Stew recipes with photos. How to make stew at home? Recipes for making stew from various types of meat

We all know very well what stew is. As a rule, this is a strategic product for outings, picnics and hikes. Its high calorie content and abundance of useful nutrients make stew simply irreplaceable in harsh natural conditions. Of course, the areas of use of stew do not end there. Canned stew meat can be used to make a variety of dishes, from stir fry to a simple sandwich. Stew is generally a very convenient thing, and you don’t have to buy it at the store. In this article we will tell you how to make stew at home and share a few tricks that will greatly simplify the preparation of homemade stew.

How to cook homemade stew

How to cook homemade stew so that it is at least as good as store-bought? There is nothing simpler, because any homemade dish prepared with love is a priori tastier than any delicacy brought from a store or restaurant. The most important thing in stew is the meat! Surely you are accustomed to the fact that stew is beef. That’s right, but you can make stew at home from pork, rabbit, lamb, and poultry. Choose what you like best! In addition to meat, you will need lard or internal fat to prepare stew. If you intend to cook beef stew, then choose large pieces of fillet. For stewed pork, fatty pieces with layers of lard or a pork head are best suited. To prepare lamb stew, take the flesh from the neck and shoulder blades.
By and large, recipes for making stew are not very different from each other, the main difference is the cooking time. When preparing stew, you first need to thoroughly wash the meat and cut it into large pieces, and finely chop the fat and lard into cubes. After this, put black peppercorns and bay leaves into pre-sterilized dry and clean jars with a capacity of 0.5 l or 0.7 l. Fill the jar evenly with meat and fat, placing them in layers, and the pieces should be placed quite tightly. The jars should be filled to 3 - 4 cm to the top, fill the remaining space with pieces of lard and salt, then pour boiling water and cover with glass lids. In this form, place the jars on a baking sheet covered with a layer of coarse salt and place in the oven at 200 degrees. At the moment when the stew begins to boil in the jars, you should reduce the temperature to 150 degrees and leave in the oven for 3 hours. After this time, remove the jars and seal them with sterile lids. Turn upside down and leave in a warm place until completely cool.
The second method of preparing stew differs from the first in that you actually fry and then stew the meat in pre-melted fat and do this not in the oven, but on the stove! First, finely chop the lard and melt it in a thick-bottomed saucepan, stirring occasionally. After the lard has melted, cut the meat into small pieces and fry it over medium heat for 60 minutes in this fat. It is imperative to ensure that the meat does not burn, you cannot add water, the meat should be fried and stewed exclusively in fat! After an hour, cover the pan with a lid, reduce heat and cook the meat for 4 hours, stirring it every 30 minutes. At the end of cooking, add salt, bay leaves and black peppercorns. Place the finished stew into jars and roll up. It is very important not to add onions or garlic to the stew under any circumstances - they shorten the shelf life of the finished stew!

Homemade chicken stew

Homemade chicken stew is very tasty and convenient. And it’s simple and fairly quick to prepare. Chicken stew is prepared at home as follows. You will need these ingredients:

chicken meat (legs, breasts, fillets, whatever you like best) – 2 kg
black peppercorns – 20 pieces
salt – 20 g;
bay leaf – 5 pieces

To prepare chicken stew you will need about 4 – 5 hours. First, we sterilize jars of a container convenient for you (usually stewed meat is stored in 0.5 liter and 0.7 liter jars) in the microwave for 10 minutes, after pouring a little water into each jar. Then we clean the chicken meat from skin, bones and fat. We will still need everything except the bones. We cut the meat into large pieces, salt it and put it in jars. At this time, melt the finely chopped skin and fat in a saucepan. Pour the resulting mixture into the meat in jars, add pepper, bay leaves and place in a water bath or in the oven in the manner described above for 4 hours. After this, add boiling water to each jar and seal it. All! Now you know how to make homemade chicken stew!

Homemade pork stew

Homemade pork stew is as easy to prepare as poultry stew. It just takes a little more time. To prepare pork stew, you will need:

pork tenderloin – 600 g (you will get 0.5 liters of stew)
black peppercorns – 10 pieces
allspice black pepper – 10 pieces
bay leaf – 5 pieces
lard - about 100 g

First of all, you must rinse the meat well and clean it of films and fat. Subsequently, this fat will melt, and you will pour it over the finished meat. Cut the washed meat into small pieces and rub them with salt. Melt the existing lard in a frying pan or kettle and fry the meat in it until cooked. After this, let the pork cool and then put it into jars, arranging it with bay leaves and adding black peppercorns and allspice. Fill the jars with the remaining melted fat, boiling water and roll up. It is best to store the finished stew in a cool room. Now you know how to cook stew at home. We wish you pleasant and tasty preparations!

