husband said the same thing - "How do we know what it really is?" Good point. I was just trying to do something different than using a roast.

Scissors, I cooked it on Low, knowing that it would be cooking that long.

Nicole, I don't remember how old the crock pot is. I have several, and don't remember when I got which :/

Cynic, I have used this crock pot before. I've always cooked roasts though, never stew meat. I did not sear the meat. I just rinsed it off and threw it in. There wasn't much fat at all on the meat. Just that should've given me a clue, huh?

It cooked for ten hours cause I put it on when I left for work. Didn't think a crock pot could overcook. Guess I learned a lesson. From now on, I'll only use a roast and definitely not cook it so long. I'm attempting to salvage the leftovers by turning it into a stew. Prolly will still be dry though I suspect. ***sigh***

You cooked it WAAAAAAYY too long and pulled all the flavor out of the meat. Have you ever read a soup recipe that suggests throwing out the meat you cooked into the soup and using fresh meat to be the meat in the soup? That's because you have cooked all the liquids and flavor from the meat.

I think maybe 10 hours is way too long for stewing beef. I usually do a stew in the crock pot on LOW for about 5-6 hours. I add the veggies other than potatoes only 1 hour before serving.

Just a quick look through the recipe book that came with my Rival Crock-Pot, I find three stew recipes:

2 lbs. stew beef, 28 oz. tomatoes, 10-12 hrs. on low.
2 lbs. stew beef, 14 3/4 oz. liquid, 8-12 hrs. on low.
2 lbs. meat, 16 oz. liquid, 10-12 hrs on low.

This is an older crock-pot, and low is low.

The other concern I have is that I assume the stew meat was in smaller chunks? That by itself adds to the problem.

America's Test Kitchen was talking about stew meat a few weeks back and saying that you don't know what you're getting since it can be a variety of cuts. For the recipe they were using they said to get a roast and cut up since the stew meat chunks are essentially leftover cuttings and could be sirloin, chuck or whatever and you just wouldn't know unless you know the butcher putting it together.

They were in smaller chucks. I thought having the meat already cut up would be convenient. I cut it up even more though cause I made it into a stew. It's not too bad either. I think adding a can of stewed tomatoes and more water helped.