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ITRR,

Yes, they serve as good references. I also love the ‘tried and true’ cookbooks compiled from women who sold them as fundraisers for their church. I bought tons of those from every church in my area!

Those books are adorable! Some have stories in them. Those women brought delicious food to their potluck church dinners.

I kept a couple of those cookbooks. They are mom and grandma recipes. Know what I mean? Just good home cooking!

Remember when we looked in our local newspapers for recipes? Our Thursday paper had the recipe section. Oh, and magazines too! Southern Living magazine has terrific recipes. Even Family Circle and Women’s Day had tons of recipes.
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I have a couple of very old cookbooks that I will never give up. They have lots of information and fun recipes, then I have some with pictures that helps me decide on what to fix for dinner.

2 Betty Crocker, 1 first addition and 1 from not long after. They show everything you need to know about cuts of meat, different types of cooking, ie braising browning, roasting etc., how to set a formal table and everything else a housewife needed to know to be the hostess with the mostess.

And of course, my Joy of Cooking that will be with me always.

I love to cook because I love to eat good food :-)
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Most of us don’t need recipes anymore but I love having them at our fingertips now with websites and food blogs. This thread has been fun too! I have picked up lots of tips and ideas from y’all.

I don’t remember the last cookbook that I bought. I gave many away. Occasionally, I receive one as a gift.
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Yikes!! I think we were all just kidding around here, no need for anger 🤗
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@Sendhelp

Why don't you keep your not so humble opinion to yourself. In fact, your knit-picking ridiculousness is far more impolite than my great love of well made Beef Wellington.
Not that I need to explain, but cwillie here was talking about lean beef being dry and tasteless. This is where the Beef Wellington comes in. Not dry or tasteless and that meat is super lean.
No judgment on cwillie or anyone else.
Don't look for things to get offended by. No one needs a knit-picker, imo.
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Llama,

Things do get lost in the shuffle. They aren’t very expensive. It’s worth buying a new one.
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Need: Tbh, my crock pot could have been left at my mother's as I brought it when I drove ten hours to get there. Then we had to entirely clean out her house to market it. I was WELL beyond exhausted.
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Llama,

How did you lose your crockpot? Did you loan it out?

If I loan something to my girls I usually have to ask for it back or buy a new one.

The crockpot does a great job with pork.
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I absolutely love lamb. I get it at our Greek festival. I love Greek food.

I have never cooked lamb. If I do, I will follow a Greek recipe.
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I always cook meat in the crock pot. Nice and slow. Funny story is I used a crock pot all the time, but couldn't find it when I made the pork for the red beet soup. DH bought a new one.
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Oh, Send

I thought you took a picture of your stew! LOL 😆

Sorry!

My cousin and I take pictures of our meals with recipes attached. I thought maybe you took pictures of your food so we could see your stew.

I am glad that you were able to solve the issue. It sounds very good!
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@BC

I cannot believe you said that:
---------------------------------------------------------------
BurntCaregiver
3 hours ago
@cwillie

"You've probably never had properly made Beef Wellington."
--------------------------------------------------------------

Tearing up Beef Wellington like a dog eats is also impolite, imo.
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You all are mistaken if you think my avatar is a photo of the stew I made.
It is from the internet.

Thank you to those who replied with helpful ideas.
My tough rump roast did not survive the pressure cooker,
the pineapple juice,
soy sauce and tomato paste,
being cut every which way into uniform pieces,
separated from the veges,
cooked an extra hour overall after 20 minutes in the pressure cooker,
and it was not pulled apart or stringy.

But this was worth the 3 days spent turning it into stew! So tender!
The sauce was great, just the right color.

Like I said, it was a lot of trouble, will not try this again. But so very good!
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I had hoppin John from the freezer. Added a bit of garlic and Red Hot and pepper. Decided to try a bit of plain yogurt in it. Quite good. I think I will be using plain yogurt for many things in place of sour cream. Maybe I will have a baked potato tomorrow to check out my plan.
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The tenderloin is a whole different thing than stew meat or pot roast BC, but who can afford it? I'll have mine medium rare please.🥩🤤
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@cwillie

You've probably never had properly made Beef Wellington. It is made with the leanest beef that comes from the animal. The loin.
OMG. It is the most delicious dish in the world. Expensive to make, but when made right...
I tear that up like a dog.
I promised my old man I'd make it for Valentine's Day.
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Went to the faculty club at the university for a dinner. It was a nice buffet. and lots of friends.
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spaghetti and meatballs
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ITRR,

That’s a great idea! Make tacos with it.
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Yes, it does look cut with the grain instead of across.

It could have just pulled apart that way too.

I have bought roasts that looked like that and the meat grew as you chewed it, it was tough and dry. I ended up getting the meat cleaver out and making taco meat out of it.
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ITRR,

Look at Send’s photo. Doesn’t it look like she cut the meat with the grain instead of across the grain?
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Send,

I just looked at the photo of your stew. It looks like you sliced it with the grain instead of across. Otherwise, it looks delicious!

I agree with ITRR, it is important how you slice meat. If you cut it with the grain, it is going to be stringy and even somewhat tough. Do you know what I mean?

The texture will be off.
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Thanks. ITRR

I will try that.

I like natural stress busters too! I actually enjoy chopping veggies. My daughters go straight to the food processor for their chopping.
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Regarding the tough cuts of meat, what I have noticed in some stores is the meat is from an older animal, that makes it tougher. Cooking it longer is beneficial, as is an acid based marinade or pounding.

I learned about the age of an animal while resourcing fats for soap making, crazy how you learn things!
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Need, I recommend flank steak for fajitas, cut across the grain. I BBQ mine and then cut into strips.

If the meat is too tough, any acid, ie vinegar, lemon, wine, mustard etc will help tenderize. I do suggest a 24 hour marinade for extra lean beef with a splash of oil in the marinade.

I make Swiss steak with eye of round and it is buttery because it is pounded with a meat tenderizer. AKA stress reliever! This method is always an option and works beautifully every single time. (On raw meat :-))
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cw and send,

Now I am going to have to research cuts of beef! 😃

cw,

We have a ‘round’ cut here. There is eye of round, top round and bottom round. Is that what you have?

I have been wanting to make beef fajitas. I usually do chicken or shrimp. I am not sure what cut of beef that I should buy. I have to check out some of my food blogs to see.

I make a chuck roast for shredded beef tacos.
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I did see that it was a rump roast Send and I know they are not usually too lean but I can't see any other reason for it to be so tough. Sometimes meat like that can be made edible if it is pulled into shreds and cooked a little longer in the gravy/sauce (take the veggies out), if you don't have a pressure cooker or slow cooker I'd do it low and slow in the oven for another hour.

Oops, I was confusing rump roast with something else, we call a that round roast and it's definitely a lean cut that's difficult to get right.
- editing again... in case you haven't figured it out already we don't use the same names for cuts of beef so for future reference rump = round and chuck = blade 🤣
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Send,

You’re right. A chuck roast would probably have worked better for a stew.

Whenever I make a roast I use the cooking bags and I have never had a tough roast but you cut yours up for a stew.
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Corn chowder is nothing like creamed corn. Never touch that stuff.
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A rump roast is too lean!
Maybe cooking it medium rare and slicing it would have worked, covered in gravy.
I would not feed the stew meat to a dog-it might choke.
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