"With soups and stews, it may seem like you can just throw all of your ingredients into a pot, cover them with some water, and start simmering away. However, if you do, it's likely to result in a stew that's much less flavorful than it would be if you were to take a few extra steps. One of the most important steps you shouldn't skip when trying to make a deeply delicious beef stew? Browning the beef."
"But this can be a big mistake if you're trying to build a flavorful stew base. If you refuse to brown the meat, says Smith, "the beef steams instead of searing, resulting in pale, gray meat that lacks that deep, savory 'beefy' flavor." So, what should you do instead? First, pat the beef dry, then brown it in your pot, working in batches so it can brown properly instead of just steaming. Make sure it develops a nice, browned crust before the next step."
Browning beef properly is essential for a deeply flavorful stew. Skipping or rushing the browning step, especially by overcrowding the pot, causes the meat to steam rather than sear, yielding pale, gray pieces lacking rich beefy flavor. The cure is to pat pieces dry and brown them in the pot in batches so each piece develops a browned crust. Taking those extra minutes at the start builds a more savory base for long cooking. Avoiding this common mistake significantly improves the final stew's depth and mouthfeel.
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