Unsmoked Smoked Stew

[homebrew & bbq]

About a month ago I smoked a pound and a half of beef stew meat thinking I could use it to give a stew some great smoky flavor. Apparently I thought wrong or I messed something up.

Here's what I did.

Cooked a large yellow onion, thinly sliced, over low heat in a stick of melted butter. Added 5 ribs of coarsely chopped celery and about the same amount of carrots. Also added a chopped green pepper. When the veggies were just starting to soften a bit I added the smoked stew meat, a large can of diced tomatoes, a can of black-eyed peas, a can of corn (all with their liquid) and a chopped sweet potato.

Brought that to a boil and then backed it down to simmer for a couple of hours. Seasoning was some salt, black pepper and some Greek seasoning from Penzeys.

When we served it the meat still had the smoky taste but there wasn't even a hint of it in the rest of the stew. Any thoughts on where I went wrong?

 

[walking dude]

hmmmmm
maybe next time.......buy the meat whole......smoke it, and hope for juices....like maybe in the pan under the meat..............maybe by adding the juices to the stew, with the addition of the meat,......of course after its been cubed, mite impart a more smokie flavor.......

i know this turkey day......i smoked with a pan in the rack below the bird.....i use a gourmet ecb ......collected the juices to make gravy......and MAN.......it was almost TOO smokey, IF there is such a thing............but man it should added alot to smoke to the gravy......maybe this mite werk for you......like collecting juices from a brisket or butt to add later.......

jm2cw

 

[deejaydebi]

Probably nothing went wrong but the liquid watered down the smokey flavor. It probably took some from the surface of the meat but not enough to flavor the stew.

 

[nauidvr1]

When ever I smoke a Brisket or Butts I catch the juices in a pan. Then, like Debi does, I put pan in fridge to cool and then use a paper towel to wipe of the fat. Once I get all the fat removed, I'll reheat a bit so I can pour it, then I pour in ice cube trays and freeze. Once good and frozen, I removed the frozen "liquid smoke" cubes and put in a vac-sealer bag, making sure there is seperation between each cube and then vac seal. When I need to add smoke flavor to something I am cooking, I just cut open the vac bag and grab a cube or three and add to the recipe, then re-seal the vac bag and back in the freezer it goes.