Beef Stew Recipe Help: Adjusting Cooking Time for 1 lb Meat

[BethCooks4U]

Help! I'm making one of the new recipes and it calls for 3 lb beef stew meat - cook for 1 hour, stir and cook for 2 1/2 -3 hours until tender.

I'm doing it with just 1 lb beef stew meat. So how long do I cook it? The recipe says DCB, covered in the oven.

Can I move it to the microwave? Will it get tender?

 

[leftymac]

I don't see beef getting tender in the microwave like the chicken or pork does. I had a guest at a show last night (a previous host) tell me she tried beef in her DCB in the microwave and it was tough. Maybe others have tried it with better results.

 

[chefsteph07]

I've tried beef in the dcb as well and it does NOT work and then I was mad that I wasted it.

 

[RMDave]

Remember, stewing beef is normally tough cuts of beef. Tough cuts need long, gentle braising to break down the muscle and produce tender results. Microwave cooking is not the way to go .. no matter what a Microwave cookbook might say.

 

[BethCooks4U]

I agree (about doing it in the micorwave) - just thought I'd check if I was being old school or if it was still so.


Well it cooked TENDER in less than 2 hours in the DCB (covered as the recipe says) in the oven and was absolutely melt in your mouth delicious! The recipe is: Rustic Itilian Beef Stew from the new "all new soups, stews & chilis" cookbook. I also made the Polenta that they suggest serving with it from cook's tips on the page. VERY good! It's really more a winter recipe (95 degrees here) but DH wanted to try it - lol.

I cut the recipe in 1/3 to account for the smaller amount of meat I wanted to cook and it worked out great. I also substituded our Rosemary Herb seasoning for the fresh rosemary.