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Beef Stew Meat

Beef stew is the epitome of comfort food – tender morsels of meat bathed in a rich, savory sauce. But the secret to a truly outstanding stew lies in selecting the right cut of beef. While many may work in a pinch, some cuts are simply born for the slow, low braise that transforms tough muscle into melt-in-your-mouth perfection.

What If My Recipe Doesn’t Specify Which Beef Stew Meat to Use?

If your recipe doesn’t specify what kind of beef stew meat to use, feel free to use the one that best matches your preference or availability.

Beef Stew: Find Your Perfect Cut

Beef stew offers a fantastic way to transform tougher cuts of meat into incredibly tender and flavorful masterpieces. While you can select from many kinds of beef for stewing, chuck roast is probably the best all-around choice. Its balance of flavor, marbling, and connective tissue make it ideally suited for long cooking. For deeply rich stews with a luxurious texture, consider cuts with bone, like shank or oxtail. Alternatively, if you prefer boneless options, explore roasts like bottom round roast, which becomes surprisingly tender when stewed, or the richly marbled brisket that yields an intensely flavorful and unctuous stew.

The Most Common Beef Cuts Suitable for Beef Stew

Chuck Roast

  • Chuck roast is the stewing classic.
  • Flavor Profile: Deeply beefy flavor with a balanced richness.
  • Texture: Marbled with fat that melts during cooking, creating superbly tender meat and a velvety sauce.
  • Why it’s Great for Stewing: Chuck offers the perfect blend of flavor, fat, and connective tissue that breaks down beautifully with long cooking times.
  • Read more here.

Bottom Round Roast

  • Bottom round roast is the leaner option.
  • Flavor Profile: Milder beef flavor compared to chuck.
  • Texture: Leaner with less marbling, but still becomes tender with stewing.
  • Why it’s Great for Stewing: Ideal for those who prefer a less rich stew, still yielding a satisfying and flavorful dish.
  • Read more here.

Brisket

  • Brisket is richness personified.
  • Flavor Profile: Intensely beefy with a high fat content.
  • Texture: The fatty “point cut” is marbled beautifully, resulting in an incredibly rich and unctuous stew.
  • Why it’s Great for Stewing: Brisket creates a luxurious, deeply satisfying stew experience, perfect for special occasions.
  • Read more here.

Tri-Tip Roast

  • Flavorful and Tender: Tri-tip delivers rich beefy flavor and, when cooked correctly, achieves an enjoyable level of tenderness.
  • Grilling Superstar: Perhaps the most popular way to enjoy tri-tip, grilling yields a beautiful crust and juicy results.
  • Versatile Cut: Tri-tip also excels when roasted in the oven or even smoked for extra depth of flavor.
  • Crowd Pleaser: With its generous size and adaptability, tri-tip is excellent for feeding a group, whether sliced for steaks, tacos, or sandwiches.
  • Read more here.

Short Ribs

  • Short ribs represent fall-apart tenderness.
  • Flavor Profile: Ultra-rich with a deep, complex flavor profile.
  • Texture: High in both marbling and connective tissue, short ribs become meltingly tender when stewed.
  • Why it’s Great for Stewing: Short ribs offer the height of luxurious tenderness and an incredibly flavorful broth.
  • Read more here.

Oxtail

  • Oxtail is suitable for the adventurous palate.
  • Flavor Profile: Robust beef flavor with unique savory notes.
  • Texture: High in gelatin, resulting in a thick, unctuous, and deeply satisfying stew.
  • Why it’s Great for Stewing: Oxtail delivers a flavor experience unlike any other cut, creating a memorable stew.
  • Read more here.

Shank

  • Shank, also called beef shin is the flavor powerhouse.
  • Flavor Profile: Packs a powerful beefy punch.
  • Texture: Filled with collagen, shank breaks down to become super tender and adds richness to the sauce.
  • Why it’s Great for Stewing: Offers full-bodied flavor and contributes to a beautifully thick stew base.
  • Read more here.

Remember

No matter which cut you choose, the key to stew perfection is the “low and slow” method. This allows for ample time to break down the tough connective tissues, transforming any of these choices into incredibly tender and flavorful bites.

Food & Ingredients

Conventional, Grass-Fed, Pastured, and Organic Beef

April 17, 2024

Beef doesn’t magically appear in the grocery store. It follows a journey from the farm to your table, and the way cattle are raised along the way drastically influences everything from taste to sustainability. Let’s explore the different paths beef can take, and how those choices affect what ends up on your plate.

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Tom Tom Founder

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