Irish Beef Stew - with Keto Options - Instant Pot Recipe - Life Made Sweeter (2024)

FAQs

How to add sweetness to beef stew? ›

In a pressure cooker, brown beef, onions and garlic in oil over medium heat. Stir in salt, ginger, pepper and nutmeg. Combine the apricot nectar, soy sauce, molasses and brown sugar; pour over meat.

The main difference between an Irish stew and classic beef stew comes down to the protein. Traditional Irish stew is usually made with lamb, while beef stew is always made with beef. Our version includes beef chuck, which is less traditional, but easy to make and equally delicious.

Skip the stew meat and start with boneless beef chuck.

Stew meat is often cut into irregularly shaped pieces, which won't cook evenly and the pieces can be smaller than you want when making stew in your Instant Pot. Additionally stew meat tends to have more tough gristle, which will never get tender.

Sweet flavor in meat is derived from sugars, amino acids and organic acids (Table 1). Sour flavors arise from amino acids coupled with organic acids. Inorganic salts and sodium salts of glutamate and aspartate generate saltiness.

Stews are well-known for their salty and savory flavors. Adding a little sugar can help balance out those flavors, but it is easy to add too much. Don't panic if your stew becomes too sweet.

Stouts, like Guinness, are known for their bitterness. If the stew is cooked too quickly or if it doesn't include ingredients to balance the bitterness, this flavor can be very pronounced.

In addition to chuck beef and Guinness Beer, here are the other ingredients in Irish Stew. Flour and tomato paste – to thicken sauce and the tomato paste also adds some flavour; Guinness Beer and broth/liquid stock – the braising liquids.

The famous Irish stew made with lamb, carrots, potatoes and onion was frequently featured on menus for third-class passengers on the Titanic. The stew would be consumed as part of the passengers' high tea, which was their second and final meal of the day.

Unfortunately, once you overcook a piece of meat in the pressure cooker, there's no going back. You'll be left with a pile of dry, crunchy, tasteless fibers and no amount of additional pressure cooking is going to put that moisture back into the meat.

How do you keep meat moist in a pressure cooker? ›

Brown the meat: Brown the meat in a pan before cooking it in the pressure cooker to add flavor and help to tenderize the meat. Use a liquid: Cook the meat in a liquid, such as broth or wine, to help keep it moist and tender.

You can still pressure cook leaner pieces – like eye of round and top sirloin – but these work best if they've been stuffed, shredded or rolled (with other ingredients). Best cuts of beef to use: Chuck steak, Round Roast, Shoulder, Pot roast, Ribs, Brisket, Oxtail.

Add spices such as turmeric, coriander and cumin at the early stage of cooking, when you are frying onions and garlic, to enhance the taste of the beef stew. Fresh herbs like coriander and bay leaves also contribute a distinct flavour without making the dish too spicy for the younger members of the family.

Try a pinch of baking soda.

This is a good trick for if you're cooking and realize that you added too much of a bitter ingredient. Mix in a pinch of baking soda before the dish is done to fix that. Be very careful not to add more than a pinch or two! Any more than that and your food won't taste very good.

I almost always add some beef bouillon crystals to my stew, it helps oomph (yes, a technical term) the beefiness of the stock. Sometimes also use a few shots of worcestershire sauce or soy sauce - both will also add some oomph to the flavor.

Add spices such as turmeric, coriander and cumin at the early stage of cooking, when you are frying onions and garlic, to enhance the taste of the beef stew. Fresh herbs like coriander and bay leaves also contribute a distinct flavour without making the dish too spicy for the younger members of the family.

White sugar for marinades and dressings. It disappears quickly into the dish you're preparing, and adds sweetness without overpowering or affecting the color. Honey for subtle sweetness. A little goes a long way.

To add sweetness without sugar, try coconut, vanilla, or date, suggests Clean Eating Magazine, but for many soup recipes, sugar can help turn up the flavor volume of the original recipe.

Add plenty of pepper and some salt and it should taste better. Using beef stock or red wine is better than water for the liquid. Use just enough to cover the meat and vegetables. It's better to use less liquid if possible so you don't end up having to thicken the stew later with corn starch or similar.