Stew
A slow-cooked combination of ingredients in liquid, thickened and simmered to mingle flavors.
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FiveRings (talk) · via Wikipedia: Stew · CC BY 3.0
A stew is a dish where solid foods are cooked in liquid and served in the resulting gravy. It often includes vegetables and tougher meats like beef, pork, or lamb that benefit from slow cooking. Water or stock serves as the cooking liquid, sometimes with a splash of red wine or other alcohol for flavor. Seasonings are added. Stews simmer at a low temperature, not a boil, so flavors blend.
This method tenderizes less tender cuts, making it economical. Thickening happens through reduction or with flour, roux, or cornstarch. Stews have been made since ancient times, with evidence from Japan around 5000 BC.
Lore & Background
Stews have been made since ancient times. The world's oldest known evidence of stew was found in Japan, dating to around 5000 BC during the Jomon period. They made seafood whose ingredients varied with the seasons. The food was cooked in large conical or rounded pots with tapered or pointy bottoms that sat well in the soil and ash of the bonfire or hearth.
Amazonian tribes used the shells of turtles as vessels, boiling the entrails of the turtle and various other ingredients in them. There are recipes for pork stews and fish stews in the Roman cookery book Apicius, believed to date from the 4th century AD. Le Viandier, one of the oldest cookbooks in French, written in the early 14th century by the French chef known as Taillevent, has ragouts or stews of various types in it.
Reader's Guide
Stewing is suitable for the least tender cuts of meat that become tender and juicy with the slow, moist heat method. This makes it popular for low-cost cooking. Cuts with a certain amount of marbling and gelatinous connective tissue give moist, juicy stews, while lean meat may easily become dry. Stews are thickened by reduction or with flour, either by coating pieces of meat with flour before searing or by using a roux or beurre manié, a dough consisting of equal parts fat and flour.
Thickeners like cornstarch, potato starch, or arrowroot may also be used. Stew is very prominent in England. Other European countries also have their own recipes.
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Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Stew (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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