Irish Beef Stew - with Keto Options - Instant Pot Recipe - Life Made Sweeter (2024)

FAQs

How to add sweetness to beef stew? ›

If it tastes off-balance, add some finishing flavors to bring it to the next level. Try adding soy sauce or Worcestershire for extra savory (or umami) flavor, a touch of honey or brown sugar for sweetness, lemon zest or vinegar for brightness or chili powder or smoked paprika for spice and depth.

The main difference between an Irish stew and classic beef stew comes down to the protein. Traditional Irish stew is usually made with lamb, while beef stew is always made with beef. Our version includes beef chuck, which is less traditional, but easy to make and equally delicious.

Additionally stew meat tends to have more tough gristle, which will never get tender. Using a large piece of boneless chuck allows you to easily trim off all the unwanted parts first, then cut the beef into uniform 1 1/2-inch pieces that will cook more evenly in the pressure cooker.

Add spices such as turmeric, coriander and cumin at the early stage of cooking, when you are frying onions and garlic, to enhance the taste of the beef stew. Fresh herbs like coriander and bay leaves also contribute a distinct flavour without making the dish too spicy for the younger members of the family.

Sweet flavor in meat is derived from sugars, amino acids and organic acids (Table 1). Sour flavors arise from amino acids coupled with organic acids. Inorganic salts and sodium salts of glutamate and aspartate generate saltiness.

This goes for stews, dumplings, curries, savory pies - a touch of sweetness is good, just dont overdo it. Same reason you add salt. It improves the flavor. Sometimes it's to balance acidity or sourness.

If the stew is cooked too quickly or if it doesn't include ingredients to balance the bitterness, this flavor can be very pronounced.

FLOUR: I prefer my stew sauce a bit thick, not watery, so I always add flour to slightly thicken the sauce.

The famous Irish stew made with lamb, carrots, potatoes and onion was frequently featured on menus for third-class passengers on the Titanic. The stew would be consumed as part of the passengers' high tea, which was their second and final meal of the day.

Unfortunately, once you overcook a piece of meat in the pressure cooker, there's no going back. You'll be left with a pile of dry, crunchy, tasteless fibers and no amount of additional pressure cooking is going to put that moisture back into the meat.

How do you keep meat moist in a pressure cooker? ›

While you may cover meat almost completely for a conventional braise, use just enough liquid for the cooker to reach pressure – during pressure cooking the meat will release it's own juice and braise in that flavorful liquid, instead.

You can still pressure cook leaner pieces – like eye of round and top sirloin – but these work best if they've been stuffed, shredded or rolled (with other ingredients). Best cuts of beef to use: Chuck steak, Round Roast, Shoulder, Pot roast, Ribs, Brisket, Oxtail.

If you want to add a little more sweetness, add a couple of teaspoons of sugar to the Mirepoix before baking - it helps to caramelise the vegetables. If that doesn't appeal, add some halved cherry tomatoes to the Mirepoix mix before baking and add a good tablespoon of tomato puree to the stew before cooking.

There are flavors in tomatoes that are alcohol-soluble, so adding red wine along with tomato paste also helps to enhance beef stew." Laurence has a few other tricks I've borrowed to create the best beef stew, including adding Worcestershire, which gets a serious umami punch from anchovies.

I almost always add some beef bouillon crystals to my stew, it helps oomph (yes, a technical term) the beefiness of the stock. Sometimes also use a few shots of worcestershire sauce or soy sauce - both will also add some oomph to the flavor.

Add the wine and tomato paste to the onions and other aromatics in a pan before slow cooking. Plus, this helps to really deglaze any fond that's left. This ingredient is one that your mum and nan would probably use in their stews. It adds a bit of tang, sweetness and savoury spices that give an extra punch of flavour.

Fats and sweetness can help smooth the bitter corners of a dish, just like they make coffee taste less bitter. So add a spoonful of sugar, cream or butter to tame that bitterness.

A touch of brown sugar works well in rubs used as a seasoning on grilled cuts of beef because it helps to caramelize the outside of the meat. It also creates those crunchy bits we all love. Be careful, though. Too much brown sugar could give you steak candy (maybe that's something to explore?!)