Guinness Beef Stew

12 years ago

It is cold finally, and my taste buds are sending a delicious beef stew might be in order. Now I have never had a Guinness ever, so to put it in a stew is questionable, but for whatever reason, I'm wanting to make this dish.

If you have tried a Guinness beef stew how is it different from a standard beef stew and does the addition of the Guinness make it decidedly different? In your opinion is it better or about the same. curious.

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Comments (16)

arley_gw
12 years ago
Guinness is a stout ale. It has a reputation for strength, but it actually is not much different either in alcohol content or calorie content than many mass market beers.

It gets its characteristic 'roasty' flavor from roasted unmalted barley, which adds to the character but not to the alcoholic content(unmalted stuff doesn't contribute any fermentables to the mix). It's to my taste mildly bitter like good dark roast coffee. (Another way of saying it is, if you don't like coffee I doubt that you'd like Guinness.)

In a stew it adds depth to the flavors and complements beef very well. I find it a good addition to a hearty beef stew. Add it early in the cooking so the flavors meld.
caflowerluver
12 years ago
My DH would say that was a waste of a perfectly good Guinness, drink it instead. LOL. It is one of his favorite stouts. If you can't get Guinness, use Murphy's.
Clare
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The trick is to let your flavoring vegetables cook down with the meat from the beginning, and to put your "eating" vegetables, the ones that you want to have large pieces of which retain their identity, into the stew to cook for their appropriate times. That way they take on the flavor of the stew, and add some of their own to the stew, and are correctly cooked to serve. My very favorite carrots are the ones cooked in beef or lamb stew. :) This does require enough experience to know how long the meat takes, how long the vegetables each take, and how much added time you'll need because of the additions. The reason restaurants cook the vegetables separately and add them at the end isn't because it's better--it isn't!--but because it works best for restaurant management where you have different people eating at different times and requesting the stew on demand (service within 20 minutes). That's the only way to keep the veg from going mushy over three hours of dinner service. The veg are par cooked. The stew is cooked and held at keep warm temperature. A portion of each is added to a pan over high heat and brought to temperature and finished. Made in the pot and served family style is superior but only the occasional auberge or outsider place is set up to do it that way for serving the public.
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arley_gw
12 years ago
I've never made the recipe at the link, but it looks pretty good and has good reviews. Looks like your basic beef stew, but you use Guinness instead of broth or water. Sounds like an excellent cold weather dish; I may just have to try that this weekend.

Guinness goes very well with beef. In fact, if I'm at a restaurant and am having a good cut of beef, I'll order Guinness if I don't see any wine on the winelist that suits me or my wallet.

Here is a link that might be useful: beef and guinness stew
glenda_al
12 years ago

Cheers from Dublin, and the one and only time I indulged in Guinness!
Bumblebeez SC Zone 7
12 years ago
Glenda, I hope I'm as active as you when I get older! You seem to have a swell time often!
pkguy
12 years ago
What a coinkydink.. I just made stew a few days back in my slow cooker and while browsing online for different variations one of them had "a can of beer" in the ingredients. While I didn't follow all of that recipe and sort of winged it I did add a can of Coors Light and otherwise the stew came out good.. though I can't say if it was the Coors Light that contributed to it or not LOL
JXBrown (Sunset 24, N San Diego County)
12 years ago
I made a nice Irish stew a couple of weeks ago. I used lamb, but beef is good too. I used leeks, turnip, and carrots because that's what I had in the refrigerator. I also used a little garlic, thyme, and a bay leaf and just cooked it in the usual stew manner (tossed the meat cubes witha couple of T. flour, browned them, removed the meat and sweated the veggies for a while, add the meat and seasonings and the can of beer) and simmered it for a couple of hours. Tasty!
glenda_al
12 years ago
I may be on the older side, but stil loving life!
annie1992
12 years ago
Glenda, I love that picture, I almost expected another one showing you with a nice frothy Guinness mustache!

I made chili with Guinness. I guess my first question would be "do you like beer?". I don't much care for beer and I didn't much care for the chili that had beer in it, go figure.

Elery loved the stuff, though. The Guinness does add a particular flavor, better or worse is a matter of perspective!

Annie
nancylouise5me
12 years ago
Haven't made the Guinness stew yet, but we use the Guinness Fish and Chips recipe on fish Fridays. (Wayne being a nice catholic boy, some habits die hard, lol). It is the only recipe we use now for batter dipped fish. NancyLouise
Chi
12 years ago
I used a cup of Guinness in some chocolate cupcakes a few weeks ago. Turned out to be the best chocolate cake I've ever had.
Jasdip
12 years ago
Hah Chi! You were probably snockered, and just "thought" they were the best! Hahahaha
Chi
12 years ago
LOL they were potent! They were so good...had a Jameson whiskey ganache filling and Baileys frosting. I added some espresso powder to the batter, and a new KA cake enhancer product that made it really soft with a beautiful texture.
slowlane
12 years ago
I haven't tried Guinness myself, either as a drink or as a cooking ingredient, but the week after Christmas, I traveled to Bethesda, Maryland with my daughter and four of the grand kids. One night, we ate at the Harp and Fiddle Irish pub, and my 16-year-old grandson ordered Guinness beef skewers. He hasn't stopped talking about them yet--says they were the best "steak" he's ever had!

I'd think it was just a teen excited about alcohol, but until we told him, he didn't know what Guinness was :)

If the stuff's that good on beef strips, I can't imagine that it would be bad in stew.
natmicstef
12 years ago
I made this stew. I guess you have to like the taste of beer...I don't and so really didn't enjoy the stew...I thought the beer would be like cooking with wine, where you don't really taste wine but get a depth in flavour...well it was horrible (for me) so I tried adding sugar, broth, wine, salt, tomato sauce in order to dilute/change the taste...nothing worked.
annie1992
12 years ago
natmicstef, I was afraid of that. As I mentioned, I made chili with beer and didn't care for it, because I just don't like beer.

I don't think wine flavor really cooks out either, and so I don't like dishes with wine in them much better, but the beer is very distinctive and I've never been able to "cover it up" with anything, although sweet will take off the bitter edge, then it tastes like sweet beer. (shrug)

Sorry about that stew, though.

Annie

Guinness Beef Stew

Comments (16)

arley_gw

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