Home-cooked beef stew is a real delicacy that can also be stored for a long time in a sterile container. The lard stew will become a satisfying stand-alone snack, a strategic reserve when going out into the countryside, and an ingredient in hot and cold dishes. At the same time, homemade stew is prepared very simply.
Choosing beef for stew
To make a very tasty stew at home, you need a small list of products: beef fillet, bacon, spices and herbs. The most important thing is the selection of high quality raw materials.
You do not need veal, but beef, in no case frozen. For canning, it is recommended to use the loin without tendons. The meat should be fresh, without an unpleasant smell, not chapped.
In addition, the correct technology for cooking stew is needed: long-term heat treatment at a certain temperature, good sterilization of containers. It is important to let the blanks cool down gradually: in the oven, the tank in which they were cooked or wrapped in a blanket in the room.
At home, to prepare meat for canning, the following are used:
- oven and glass jars;
- pressure cooker;
- autoclave;
- multicooker;
- a saucepan (as an option, a deep frying pan, a saucepan, a cauldron);
- enameled tank and cans.
When preparing and sterilizing containers, you should know that the finished product will be 40% less than there was raw meat - it will boil down a lot.
Homemade beef stew in cans
To cook stew in cans according to the classic recipe, you need to take 1 kg of fresh beef tenderloin and 250-300 grams of raw lard. Glass jars with a capacity of 1 liter, 700 grams, as well as their lids, rinse, sterilize, dry.
Wash and dry beef and lard, remove tendons and films, if there are bones - also remove. Cut the meat into large chunks, finely chop the fat. Put freshly ground pepper and salt on the bottom of the container on a bay leaf, to taste, then put the pieces of beef and bacon on them, not too tightly.
Top the food with a little more salt and pepper, put a bay leaf and pour 2 tablespoons of water into each jar. Close the container tightly with foil, close the top with a lid without rolling it up, and place on a baking sheet in a cold oven. Place a second baking sheet with water on the bottom of the oven.
Turn on the fire and let the oven heat up to 200 ° C. After boiling meat juice and water in cans, reduce the temperature to 120-150 ° C. It takes 3 hours to cook the stew, and it is very important not to open the oven door! If the temperature drops, the glass may break.
When the specified time has elapsed, the oven should be turned off and the stew should be allowed to cool in it. Get warm cans, roll up and, turning upside down, cover with a blanket. Allow to cool completely and store in a cool place.
Beef stew in a pressure cooker
When the lid is closed, the pressure rises in the pressure cooker, the temperature reaches 120 ° C - this is a suitable mode for cooking stew: all microbes will die, and the meat will not turn into a tasteless mass. For the recipe, you will need 2 kg of beef pulp, 200-300 grams of lard. Raw materials need to be washed, allowed to dry, cut into pieces.
Melt the fat in a pressure cooker, fry the meat on both sides until golden brown. Peel a couple of onion heads, cut into thin rings, combine with beef. Put 2 teaspoons of table salt, a dozen of allspice peas, a couple of bay leaves, tightly close the pressure cooker and simmer the meat for 1, 5 hours.
Place the hot beef stew immediately in a sterilized glass container. Fill the jars with meat, "up to the shoulders", pour in the broth and roll up. Refrigerate in room and move to cold.
Homemade beef stew in an autoclave
If there is a household autoclave in the house, you can easily cook soft, juicy beef stew in it, as in the Soviet era GOST. In fact, this device can be called an improved pressure cooker: it allows you to process meat at a high temperature, the pressure in the container rises above atmospheric. In an autoclave, beef is cooked in clean and even rolled up cans, which simplifies the canning process.
For this recipe, prepare a couple of large onions and 3 carrots for 2 kg of chopped meat. Wash vegetables, peel, cut into rings. Put in a container on a bay leaf, a few sweet peppercorns, then loosely place the meat with carrots and onions.
Leave the jars free on the top 3 fingers. Top up with melted fat, add salt and black pepper to taste. Do not fill the container to the top, leave 2-3 cm. Roll up the containers, put them in the tank and fill them with cold water so that it covers the workpieces and the thermometer sleeve is immersed in the liquid.
Close the lid tightly and set the pressure to 1.5 atmospheres, heat the autoclave to 110-120 ° C (the pressure will rise to 4 atmospheres). After 30-40 minutes after reaching this temperature, gradually release the pressure to zero and also gradually cool the workpieces to 30 ° C, only then open the autoclave and remove the cans.
Beef stew in a saucepan
You can cook stew in an ordinary saucepan, although it will take longer. For 5 kg of beef sirloin, you need to take 2 kg of lard, wash, dry, chop the meat coarsely, lard - finely.
Put chopped fat, then beef in a saucepan with a thick bottom (in a cast-iron stewpan, cauldron). Put on the stove and set to low heat. Add salt, pepper, lavrushka to taste.
Cook covered for 6 hours, stirring the stew from time to time. Add broth or water as needed. Then take it off the stove, put it hot in a sterilized container and roll it up.
Homemade beef stew in a tank
For 5 kg of beef fillet, take 2 kg of lard. Wash, dry, cut. Put the prepared raw materials in clean jars, leaving a free space of several centimeters.
Salt and pepper the beef and lard, put the bay leaf and pour water over ⅓ of the container. Line the bottom of the enamelled tank with two layers of gauze, put containers with meat on it. Cover the container with lids, but do not roll it up.
Fill the tank with water to cans "shoulder-length", put on low heat and cook, loosely covering the pan with a lid, for four hours. If you need to add liquid to the tank, pour in very carefully and only hot water.
So that the container taken out of boiling water does not crack from the temperature drop, a simple culinary trick is used: after cooking the stew, the jars are taken out one by one and placed on a towel dipped in hot water. The container is rolled up with sterile lids. it must be wrapped and allowed to cool in the room before being sent to the cold.
Spicy beef stew in a slow cooker
Rinse with 2 kg of beef, remove tendons and films. Allow the meat to dry, then cut into equal sized chunks. Grind 200 grams of lard. Place the beef and fat in the multicooker bowl, close the lid and cook for 5 hours using the Braising program.
Season with salt, pepper, stir the stew and put on top 2 bay leaves, a sprig of rosemary, a third of a teaspoon of marjoram. Cook, covered, for another hour. While the beef is warm, place it in sterilized jars and roll up.
Beef stew with barley
If there is no goal of making more canned meat, then a delicious stew with pearl barley porridge can be cooked in an ordinary saucepan, in a half-liter jar with a screw cap. One container will need 120 grams of beef.
Rinse the fillets, pat dry with a paper towel, remove streaks, cut and place in a bowl. Sprinkle the meat with salt, freshly ground black pepper to taste, add 2-3 sweet peas.
Peel the onion, chop and combine with the beef. At the bottom of a clean jar, put a bay leaf, 3 tablespoons of washed pearl barley. Fill the container with water, leaving 1 cm of free space from the edge. Cover with a lid, do not twist.
Place a suitable stand at the bottom of the pan, on it - a jar of meat. Fill a saucepan with water and set over low heat. Cook for 2 hours. Then carefully remove the jar and put it on a hot towel.
Take a sample and, if necessary, add salt to the stew. Add 4 tablespoons of melted pork fat. Re-cover the container with a lid, put in a saucepan and cook over low heat for another 3 hours. After that, take out the jar, screw the lid tightly, buy it with a towel and let it cool at room temperature. Keep in the refrigerator compartment for no more than 6 months.
