Four hours passed before one home cook noticed his beef stew was still running on high. His usual routine called for just 30 minutes on that setting before turning the slow cooker to low for another eight to 10 hours.
Reddit user u/madgross makes the stew almost every week, so the change was enough to make him wonder if the beef would end up tough. He still had another four hours of cooking planned and asked whether the extra time on high had already done the damage.
Responses gave him a reason to keep the pot going.
Four Hours on High Didn’t Mean Dinner Was Ruined
Several commenters said four hours on high wasn’t unusual for beef stew.
One cook uses four hours on high or eight hours on low for beef stew and pot roast. Another uses high for three to four hours when there isn’t enough time for a longer cook, though they noted the meat may need more time before it becomes tender.
That was enough for the cook to change course. Instead of giving up on dinner, he decided to let the stew continue on low.
His Stew Starts With Seared Beef
The recipe uses 1½ to 2 pounds of inexpensive roasting beef with quartered red potatoes, celery, carrots, onion, and garlic.
He salts and peppers the beef, heats a steel pan until hot, adds oil, then sears the meat on both sides before moving it into the slow cooker.
That searing step happens before the long cook rather than putting raw beef straight into the pot.
He Deglazes the Pan Before Adding the Liquid
Beef stock forms the base of the cooking liquid, but several other ingredients go into it.
Three cups of stock are mixed with Dijon mustard, Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, balsamic vinegar, and minced garlic. After the beef is seared, that mixture goes into the hot pan to loosen what was left behind.
He lets the liquid simmer for a couple of minutes before pouring it into the slow cooker.
Capers and Fresh Herbs Go Into the Pot
One tablespoon of capers joins the stew along with fresh rosemary and thyme. Two habaneros can also go in when he wants more heat.
Fresh herbs are tied together before going into the liquid. When using dried herbs, he adds them to the stock mixture instead.
The combination gives the broth more than the usual beef-stock base, with mustard, soy, Worcestershire, balsamic, capers, and herbs all going into the same pot.
High and Low Settings Can Depend on the Slow Cooker
A large part of the Reddit discussion turned to what the high and low settings do.
Several commenters said their slow cookers reach a similar eventual cooking temperature on either setting, with high getting there sooner. Another commenter pointed out that this isn’t universal: some slow cookers maintain different temperatures depending on the setting.
That makes the cooker’s manual worth checking before treating four hours on high as interchangeable with a specific number of hours on low.
For this pot of stew, the accidental four-hour stretch wasn’t enough to make its owner abandon dinner. He kept it cooking, while commenters who use high for their own beef stews saw far less of a problem than he expected.
Have you cooked beef stew on high, or do you keep the slow cooker on low from start to finish?
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