What cuts do you use for stews? (beef, lamb, pork).

I'm mighty fed up with Whole Foods. Last year I was buying "chuck roast" for stews. This year they have "chuck blade" and swear that there is no such thing as a chuck roast. Of course I have no idea what either really is/was, since meat terminology is so damn fluid, but I do know that the "chuck blade" was much more fatty, yielded smaller pieces when trimmed to my preference, and took significantly longer to cook than the "chuck roast".

I don't mind stewing with so-called "sirloin tip", "tri-tip", and "rump roast", but these all all leaner, less flavorful, and more expensive than I want. To confuse matters even more, I though that "round" and "rump" were different, since I recall "round" producing a much drier stew, but WF now lables one cut "eye round rump roast". And I'm afraid to waste money trying it.

wtf?!

Chuck tender for beef. Part of the shoulder. Same as teres major or paleron.
Cheat sheets for beef and pork
Eye of round is dry. Like Steven Wright.

Lamb shoulder is best for stew.

I agree that the terminology is confusing as heck and I can't always get a straight answer out of the guys working the meat counter at Whole Foods. However, my problem seems to be the opposite to yours. I recently tried to get chuck for a stew and I wanted something with only about 70% lean. The only thing I could find was "extra lean 90% chuck". It seemed counter-intuitive to me. Maybe we should swap the WFs that we shop at!

The USDA may have different definitions for RUMP and ROUND than Canadians do, but I recommend the following website for nice diagrams and detailed descriptions for what different cuts mean. I did a quick search on the USDA site and couldn't find an equivalent there. It does appear that there can be crossover between the round and rump. Several US based websites did include the term "round rump roast".

Anyhow, if you're starting with longer cooking cuts, I think you may end up getting a tastier stew in the long run. I use a pressure cooker for my stews. After browning the meats, I pressure cook them for 20-40 mins (depending on the size of the batch) and then add in the veggies (so they don't turn to mush under pressure). The whole process takes about an hour and I end up with something that tastes like it's been cooking for hours.

My favorite stew is a combo of beef and lamb chunks that have been well seared, pressure cooked in Guinness, and then further flavoured with a shot of condensed beef stock. I'll add in sauteed whole mushrooms, small chunks of high starch potatoes, and maybe frozen peas. The only herbage/seasoning, other than S&P on the raw meat is maybe a bay leaf and/or clove after releasing the pressure.

Do you have access to a butcher? If so, for beef try to get the neck bones and adjacent meat. (This is chuck meat, and the best for stewing.) You can either stew with the bones in which adds flavor or cut the meat off the bones before you cook.

Makes the most incredible Hungarian Goulash. I feel myself getting inspired to visit the Reading Terminal Market. Let's see: Hungarian paprika - check. Lots of onions - check. Butter - check. Chicken broth - check.
To buy: Meat and noodles..

I was at the Asian market this weekend getting bones for stock and saw that they had plenty of neck bones. Is there any concern since this may contain spinal cord material with it's attendant possible issues? Or am I worrying like those nervous nellies who cook all their foods extra well-done?

Recenlty, I made a beef stew using boneless short ribs that i cut into pieces for the stew. The short ribs worked very well in the stew. But my cut of choice is a chuck or pot roast. They frequently are on sale and are versatile. You can make a pot roast or cut it up for a stew (or goulash, carbonnade) or chili. I get the biggest one I can find and look for plenty of marbling. I've never used a brisket before but am willing to give it a try. I would never use any beef round for braising or stewing. And this discussion would complement the separate thread on braising.

I also understand that beef shank is good for braising and I see it sometimes at SFW. I also see large beef bones that would be great for making stock.

I've never used brisket cut up for stew meat, but it just seems wrong on so many levels. The grain of the meat and leanness would make the stewed pieces weird, imho. Plus, there are only a couple of culturally correct ways to prepare brisket in my house, and stew ain't one of them...

I did not mean to suggest that I would cut up the brisket and make a stew of the pieces. I would braise it whole with lots of onions and perhaps some crab boiling spices.

I think that sounds great, but my mother would freak at the mention of old bay in her braised brisket.

Who said anything about "Old Bay.?"

This week the Super Fresh in Spring Valley is selling boneless chuck roast for $1.69/lb. They have a small, but excellent meat department, and will custom-cut almost anything to your specifications--much like the Wagshal's just around the corner, but far less costly.

Went into four different grocery stores today trying to track something down (no luck), and at each I looked into the meat case and saw the following:
chuck
chuck blade roast
chuck blade steak
chuck roast
chuck cross rib roast
chuck pot roast

I also talked with butchers (so-called) at several of these stores and got lots of different answers. The answer I like the best (because it sounded good, no idea where the truth lies here), was "it all comes from the same area of the cow, and if you give us a day's notice, we'll get it in and cut it any way you like".

There's no substitute for good service.

My bad- Zatarain's rocks, but it's for the preparation of a decidedly non-kosher foodstuff.

Actually, you might be better off buying from the butcher as you can see the meat's proximity to the spinal cord. That chuck in the supermarket may have been contaminated in handling. By inspection of the meat on the bone, you can see whether or not the spinal cord has been totally removed, as it should be under our current guidelines to avoid eating beef brains and spinal cord materials. Bon appetit!

