Holy cow that's a lotta beef.

October 2, 2009 10:46 AM

Help us think of roast recipes and chili recipes would be welcome, too.

Boyfriend and I found a wholesale beef farm in our town and we got lots of meat, 20 pounds to be exact. We have 2 roasts and some stew meat. One of the roast we are going to slow cook with carrots, potatoes, celery and the works, but the other roast we're not exactly sure what we should do with it, other than just turning it into a slow cooked roast like the other, any ideas like maybe philly cheese steak would that be possible to turn a roast into shredded beef? If so help us do it! :)

We also have stew meat and my boyfriend wants to make chili with that and i'm never heard of such, any ideas with that?

posted by lwclec072 to food & drink (8 answers total)

I make stew like this all the time, so amazingly good. If you can get fresh chilis it will be awesome, but I'm guessing even with frozen ones it will turn out. I let it simmer for another couple hours than that recipe too.
posted by H. Roark at 10:53 AM on October 2, 2009

Sounds like a perfect excuse to make Ropa Vieja!
It's a flexible and simple recipe; the idea is to simmer shredded beef in a soupy "sofrito" (tomato / tomato sauce, bell peppers, onions, and garlic) until everyone thickens up and gets acquainted.

Serve it alongside white rice and a bowl of black bean soup (or black beans and rice mixed together, to form the indelicately named but delicious "moros y cristianos") and perhaps some sweet caramelized ripe plantains (maduros) and you have a meal to turn any expatriate Miamian (like yours truly) into a drooling mess.
posted by jake at 11:27 AM on October 2, 2009

Stew meat is indeed great for chili. The way I make it is very similar to this recipe, except that I generally don't use a pressure cooker (unless I am in a hurry) and I use masa harina instead of tortilla chips (which are pretty much made from masa) for thickening it up.
posted by TedW at 11:36 AM on October 2, 2009

This is Lady Bird Johnson's recipe for Pedernales River Chili. I use it with modifications: I don't use ground beef, I use cubed beef, and I double up on the chili powder, using some chili-powder mix and some ancho and chipotle powder.

Stew meat will work, but it'll be better with a better cut of beef.
posted by adamrice at 11:36 AM on October 2, 2009

I have no idea what cuts of meat you bought, but surely some of them must be good for doing corned beef and pastrami - the both dishes are perfect "meat projects!!"

BTW, pastrami is made from corned beef, it's corned beef that has been smoked. So you could easily do half corned, half pastrami and make it super fun and delicious.

To corn the beef, make a brine and keep your beef fully submerged in the refrigerator for 10 days. Alton Brown has a recipe, and if you google you'll find millions of variations and tips. (It seems the big thing is to rinse the beef of brine before you slow-cook.)

To make the pastrami - remove the beef from the brine, rinse/soak the beef (the brine was super salty!), coat the brined beef in a spice rub, slow hot smoke the meat. Don't have a smoker? No worries! You can make a DIY meat smoker easy peasy with some wood chips and aluminum roasting pans and some foil. Go ahead and google other options for DIY smokers, there are tons of variations.

Goo Luck!!
posted by jbenben at 11:52 AM on October 2, 2009

H. Roark's got a New Mexico style chili recipe there, so here's a Texas style one for contrast. This is my own adaptation of several different recipes, and I actually made this the first time with 8 pounds of beef-- this is a half recipe. You may not need the beef suet if your stew meat has a thick cap of hard, waxy fat on it-- you can trim that off first and melt it for frying the meat. Spice amounts are all approximate; it's really best to season and taste as you go.

4 lbs beef chuck (stew meat should work fine)
3/4 lb beef suet
6 cups water
1 large yellow onion, diced
1 head of garlic, minced
1 jalapeno pepper, chopped finely
Juice of one lime
Powdered habanero chile, 1 teaspoon (optional)
Chili powder, 1/4 to 1/2 cup
Ground cumin, 3 tablespoons
Dried oregano, 2 tablespoons
Salt to taste

Cut the beef chuck into 1/2" to 3/4" cubes. Chop or break the suet into small chunks and melt in a large heavy skillet over medium heat. Working in batches, fry the beef until the fat is no longer foaming and the beef is nicely browned. Transfer the meat into a large pot, reserving as much fat in the skillet as possible. Fry the onions in the fat until just starting to turn brown. Add the garlic and cook for another 30 seconds, then transfer the onions and garlic into the pot with the meat. Pour all of the melted fat into the pot! Add the water to the pot and bring to a boil, then reduce to low heat. Add the jalapeno, lime juice and spices. Cook covered over very low heat for hours, stirring occasionally. (I simmered this for about 6 hours, and actually just shut the heat off and let it cool on the stove with the lid on overnight.) Add salt to taste at the very end of cooking. Optionally, slowly stir in 1/4 to 1/2 cup cornmeal to thicken the chili. This is good served with raw diced onions and grated Colby or Cheddar cheese on top.

(On preview, similar to the Pedernales River recipe, but more fat, and no tomatoes!)
posted by Dixon Ticonderoga at 11:53 AM on October 2, 2009

oops. Lots of typos up there:(

among other things, I meant, "Good Luck!!"
posted by jbenben at 11:54 AM on October 2, 2009

If you're looking for a project, try Sauerbraten!
posted by mkb at 1:01 PM on October 2, 2009