Stew - session #1

I have some new leads on improving my stew recipe.

I've been using a recipe called Irish Lamb Stew which I found here. I've tried it with lamb or beef. Both turn out tasty. I cooked it a couple days ago and it was the best I had done so far. Yesterday I decided to make some changes like reducing the amount of carrots. So I googled for other stew recipes looking for other vegetables I could add. While doing that I found an article talking about common mistakes people make when making beef stew. I learned about 3 mistakes that my recipe makes.

Mistake #1

> Including Thickeners

> There's a misconception that stew ought to be "thick." True, stew is heartier than soup, but this is mostly due to the fact that the pieces of meat, potato, and carrots are bigger than they might be in ordinary soup. That, and there is also a higher solids-to-liquid ratio. But the liquid itself should not be thick in the same way that gravy is thick. 

> So skip the roux, and don't bother dusting the meat with flour or cornstarch before browning, either, as some recipes will suggest. That will just interfere with getting a good sear on the meat, and gum up the stew with unneeded starch. Simmering the potatoes will contribute all the starch the stew needs, and it'll be plenty thick.

So I shouldn't be using flour to coat the meat before cooking. (This is interesting. I have a Black Pepper Chicken recipe that calls for this too. The recipe says it's to prevent burning. hmm) 

Mistake #2

> Not Using Any Bacon

> The notion that bacon enhances beef stew should be self-evident. The best way to introduce bacon to your beef stew is to cube it up and then render it slowly in your pot, then add your carrots, onions, and celery, and sauté them for a bit before adding them. Next, add the now-browned bacon bits to the stew. You might be tempted to try to brown the beef in bacon fat, but it will end up smoking and you'll wish you hadn't. 

So my recipe says to brown the beef right after cooking the bacon, with the bacon and the bacon fat. Before finding this article I already had an idea that the bacon is not turning out right in the recipe I'm using. I had seen other recipes that involved cooking the bacon so that it's crispy, then removing it but leaving the grease in order to cook the next thing (say vegetables), then readding the bacon at the end. So I want to implement that in my stew recipe. But I'm not sure what to do.

If I were to cook the bacon until browned, then remove the bacon and cook the veggies in the bacon grease (as the article says), then when would I cook the lamb/beef? Would I remove the veggies so that I could cook the lamb/beef? 

Or should I remove the bacon and grease, then cook lamb/beef, then add the bacon and its grease after cooking the lamb/beef, like when the veggies are added.

Mistake #3

> Forgetting the Acid

> The paradox of beef stew is that all that braised goodness can be a little bit heavy on the palate. It's easy to forget to add some sort of wine, vinegar, or yes, even lemon juice, to brighten things up.

My recipe doesn't use any of these. I'm going to add 1 cup of white wine. I've seen these used in lots of recipes.

I wanted to learn why wine (or any acidic thing) helps. I found this article saying:

> These qualities are what distinguish wine and alcohol in cooking, as opposed to non-alcoholic liquids. It’s often recommended to deglaze with wine rather than water, juice or stock because wine can dissolve both oil- and water-soluble compounds.

And this:

> As wine cooks, its sugars and acids concentrate. In savory dishes, avoid “jammy” reds and off-dry whites, which can become syrupy and imbalanced.

> Dry red or white wines (more on that below) are best for cooking with in most applications, although there are desserts that call for sweet wine. In particular, look for those that are medium- to full-bodied with good acid and little to no oak. Very oaky wines can become bitter when cooked.

I don't know much about wine. I don't understand these 2 paragraphs.