Help - Stew too watery. How to thicken

Masala

Hi....I have a Beef Stew in the Slow-Cooker in since 10am and on checking now (2pm) - it looks very watery!!

I put in a sachet of Knorr Beef Stew with a pint of water when I started out - and was conscious that the vegs would leak enough water to keep the whole dish moist. But - it looks like too much water has arrived !!!

I can pop out to Tesco locally and get something to thicken it... but what ???

If I just toss the contents of another Beef Stew sacket / Packet into it.... will the powder dissolve it self or will I end up with lumpy granules???

Help.... only 2-3 hrs left to salvage!!!

another question

Xantham gum will thicken it. I'm sure tesco have it, if not would some flour do the trick? I'm open to correction.

blueturnip

Or you could get some corn flour.

another question

Ya actually corn starch would do the job

vicwatson

Tablespoon of plain flour, don't worry if it goes lumpy it will cook out, give it a good stir.

RGDATA!

strain the liquid into a saucepan and reduce as desired, then add back to the stew

edit: by reduce i mean boil off the liquid until half it evapourates off

advantage of doing it this way is that you are concentrating the flavour of the broth before adding it back, rather than just glooping up a watery broth

Hoboo

Wouldnt use Xantham gum in anything, it should be banned:)

Cornflour will work, but might make it a bit gloopy. Plain flour is better, but usually best to add at the start when browning the meat, but itll still work.

Wouldnt ever use a stew packet, takes away the nice meat and veg flavour..............if you gotta Id use the brown bisto original, heaped tea spoon into a tiny bit of cold water, thatll thicken it and doesnt ruin the flavour.

Also pour out some of the water - one pint for about 1 pound of beef is plenty, better to have a small amount of rich gravy than lots of watery stuff.

Alun

RGDATA! wrote: »

strain the liquid into a saucepan and reduce as desired, then add back to the stew

+1 I'd do this too, and/or possibly add a bit of beurre manié (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beurre_mani%C3%A9) rather than just flour to thicken it a little.

In my experience slow cooker stews always tend to be a little on the runny side anyway.

Mrs Fox

If you choose to use cornflour, make sure you mix it with a bit of COLD water first before adding into the stew.
If you're gonna use plain flour, make it into a roux first (cook the flour with equal amount of butter).
RGDATA!'s suggestion of reducing the stew is best. Although it kind of adds the extra work, not to mention extra pots to clean, and beats the purpose of one-pot slow-cooking.

EDIT: I've just noticed Alun's suggestion of beurre manie, which would save you from having to cook the flour-butter, and more cleaning pots!

Masala

strain the liquid into a saucepan and reduce as desired, then add back to the stew

edit: by reduce i mean boil off the liquid until half it evapourates off

Could do this ok.....I presume is to boil it til it thickens like soup??? Could I throw a spoon of flour (self-raising is all I have) at this stage??

If I buy the Corn-Flour... is it just toss a spoonful of same straight into the stew and stir around. How long would it take to thicken(I am on LOW setting - should I bring to HIGH for 15-20 minutes??)

Alun

Don't just throw the flour in just like that, you'll just end up with a great big lump. Either mix it with COLD water first and stir it in, or put the flour into a small bowl with some soft butter (if it's hard maybe zap it in the microwave for a few seconds first) and mash it up with a fork (beurre manie) then add it.

There's not a lot of point trying to do this in the slow cooker though, you won't get enough heat into the stock to thicken the flour. You'll have to strain it off into a normal saucepan and do it there.

Mrs Fox

If I were you I won't bother going out for the sake of getting the cornflour (by the way you only add this cornflour mixture at the end of the cooking as it thickens straight away, same goes for roux).

Hoboo

With the cornflour just pop a few tea spoons into a glass and mix with a small drop of cold water, use a glass so you can see any lumps. Add it gradually so you get the consistency you want. Thickens in a few seconds, but I wouldnt try thicken a few pints of liquid, it ends up gloopy as.

Wouldnt rtry reducing it at this stage if its cooking 4 hours, pour off some of the liquid, you can freeze some and use as stock some other time.

Not sure about self raising............wouldnt advise it, but could be fine.

Brown bisto is a cheat but it does do a good job, better than cornflour imho. Dont use red bisto granuals.

Hoboo

Alun wrote: »

+1 I'd do this too, and/or possibly add a bit of beurre manié (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beurre_mani%C3%A9) rather than just flour to thicken it a little.

In my experience slow cooker stews always tend to be a little on the runny side anyway.

Spot on, this is the proper way to do it.

Dizzyblonde

As a general rule, when using the slow cooker for a stew you should halve the amount of liquid because you actually end up with more liquid at the end, whereas you end up with less if you're using the hob or oven due to evaporation.

kylith

2 ways: 1 mix a couple of tablespoons of cornflour with a little water, then add that to the stew and simmer to thicken.

Personally I'd make a roux out of 1tbsp flour to 1tbsp butter, then add some of the stew liquor to the roux little by little until it was well blended, then add that to the stew and simmer and stir till it thickens.

Johnny_Fontane

Alun wrote: »

+1 I'd do this too, and/or possibly add a bit of beurre manié (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beurre_mani%C3%A9) rather than just flour to thicken it a little.

In my experience slow cooker stews always tend to be a little on the runny side anyway.

this the only foolproof way of doing it. Beurre Manie all the way. Just make sure you use real butter.