what are the best beef cuts for slow cookers? and do they have to be precooked, or just season them and put them in the slow cooker?

also, whats the difference between cooking them with broth vs stock?

This post was edited by carteblanche on Nov 29 2013 12:48pm

tips in gravy = winning

tips = sirloin tips? what recipe do you recommend for gravy?

This post was edited by carteblanche on Nov 29 2013 05:07pm

will not guarantee that it is the best cut, but an excellent cut is:

chuck steak, also know as oyster blade (here) or seemingly flat iron steak in the usa
you don't need an expensive cut for the slow cooker
and nicely marbled chuck has a great taste

postscript:

/hint make sauce from the juices of the steak with a little arrowroot or flour etc etc

second postscript:

but don't do it with wagyu chuck

This post was edited by brmv on Nov 29 2013 08:00pm

Beef cheecks, shoulder, chuck roast, to name a few... you can always go to your butcher and ask him for a good meat for braising...

Stock and broth is pretty much the same thing... (some will say broth is made with meat and stock with bones, but in the end they are both water infused with vegetable/meat or fish...)

For slow cooking beef i recommend using red wine + veal stock, if u cant get hold of veal stock u can use chicken stock or water... now for thickening the sauce theyre is 2 schools (not counting powdered sauce, cause its garbage).. first one (which i recommand) will give you less sauce, and will give u better result if u started off with veal stock... just reduce down ur broth until it becomes thick enough to glace a spoon, then put a dash of lemon juice then whisk in fresh butter, about 25% volume of butter for volume of broth... the other school is reducing it down a little then you use roux (butter and flour) to thicken it up.
Or if you do a pot-au-feu, you dont thicken it, just reduce it down and use the broth as a jus to drop on top of all ur meat and vegetable (google pot-au-feu)

beef chuck would be my recommendation. generally not a very expensive cut. you can use just about anything that has lots of fat.

you can also use a bottom round roast. or even short ribs. but both of those are a bit more expensive than the chuck roast.

i'll definitely give chuck a try then!



i dont remember seeing veal stock at the store, but i'll look for it. i definitely want something with low sodium though, and idk if veal stock comes in that variety. i'm typically not interested in soup. i was hoping to have the meat/veggies with a sauce that i can put over rice/noodles.

does corn starch not work to thicken it? i've used it in baking to thicken, but i'm not experienced at all when it comes to cooking meat.

good veal stock are kinda hard to come by in store... you could use chicken stock... corn starch will work but the texture is not as nice for this... flour will give a better result..

i used wine and water as my liquid. i think a little broth would have made it even better but it was still amazing

yea sirloin tips any kinda brown/beef gravy works whatever you prefer tbh

i slow cook them all day tell they fall apart then serve over skin on mashed baby red potatoes