1. First you need to deal with the meat. If you are preparing stew for the first time, you can take only 1 jar of ingredients. The pork needs to be thoroughly washed and cut into medium pieces (it all depends on your taste preferences - you can cut it into very small pieces, then the structure of the stew will be more uniform, or into large pieces, so that the pieces do not lose their shape during the cooking process). The classic recipe for homemade pork stew involves using meat of medium fat content.

2. Salt and pepper the meat to taste. Mix everything thoroughly and place in the refrigerator for 30-40 minutes. If desired, you can add a little onion for taste and softness. It needs to be cleaned and passed through a meat grinder, and then the resulting mixture is added to the meat. You can also add other meat spices, but it is important not to overdo it so as not to interrupt the taste of the stew.

3. Cans for stew must be thoroughly washed and sterilized. If desired, you can place a bay leaf and peppercorns on the bottom of each jar.

4. Place the meat in sterilized jars. Boil water separately and add to jars of stew.

5. There are several options for making homemade pork stew. You can put it in the oven, for example, or cook it in a pressure cooker or saucepan. Place a towel on the bottom of the pan and carefully place the jars, after covering them with lids (not screwing them tightly). Pour in water, bring to a boil and cover with a lid. Cook the stew over low heat for about 3-4 hours. It is important to monitor the water level and add more if necessary.

The stew, without a doubt, has lost its former strategic importance, which it had a couple of decades ago. However, for some categories of humanity it remains as important as ever. These primarily include hunters, tourists, fishermen, that is, those who spend a long time in nature, in “wild” conditions. And if a traveler does not want to eat only porridge for several days, he will have to take stewed meat with him.

Without a doubt, you can get by with a store-bought one. But usually all sorts of trimmings, tripe and low-grade meat are allowed into it. And the degree of its freshness is often questionable. So if a person does not want to suffer with his stomach, he will have to learn how to cook stew at home in order to be completely confident in the products that he takes to places far from civilization.

What kind of meat is good?

Basically, any: beef, chicken, pork, rabbit or lamb. You can also mix several types. The main condition is that it must be fresh. Chilled will also work, but under no circumstances frozen. You buy fillet in large pieces or already chopped (for example, for goulash). You can roll a bird straight with the bones, but for a rabbit, only pieces cut from the legs are suitable for stewing. Please note that most types of meat (except pork) are quite lean, and stew necessarily requires fat, so you will have to buy additional lard. From pork, from which the fattest pieces are taken, before preparing the stew at home, the fat is cut off even before cooking.

Selection and preparation of dishes

The weakest “point” of stewed meat is its storage. Therefore, it is important to properly sterilize the containers in which it will be rolled. This can be done in any way - boiling followed by drying or calcination in the oven. It is necessary to sterilize not only the jars, but also the lids, so it is better to take the latter metal ones (or those that are rolled by a machine, or with a twist). To prevent them from rusting during storage, they are coated with fat on the outside. Heat-resistant plastic ones, those that close hermetically, are also suitable - they are also boiled or calcined.

Sometimes milk cartons, which are lined with foil on the inside, are used to package the stew. But this method presupposes fairly rapid use, since it is impossible to achieve special sterility from them, and you cannot seal them hermetically. In some cases, the stew is placed in small aluminum cans, but the complaints against them are the same. For long-term storage, still choose glass jars, since preparing stew at home, wasting food, time, and then losing the result of your labor is very disappointing.

The easiest way

The most common and simple recipe for stew at home is as follows. Take fresh meat, salt, lard (in the ratio of 1 kg - 1 teaspoon - 200 g), bay leaf and peppercorns. If you have pork, lard is excluded. The meat is coarsely chopped, salted, and spices are added (if desired). Bay leaves and pepper are placed in sterile jars at the bottom, and meat on top, but you need to make sure that fatty slices are interspersed with lean ones. Lard (or pork fat) is melted and containers are filled with it. The baking sheet is generously sprinkled with coarse salt, the filled dish is placed on it, and the sheet is placed in an unheated oven. After which it is heated to 200 degrees, and the jars stand in it for about three hours, and then they are rolled up with sterile lids.

If you have beef stew, remember that such meat decreases in volume during cooking, so as it sags, you will have to add it from a jar specially designated for this.

