Secret Ingredient Beef Stew Recipe on Food52 (2024)

B99 October 1, 2023

This, unfortunately, did not turn out great for me. It took longer to prep than similar recipes with less payoff. I halved the red wine vinegar as many suggested, but found it still too acidic. I wish I cut my own pieces from a chuck roast to get more marbling. But the main issue was the tangy liquid.

This stew was delicious to the point that I was a little speechless. I have some food allergies going on in this house (carrots & fish,) so I omitted those items. I'm not a person who changes recipes willy nilly- I promise. Then, I realized I only had 2.5 lbs. of beef. Well, even with all of that, it was amazing and I'm going to make it again soon! I served it over the Pioneer Woman mashed potatoes.

This was an excellent recipe. I could not find leeks at my grocery store so I made it without them and added potatoes as several people commented. This was super easy and very tasty. I will make it again.

I have made beef stew for many years using a lot of different recipes. When I saw this one I said, I have to try this out! So I did. I always give portions of my stew to neighbors and family. I took to my neighbor, they are in their 60s, a batch that I made along with my wife's homemade cornbread. They said that that was the best beef stew I had ever made! So I have this recipe for life now!

Urana August 23, 2022

Followed the recipe and it came out too acidic. If I were to make this again, I'd reduce the vinegar, tomato and wine significantly then incrementally add those elements to taste. So disappointed

So delicious! I halved the vinegar and doubled the anchovies. I also subbed a chopped fennel bulb for the leeks (because that's what I had) and added a cup of frozen peas during the second-night reheating. Perfect dinner on a cold January night.

Definitely not what I was expecting. It was too much vinegar and fishy for our family.

Delicious! Like others, I use stew meat and only 1/4 cup vinegar, and I add a few good gluts of Worcestershire instead of anchovies. Even my picky husband makes sincere yummy noises!

Can potatoes be used in this recipe?

This is delicious and now my forever go-to stew recipe. Here are my tweaks (just a few). I DO use lean stew meat from the grocery and haven't ever had issues with toughness. I tossed the seasoned meat (used only 2 lbs.) in a little bit of flour as I like a little thickening and the meat browns better. I also used 1/2 butter and 1/2 olive oil for browning. I used 4 cups of beef stock and only 1/4 cup of red wine vinegar. The anchovies and all that garlic, plus the tomato paste, contribute so much to the rich flavor of this stew. My family loved this! It is company worthy!

Katie November 27, 2020

As someone with a nasty seafood allergy, I feel the need to say that I would urge people to tell their guests about the anchovies, if you are having people over. I would never guess that there would be anchovies in beef stew. But this recipe looks amazing and I will be making it without that one ingredient!

This is the best stew by far yet I added one other step in browning the meat, I deglaze the pan with cognac in between the meat browning and oh my - yummy.

This was underwhelming for the effort. Too tangy and not enough deep beef flavor.

I too think this is one of the best beef stews I have ever made. The only thing I changed was to deglaze the pan with cognac after browning the meat. And it freezes perfectly.

Its chilly in Austin for the day, hahah, so time to break out the trusty stew recipe. I have made this recipe several times only loosely following the amounts. I always make sure to include the anchovy, red wine vinegar (or ACV), and tomato paste because thats what makes it in my opinion. I tend to leave out the leeks mostly from convenience. I agree that its best to buy a chuck roast and cube yourself, but sometimes I cheat and buy the "stew meat" and it still comes out so great. Definitely a go-to for those rare chilly days here in central Texas.

So satisfying! I followed the recipe exactly as directed using only half of all the ingredients. I used a nonstick pan to brown the chuck roast (shoulder) cut by the butcher with bones, 4 minutes in each side in batches of 4 pieces (out of 10). I used the same pan to cook the vegetables. In the meantime, I boiled beef bones in Dutch oven to make the broth. Then I put everything together into a Dutch oven. I was not sure if I should keep the lid open or closed. It makes sense to keep it slightly open for the wine to evaporate. So I kept it closed for 1 hr, then slightly open for 1.5 hr. The meat did not fall off the bone. But we still served it over mashed potatoes for lunch. I kept cooking the stew with a closed lid for another hour. And I could not believe how much better it got in the last hour of cooking. Patience paid off - a 3.5 hr stew turned out to be absolutely delicious with the meat falling off the bones :)

this is a great reciepe and the only change I made was to deglaze the beef a few times with cognac during the browning stage.

Sharon September 15, 2019

Anchovies are a great addition. Heap big umami hit! I would strongly advise not using anything marked "stew meat" because you have NO idea what mixture of tough, stringy cuts you're getting. Buy a chuck roast and dice it yourself and you'll never be disappointed.

Vegetables. Vegetables. Vegetables. We’re all grown up here, we don’t need cutesy diminutives. FFS.

Just made this last night. It was excellent. I used chuck roast, cutting out the big slabs of fat. The marbling was enough on it's own. I used about 3 lbs of meat (after cutting off the fat), and added peas, pearl onions and some cooked green beans I already had in the fridge. I didn't use red wine or red wine vinegar because I didn't have any. I used dry sherry and white wine vinegar. I was going to serve it over polenta but ended up eating it as a soup. It was very very good. Would definitely make it again.