Why is my beef dry after slow cooking?

Question

Hello,

I had some stir fry top cut and put it in a crock pot for seven hours on low heat over some onions. My plan was to make some fajitas. I followed Robin Miller on Food Network and put in beer and a fajita mix I made of cumin, chili powder, red pepper flakes and garlic powder. The meat, however, turned out really dry although I had a ton of liquid (and it was still in the crock). Is it this particular cut of meat? On the package it said top cut for stir fry or fajitas.

Thanks. :O)))).

Answer 1

I'm afraid it's the cut you used. The reason slow cooked meats (casseroles etc) are moist and succulent is principally because of the fat, sinew and other connective tissues in the joint of meat that, when heated over a prolonged period of time, gradually turn gelatinous, moisturising the flesh *from the inside* as it cooks.

The finer the cut of meat, the fewer of those internal moisturising substances there are present, so hours of exposure to heat simply dries the joint out *from the inside*, which no amount of surrounding liquid will alter.

The finer the cut, the smaller is the time window for cooking in which you can make the meat perform to its best advantage. Conversely, when using a high heat/less time cooking method (like stir frying), the better the quality of the cut used will have to be.

Were you to slow cook a cut from the loin for hours on end, you'll get the texture of high pile carpet fibres, and were you to flash fry skirt, you'll have highly serviceable boot leather... :-)

Hope this helps.

Answer 2

Use a cheaper cut of meat when useing a crock pot. Things that are cooked LOW and Slow require the extra fat and whatnot to keep the meat tender.

With the type you used, I would have cooked it in a pan on the stove with a little olive oil and added it to my stir fry veggies.

Answer 3

Put more liquid in next time, and make sure the lid is on tightly. It should steam, not dry out. The liquid should nearly cover the meat if you're going to cook it that long, and you can turn the meat to make sure it's done on every side.

Answer 4

Slow cooking burns out the water from the beef/any meet. The problem is more pronounced in case the broth has salt or any other hygroscopic substance. Cooking on high flame/full power cooks the outer layer much faster which in turn helps in preventing loss of fluids from within, keeping the beef soft.

Answer 5

Could have been too hot at the start, toughening the meat, then no amount of slow cooking is going to get it soft again. Did it dry out at any stage?, cause the same would happen then.

Answer 6

Coat meat in veggie oil low fat oil then add the liquid...

Try a larger crock pot and reduce time by two hours...

See how that works.

Use your nose, check more often...

Pray.. Pray before cooking and during... Give it more soul.

Answer 7

did u same type of meat in there or did not follow the directions

Answer 8

to slow tooo long
3 hours was more than enough

Answer 9

i think 7 hours is a bit too long... a couple of hours would do it for sure