It went completely dry, none of the juice absorbed, it was like a piece of dried wood..
Was it the type of beef, did I do something else wrong? It's a style of cooking I don't normally do .. But I want to try again this week.
I recently bought a chuck of rump steak beef. about a kilo.. I seared it first and cooked it low in the slow cooker for 4-5 hours .. covered in gravy with veg etc.
You cooked rump steak for 4-5 hours?!?
Rule of thumb, the more work the muscle does, the tougher it is (ie better for low and slow). Fat is also VERY important for low and slow cooking, good to have a decent amount of it on the joint!
You chose the wrong cut of meat for a long slow braise in the slow cooker.
You need something with a bit more fat for braising like that, bouilli de boeuf for example.
I think it was rump :-/
The long round joint that you can cut slices from ..
And I wasn't really timing .. I just wanted fall apart beef in rich gravy.. I got a dried up piece of crap with nice fairly nice gravy instead.
Edit : I even took it out and sliced it and put the slices back in.. Those didn't even absorb the gravy.. But I still ate it.
That's the spirit!
Brisket or shin for low and slow, can't really go wrong
To sear or not to sear, that is the question.
Siedfleisch (in German, not sure the name in French) is the kind of meat you need to buy for slow cooking ... it will have a nice thin layer of fat on top. You can buy pre-cut pieces at Coop, Migros - but best to go to the butcher counter for them to cut you a piece.
You can brown both sides if you want...I don't recommend a slow cooker, I prefer a ceramic cooker like a Le Creuset.
That's the plan for today .. Got the fancy orange pot ready, heading to carrefour for a chunk of meat..
I'll go for the other cut this time..
Fingers crossed
Sear every time, it's not about sealing in the juices, rather browning the meat gives rich, caramelisation flavours that add depth to the sauce/gravy. Next!
I always cube the meat first, and add plenty of onion which dissolves, tenderises the meat and makes for a rich gravy. You can also add 2 teaspoons of apple cider or red wine vinegar (though any vinegar will do really) which will further help tenderise the meat and aid digestion.
Go to the Denner and look for this:
https://www.denner.ch/de/aktionen/ar...-zum-sieden-8/
Turn it around and look if you can see where the rips were. If you do see the spaces were the rips have been take it. It is perfect for your task.
Bouilli de boeuf in Switzerland, it might be called boeuf à braisé over the border in France.
Anybody remember that scene from "Naked gun" where Priscilla Presley is boiling a roast?
I usually buy the budget cubed beef from Migros to make pie, and cook it overnight on low in a slow cooker. Since it's a pie it needs the gravy, so I don't have problems with it drying out, it works really well.
A couple of times I forgot it and it did dry out, but tbh once rehydrated with more gravy it probably just enhanced the flavour.
Recently I bought similar stuff from Coop and was shocked at how poor quality it seemed, lots of gristle and quite hard to chop up. However, despite my scepticism after eight hours it was great.
Just do it for the flavour! Aside from the meat itself, when you throw in the wine marinade the brown tasty stuff will dissolve from the pan into the sauce.
First, problem with Swiss meat is, that it's often too lean, i.e. they cut all the fat away, but this shouldn't stop you to delicious food.
So few ideas:
1. lean meat, you do it in a liquid (soup with vegetables)
- traditional method: in boiling or bellow boiling, 90°C soup, for 1.5 hours (pressure cooker) to 8h and more hours (it's better if it is hanging in liquid, so it's not touching bottom which is hotter)
- sous vide method is easier, because the temperatures are even lower and you can miss the timing for 25% easily. So you put meat with liquid and cooked vegetables in bags and sous vide
2. quality, aged piece of, for example, rump
put out of fridge, salt and peeper, sear on high heat, put in oven 75°C/4-5 hours
3. tough fatty piece of beef, for example beef ribs as you get them here
salt and pepper (or some kind of rub, wet or dry), put on grill in oven, put under it a baking tray with some liquid and vegetables, bake 75°C/16h. You can baste with liquid, add it if it becomes dry.
You can probably do similar with slow cooker, just follow this:
- lean meat: do it in liquid
- fatty meat: no liquid required, or just a little bit on bottom)
I always ask the butcher '1 kilo de bonne viande pour Boeuf Bourguignon bien tendre' - rather than choose myself.
The neck is another good cut for slow braising. Try 2 hours and then check the meat this time....
Good luck with the second round
Hint: Buttermilk marinade.
Just put tough meat into plastic bag, cover with buttermilk, marinade overnight. Then remove & drain meat, pat down well with paper towels to dry surface (important), sear to seal outside, and then braise or roast as you normally would.
Buttermilk softens meat fibers like vinegar without the downsides. Works fab for chicken and turkey, but also good for lamb, beef, etc
Good luck!
What down side? Sauerbraten or Suure Mocke