BEAST stew? LOL! Well, this might not be the one you're looking for, but it's a classic:

Elephant Stew

1 medium sized elephant
1 ton salt
1 ton pepper
200 bushels carrots
500 bushels potatoes
3000 sprigs parsley
1500 gallons brown gravy

Cut elephant into bite sized pieces (this will take 2 about months). Cut vegetables into cubes (another 2 months). Place meat in pan and cover with the brown gravy. Simmer for 4 weeks. Shovel in the salt and pepper to taste.

When the meat is tender, add the vegetables. Simmer for another 4 weeks.

Garnish with parsley.

This will serve 3800 people, but if more are expected, add 2 small rabbits. Make sure you use rabbit and not hares as most folk dislike getting a hair in their dinner.

Sue

LOL Sue.

I have found that adding porcini shrooms (powdered) takes any beef stew up a notch for me.

I never follow a recipe but mine tends to include:

dredged and browned beef
carrots
onions
mushrooms or porcini cubes
broth
beef base
dry red wine or a dark beer or maybe a bit of dry sherry
bay leaf
garlic
s&p

Gosh, I've never written down my beef stew recipe. If I want a really, really good batch, I start by roasting a bunch of marrow bones, beef feet and some meaty neck bones if I can find them, and making a very dark, rich stock. This simmers either most of the day, or over night, so you can see that I have to start planning ahead unless I've been industrious enough to have stocked up my freezer with stock ahead of time.

I want bones simmering in the stew as well, so if they have a 7 bone roast, I cut that up for my stew meat,or sometimes add a package of oxtails or meaty neck bones-it all depends what's available.

My heavy iron fry pan is my favorite for browning the meat, and I don't use any flour or oil or anything, just put the chunks in the dry, hot pan until they're nicely brown on all sides. At some point during this process, my kitchen smoke detector goes off if I have forgotten to unplug it, which I generally have, giving me a near coronary.

The meat, bones, a chopped onion, stock, some oregano, thyme, bay leaves & black pepper go into a big pot, and while that's heating up I deglaze the iron fry pan with a cup of red wine so as to add all those lovely browned bits as well. When the stock is almost boiling, I reduce the heat and let it simmer for an hour and a half or so. Then, I start my roux. Generally, I make the roux with bacon fat as it adds a rich, salty flavor. Once that's on the way, in go the chunks of carrot & celery. 10 or 15 minutes later, I add the potatoes, chunks of turnip (if the store has good ones) and my (small) boiling onions. When these are tender, I add the roux.

If I've timed everything properly, I will have been stirring that roux half an hour by the time I add it, and it should be a good, rich dark brown. Not rushing the roux is very important.

Hmm....now I'm getting hungry for beef stew, as I've yet to make my first batch of the winter. :D

Lol re' the smoke detector, rachelellen, I can relate! You've given me some great tips (I like the idea of bacon fat for the roux!), which I will definitely incorporate next time.

Jessy & barnmom, porcini powder/cubes? That never occurred to me, but it does sounds rich & lucious! Where do you find it?

Lol, cute Sue!!!

I wound up picking up a piece of salt pork and used that to brown my floured meat (similar idea to using the bacon, I guess? - I've never used salt pork before). I did find a BS thread after posting and followed Becky's recipe. It's smelling very good!

So many beef stews, so little time, lol Thanks for the help!

I love Beef Stew. One of those dishes that I don't really follow a recipe for.
This is my basic outline.

Home Cookin Chapter: Recipes From Thibeault's Table

Beef Stew
=========
I like simple beef stews that are more brothy then in a thick gravy. I don't have an exact recipe as I usually just wing it. Here is basically what I do.

Brown beef chunks in some oil. Add some chopped shallots and a minced garlic clove. Cover with beef broth, add a bay leaf and a sprig of fresh thyme and simmer for until meat is almost tender. Add some whole small onions peeled, celery cut into 1 1/2 inch pieces and simmer for another 30 minutes and then add potatoes cut into large chunks, a couple of carrots cut into pieces, some fresh green beans, and some rutabaga cut into chunks. Simmer until vegetables are tender add some peas and then cook some dumplings on top. Serve in bowls. I find that beef used in stew takes at least 2 hours to become tender, depending on the size of the beef cubes and the cut of beef used.

Sometimes I add wedges of cabbage instead of turnip. You can also add other vegetables of your choice, ie. parsnips, sweet potatoes, etc..

I found that as in the No Peek Stew recipe, that adding ginger ale, Sprite, 7UP to the liquid helps tenderize. I guess it's the carbonation. I am going to try the oxtails too. That's one I haven't thought of before. I agree that the longer it can simmer the better it is.

I love

Ann

My grandmother always made the best stew, one I could never duplicate. A couple years ago a friend gave me a few turnips - I had turned up my nose at turnips till then - so I cut them up and put them in the stew. Voila! I found it! It's turnips that make the difference.

I make stews like the ones above, but I've not tried bacon grease roux - yet!

I have a big family, but I don't think I'll be trying nester's beast stew for a while. Sounds good, though.

Sherry

When I saw the title of your post, I thought you were looking for venison or other game stew. LOL

I like the purple-topped turnips in beef stew too. They give it a little bit of a peppery flavor that can't be acheived with seasonings.

I've made this Greek beef stew since my teen years and it's good for less tender cuts of meat like round that require long cooking. I usually serve it with couscous.

GREEK BEEF STEW (2-3 servings)

1 lb. lean beef stew meat, cut into 1 inch cubes
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 Tbs. butter
2 medium onions, coarsely chopped
1/2 bay leaf
1 small stick of cinnamon, broken into 2 or 3 pieces
1/4 tsp. whole cloves
2 Tbs. dark raisins
1/4 cup dry red wine
2 Tbs. water
1/2 can (6 oz. size) tomato paste
1 Tbs. wine vinegar
2 tsp. brown sugar
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 tsp. ground cumin
1/4 tsp. dried mint, crumbled or 1 1/2 tsp. finely chopped fresh mint

Season meat generously with salt & pepper. Melt butter in Dutch oven or heavy casserole. Add meat and turn to coat on all sides with butter. Arrange onions, bay leaf, cinnamon, cloves and raisins over top of meat.

Mix remaining ingredients and spread over casserole contents. Do not stir. Cover very tightly and bake at 325 degrees for about 1 1/2 hours. Stir sauce gently when serving.

Ooh, that sounds good! I never thought to use spices like cloves or cinnamon in meat dishes until I began learning to make Indian foods. They often use spices in their meat dishes that we Americans pretty much reserve for sweets or sweet dishes (like cloves for ham).

Now you've got me wondering what a cinnamon stick might do for my beef stew...

Yes to the turnips! I've never followed a recipe for making beef stew and they've been good but not perfect. Then last time, I included two small turnips and it was amazing the flavor that those two little things gave to the whole dish. I'm a turnip believer now!!

Grace

Yup, got to agree on the rutabaga/turnip. One of my favourite vegetables and it really does make a beef stew. Also wonderful cooked with Lamb Shanks.

Ann

I use these but couldn't find them locally to purchase. I ordered them from the link.

Here is a link that might be useful: guidimarcello.com

rachelellen, the recipe I wound up using called for a bit of ground clove. I was hesitant to try it, but I must admit, it gave the stew a fabulous taste.

Ann, oxtails? Are they actually what they say they are? Never tried them....I'm a bit scared, lol (yours look delicious!).

Ruthanna, I've made a similar greek bs before, great comfort food! Your recipe sounds *really* good.

Turnips... they don't make the stew bitter?