How to Make Stew: Three Simple Recipes

Agree that homemade preparations are always a great solution. At any time you can get a jar of tender tomatoes or crispy cucumbers and add them to your favorite dish. But in addition to vegetables, fruits, berries, and mushrooms, you can also prepare delicious canned meat. In our article, we will tell you how to make stew for the winter at home and share three simple step-by-step recipes.

Cooking stew at home

With stew, you can cook delicious soups, cereals, pasta, or pies. Also, natural canned meat is served at the table as an independent dish. Do-it-yourself stew is made very simply: for this, you need a fresh piece of your favorite meat, a little fat, and sterilized jars.

Choice of meat for preservation

Most often canned beef, pork, chicken, or lamb. Less commonly, the stew is made from rabbit, elk, and beaver, because such preparations are more for an amateur.

Spices will help to diversify and emphasize the peculiarity of the taste of different types of meat. Black and allspice, star anise, and bay leaf are perfect for beef. Pork pairs best with the spicy flavors of cinnamon and coriander. Lamb is ideally complemented by juniper and zira fruits.

Ways to cook stew

There are several ways to prepare meat delicacy in its purest form:

• In its own juice – contains a minimum of fat, so it is suitable even for those who are on a diet;
• In oil – a small amount of oil will make dry meat, such as chicken, tender and soft;
• In jelly – made by adding gelatin to the broth;
• In the sauce – by mixing butter with flour, you get a wonderful creamy sauce.

To close a full-fledged dish in jars, add your favorite porridge to the meat: rice, buckwheat, or pearl barley.

Preparation process

Here are the main recommendations that you will certainly need:

• Before processing, thoroughly wash the meat, and remove bones, films, and veins;
• The higher the fat content of the product, the finer it should be cut;
• Small cans are suitable for rolling stew – 0.5 and 1-liter maximum;
• Use metal caps for screwing, which you pre-boil for several minutes, and then lightly grease the inner
• The surface so that mold does not appear over time and the metal does not begin to rust.

In order not to spoil the blanks, remember the following:

• Clearly, soft meat indicates its freezing, and this option is not suitable for delicious canned meat;
• When a pronounced bitterness appears, remove the excess bay leaf;
• If you do put not enough fat, then the meat will turn out dry and tough, so control the amount of animal fat in the jars;
• Do not fill the jars to the brim, leave about 2-3 cm free so that the lids do not swell.

The correct choice of tenderloin and high-quality sterilization will allow you to store preservation for 2 to 5 years. How long to store products, you will find out in our article at the link.

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How to make chicken and dumpling stew

Often the stew is cooked in an autoclave. This is a special device that not everyone has. Therefore, consider the most simple and affordable ways:

1. Multicooker

Here, in general, everything is easy: select the “stewing” or “languishing” mode, load the meat, and the necessary ingredients, and wait for readiness.

2. Oven

Having previously rolled the products into jars, place them in a cool oven (they will burst in hot jars), gradually raise the temperature to 180 °, and then lower it to 150 ° and cook for 3 hours.

3. Water bath

At the bottom of a large saucepan, lay a towel or gauze folded 3 times. This will protect against burning. Place a jar on top and add cool water. Maintain the water level in the pan no more than 1 cm to the neck of the jar. As it boils, carefully add water to the pan so that the glass does not crack. Cook the stew for 5-7 hours.

Three easy stew recipes

In each of the three recipes, the ingredients are calculated for approximately 1 liter can of canned meat. So it will not be difficult for you to calculate the required amount of products for your own blanks.

Chicken stew in a water bath

Ingredients:

• 1.5 kg of chicken fillet;
• 1 onion;
• 2 bay leaves;
• 2 peas of allspice;
• salt, ground black pepper – to taste.

Cooking:

1. Wash the chicken, cut it into comfortable pieces, put it in a deep container, add salt, and pepper, and mix.
2. In a pre-sterilized jar on the bottom, put the bay leaf, allspice, onion, and cut into rings.
3. Fill the jar with meat from above, tamp, leaving 3 cm of free space to the neck, and roll up the lid.
4. Cover the bottom of the voluminous pan with a thick towel, place a jar on top, and fill the container with water so that it does not overflow through the neck.
5. Wait for the boil and simmer for 6-7 hours.
6. Then remove the pan and let the jar cool.

Pork stew in the oven

Ingredients:

• 2 kg pork with lard;
• 3 bay leaves;
• 12 peas of allspice;
• salt, ground black pepper – to taste.

Cooking:

1. Rinse the meat under the pressure of water, cut into cubes of 2.5 cm, season with salt and pepper, and mix.
2. Lay the pork in sterilized jars in layers, shifting with bay leaves, and tamp, leaving a gap of 5 cm to the neck. Close the lid without twisting tightly.
3. Sprinkle a baking sheet with coarse salt to create a layer under the jars, and place it on the lower tier of the oven.
4. Raise the temperature to 180°, leave for 1 hour, then lower to 150° and cook for 3-3.5 hours.
5. Melt 0.5 kg of bacon over low heat, carefully pull out the baking sheet, open the lids, and add fat to the jars, not reaching 2 cm to the neck. Simmer for another 30 minutes.
6. Roll up the lids on hot jars, turn them upside down, wrap them in a blanket, and wait for the canned food to cool.

Beef stew in a slow cooker

Ingredients:

• 1.5 kg of veal;
• 0.5 tsp dry rosemary;
• 4-5 bay leaves;
• salt, ground black pepper – to taste.

Cooking:

1. Washed and cut into medium-sized pieces of veal fillet, marinate for 40 minutes in spices and salt.
2. Then fill the bowl of the multicooker with meat and set the “Stew” mode for 3.5 hours.
3. Sterilize the jars, spread the finished stew over them, roll up the lids, and send them to cool.

Homemade stew is the perfect complement to stews, potatoes, rich soup, and many other delicious, nutritious dishes. But we will talk about this another time. We wish you bon appetit!