Stew for a Crowd

Stew

by Mark Fitzgerald

"Winter came in October with eighteen inches of snow, but in spite of this we did not suffer from hunger, due to Mother's careful and frugal planning. In Iowa City Mother sold a quilt and a bedspread for the sum of twenty-four cents. With this she bought food. She had a way with Indians: she traded trinkets for dried meat, which proved to be of great help to us on the journey. Frequently it would be stormy so that a fire could not be built; then mother would allow each of us to have a piece of dried meat on a piece of bread. As food became more and more scarce and the weather colder, she would stew a little of this meat and make a delicious gravy over it. I guess the reason it tasted so good is that we were allowed only a small portion
at each meal.

One very cold night, some young men were on guard. Mother prepared some meat broth, thickened with flour, and a little salt; she gave each one of the young men a half pint. They often declared it saved their lives and never before or since had anything tasted so good. "

When designing this recipe I wanted a way of doing a quality stew for a large amount of people.  So I was looking for a recipe that could easily be expanded and not require me to stand over the stove browning meat for ages on end.  

America's Test Kitchen pointed to a solution with a couple of recient recipes that they brown the meat in the oven.  They accomplish this by having the meat place above the liquid.  By not being submerged, it still achieves the Maillard reaction (browning).  This method also allows us to caramelize the veggies.   

The recipe calls for some chicken broth and some beef broth.  This is assuming you are using canned.  If you are making your own broth you can use straight beef or chicken broth.  Being this is a food storage recipe you can also substitute this with beef bullion.  

We plan on using this recipe for an LDS trek in which will have 100 people or so.  Pioneers did not have beef nearly as much as they had pork while crossing this plains.  Especially early on in the migration cattle was for milk, transportation and to establish herds in Utah.  It may be more accurate to have a bison stew instead of beef.   As the years past it was more common to have beef and it was placed strategically along the way.

Ingredients

• 2 lbs beef
• 1 cup flour
• 2 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
• 2 tablespoons water
• 2 cups beef broth
• 2 quarts chicken broth
• 6 large carrots
• 4 medium onions
• 2 lbs potatoes
• 2 cups hominy
• 1 tablespoon parsley 
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon Pepper

Directions

Cut your beef into 1 inch cubes. Place into a large bowl and coat with 1 cup of flour.   Shake off the flour and place the meat on a single layer on a metal cake or roasting pan.  Add in 2 cups of beef broth.  Place into a oven preheated to 400 degrees.  Cook for 40 minutes.

Cut us carrots, onions and potatoes into 1 inch cubes.  Lightly coat them with vegetable oil  and place them in another cake pan.  Place them into the oven to cook for 20 minutes.

Bring a quart 2 quarts of chicken broth to a boil with teaspoon of salt, 1/2 teaspoon of pepper and a bay leaf in a large pot.  Add the hominy.    Remove the veggies from the oven and pour into the pot.  Remove the beef from the oven and pour all of the liquids and beef into the pot.  If there is any fond on the bottom of the pan deglaze it with the vinegar and pour into the stew.

Bring to a simmer, cover and simmer for 20 minutes. Add in parsley, 1 tablespoon of red wine vinegar and salt and pepper to taste.

Information

Serves 10
365 Calories per serving

Make sure to see how this recipe fits into the entire menu we have cooked up for LDS Pioneer Handcart Trek recreations.