I like cross rib roast for pot roast and cross rib steaks for stew. Decent beefy flavor, with fat in ribbons thick enough to separate out once the hours of braising have worked their magic.

Then again, I shop for meat at Safeway, generally during half-price sales, so we're not exactly talking caviar of the cow here.

Here is a recipe using store bought corned beef brisket and crab boil.

Brisket and crab boil just sounds wrong. Scott won't even allow that Zatarain's can be used for anything but crawfish.

I just bought 7 lbs of beautiful marbley chuck roast for Boeuf Bourguinon. Mm-hmm.

Heather-- where do you buy shoulder at? I only ever see leg.

Balducci's has it sometimes, or will order it. Wagshals in DC should have it. Can't make a navarin with leg.

I am pretty sure that I have seen it at WF and my local Giant, but I will have to check again to be sure.

They usually have some at the SS Whole Paycheck.

I would give Magruders a try. If there is none on the shelf, ask if they have any. I have seen it there in the past.

I will add that another often overlooked cut of meat for stew is veal. I usually use white wine and chicken stock and use onions and carrots. Veal breast can be cut into pieces and some stores regulary stock veal stew meat.

Please, tell me where?

The best/cheapest place that I have found to buy lamb (and goat) is Halalco in Falls Church. The butcher will carry a whole carcass out of the meat locker and cut it up in front of you. They also have veal--good place to get veal shank for osso buco.

Giant has chuck roasts on sale this week for $1.99/lb. Giant only sells USDA choice beef (for whatever that is worth, but at least it is not some sort of "ranchers reserve" which I understand is a notch below choice). I see from the weather forecast that another braising front is approaching. I think I will have Giant cut me a couple of nice chuck roasts and put them in the freezer.

Mmmmmmm, hormones and antibiotics.

But it's only $1.99/lb. I never put much (live) stock in the "all natural" thing. And I'm not willing to pay extra to get it. Half of me thinks it's a racket and a rip-off.

Agreed.

Speaking of fronts, I smell trouble brewing with this line of discussion.... I would buy the good stuff for a piece of steak that I am going to splash with salt and pepper and slap on the grill and cook to a nice medium alive but for stew, I could really care less. Sometimes I wonder about all the hype. I can see a difference in the organic steaks I get but not a whole lot in other meat products like the chicken ribs etc.

We should all follow this same philosophy for booze.

I'm going to get wicked "stewed" saturday night.

So the good stuff for sipping neat, and lesser swill for mixing? No no no, crap booze makes a crap drink. And lesser quality meat makes a lesser quality stew.

If the Icelandic lamb ever comes back to Whole Foods I wouldn't buy it for stew, just for roasting or grilling. It had a fabulous herbal flavor that braising would roll all over.

My mother always used beef short ribs (bone in) for her beef-vegetable soup. After the meat is at the almost falling apart stage, you fish the short ribs out, remove the bone and cut the meat into pieces to be returned to the soup pot. I think this is one of those "I do it this way because that's the way we always did it" kind of things, but it's delicious. Bone-in meats always seem to have/add more flavor.

I usually use cubed chuck roast for beef stew, though.

I disagree. I thought the whole purpose of the stewing/braising process was to tenderize and make palatable otherwise unworthy cuts of meat. Using "high quality" meats in this kind of preparation seems contrary to its central premise and a waste of money. And, I think a lower quality meat would acutally make for a better stew/braise because it would have more connective tissue to turn to collagen.

At the Toigo booth at Dupont last Sunday, I overheard Ris Lacoste (former chef at 1789) telling someone that she was going to be doing an Icelandic food prep demo at Whole Foods--unfortunately she didn't say when or at which WF it would be. I presumed P Street, since they have had Icelandic food demos there in the past, although I could easily be wrongt. Anyway we should keep an eye out for that, and it does suggest that the Icelandic meats are coming back to WF.

I don't think she was talking about using high quality steaks to replace the chuck. Lower quality does not mean that it has more connective tissue, that is a lower quality cut (in some peoples opinion). I view a lower quality meat is something that is raised in the agribusiness process. Cows raised on what they were intended to eat tend to be much more flavorful, regardless of the cut.

And then there's some cuts of meat which just aren't as good (for anything), no matter how the cow was raised. Eye of Round comes to mind...

Pho!

Hmmm.. will have to try it in pho. For stewing or roasting, though, I've found this to be about the worst cut in terms of flavor and texture.

You are correct, it is horrible.

I don't like to buy meat from Giant, et al. We only purchase it from local farmers or WF.

The reason isn't that I'm pro-organic but rather that I'm anti-factory farming. Don't get me wrong - I love to eat meat. But it doesn't mean that I can justify animals being mistreated so that I can stuff my face. It was reading Fast Food Nation that started me down this road but what really convinced me was reading Dominion by Matthew Scully (a Republican animal rights activist - fancy that!).

I have no delusions that the meat I buy comes from Happy Cows that prance in fields playing football, but I like to think that at least they're not treated as miserably as they are in factory farms.

/hopping off the moral soapbox

The Icelandic lamb is back-- at least in Old Town. Come and get it!

Jerky!

Swiss steak - a crackers family favorite!

And Bethesda.