Recipe: St. Louis Beer Beef Stew

A Big Food Favorite!

This one's been around a long time. Here's what Mr. Big Food has to say about this recipe:

I can’t remember where this one came from. No doubt some spiral bound cookbook. The “St. Louis” no doubt refers to the beer in the recipe—Anheiser Busch and all that; although now I guess it should be called Brussels Beer Beef Stew. This makes enough to feed a small army,

For the Slow Cooker version of this, use these ingredients, brown the beef as directed below, and see the instructions in the Stews subsection of the Slow Cookery section in this Manual.

ST. LOUIS BEER BEEF STEW

¼ C flour, plus an additional 1/3 C

½ tsp salt

1/8 tsp pepper

3 lbs cubed beef stew meat

Vegetable oil

12 oz beer

1 ½ C beef stock (preferably homemade—see recipes in Basics section; in a pinch, you can use 2 beef bouillon cubes dissolved in 1 ½ C boiling water)

Worcestershire sauce

Chili powder (preferably Pure—see instructions in Basics section)

1 lb carrots, scraped and cubed

1 lb tiny white onions, peeled

1 lb green beans, trimmed and cut in half

6 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed

1 bell pepper, cut in strips then halved

¼ cup water

Put ¼ C flour, salt, and pepper in a freezer bag and mix well. Add meat and shake to cover thoroughly. Brown meat in oil, in batches, in heavy 5 quart kettle or Dutch oven. (Drain off pot liquor as it accumulates.) Add beer, stock, and Worchestershire sauce and chili powder to taste. Cover and simmer slowly about 2 hours (or until meat is tender). Add carrots, onions, green beans, potatoes, and green pepper and simmer until tender, about 1 more hour. To thicken sauce, mix together remaining 1/3 C flour and water to form a paste. Stir paste into stew and cook 5-10 minutes longer.