The basis is stewing

The main ingredients and their quantities are the same. However, the chopped meat is not placed in jars, but placed salted in a dry pan. Water is not added! The vessel is placed on the lowest heat for four hours (if there is a lot of meat, then for all six). Juice will be released from the meat, in which it is stewed. To prevent it from sticking to the bottom, you must periodically stir the contents of the container. After two or three hours, add finely chopped half of the lard (it is required for beef, lamb, poultry or rabbit stew), which will slowly melt. At the very end, spices are added - at least laurel and peppercorns. Not a single homemade stew recipe includes onions and garlic - they quickly make the meat unusable. When hot, the product is placed in sterilized jars, the second half of the lard is melted, which is poured into the cooled stew. The containers are closed and stored in the cellar.

Chops in a can

A very unique way to cook stew at home. For a kilo of meat, take 50 g of lard, 6 bay leaves, 2 small spoons of salt and 1 black pepper, this time ground. The meat is beaten into large pieces on both sides, two-thirds of the laurel is placed at the bottom of the container where the workpiece will be stored, and salted and peppered “chops” are placed on it (as densely as possible). The vessel must be chosen high. The lard is finely chopped and laid out on top, with the rest of the bay leaf on top. The jars are placed in a cold oven (at the very bottom), which will gradually heat up to 180 degrees. The necks of the vessels should be tightly wrapped in foil. After three hours, the containers are taken out, the foil is removed and replaced with tight lids. This recipe produces the most delicious beef stew.

Cooking with pork

Note that most housewives prefer this meat. This is easy to explain: homemade pork stew cooks faster, is softer and does not require additional lard. However, not everyone likes the greasy taste. We offer a way to disguise it and make the meat more piquant. For 800 g of meat, take 100 g of sour prunes, a large onion, bay leaf, pepper and a little lard. Fry the chopped pork and chopped onion in lard - not too much, just until lightly browned. Then add a couple of tablespoons of water and add prunes. Everything is stewed together for about ten minutes, after which it is put into jars and covered with spices.

Since the stew is packaged hot, a spoon must be placed in glass containers in advance, otherwise they may burst. The resulting meat juice is distributed evenly, and the jars are placed open in the oven on a sheet covered with salt. First, the cabinet is heated to 110 degrees, and the stew is kept in it for 40 minutes. Then the temperature rises to 180, and simmering lasts about 4 hours. The finished meat is hermetically sealed, and the jar is turned upside down until it cools. This preparation of stew is a little longer than the previously described process, but the taste of the final product is subtle and delicate.

Stew with broth

For it, meat with bones is taken - or bones are purchased separately. The meat is chopped, sprinkled with salt and left for half an hour to an hour to release the juice. Broth with spices is boiled from the bones, filtered and set aside to cool. The meat is placed in sterile jars as tightly as possible and filled with meat juice and broth. Then everything is as usual: the containers are placed on a baking sheet in a cold oven, the temperature rises to 110 - and we wait. If your stew is made from chicken, it will simmer for an hour, from beef, pork or lamb - all two. A sign of readiness can be the boiling of the liquid in the jars. The vessels are removed, closed, turned over on the lid for about five minutes, and then back to the bottom. You can eat it as soon as it cools down, but only store it in the cold. But the broth becomes like jelly or jellied meat, so their lovers get double pleasure.

Chicken stew with onions

Most often, chicken is rolled up in the same way as other types of meat. However, there is a more interesting way to prepare stewed poultry at home. For example, peel it, cut it into portions, grind the onion into a puree (if you don’t have a blender, pass it through a meat grinder twice or grate it), grind the bay leaf with peppercorns in a coffee grinder. Chicken slices are mixed well with onion puree and spice powder and pushed into half-liter clean jars (not to the very top). Stewing in the oven takes place at standard temperature, not under the lid. After about an hour, you need to seal the jars with sterile lids. This chicken stew turns out juicy and fragrant.

To the happy owners of a multicooker

Those who managed to have such a useful unit at home often have no idea how to cook stew at home using it. And there is nothing complicated about it. The first rule is that the pieces should be approximately equal in size. Secondly, they need to be dried before putting them into the multicooker. Third, no water, oil or fat is added. The device is turned on for 5 hours in extinguishing mode. At the end of this period, salt, pepper and lava leaf are introduced. The contents of the bowl are mixed and placed in sterilized jars. By the way, you can also prepare them using a multicooker - take a bowl for steam cooking, put jars in it, turn on the “steamer” mode - and after ten minutes the containers are sterile. Further actions are standard: roll up, turn over, put the cooled dishes in a cool place.

The most correct way is in an autoclave

Its use guarantees very long (up to 10 years) storage. Those who often use stewed meat should definitely either buy or assemble their own machine. A product sterilized in it can completely retain its taste and freshness even when not stored in the cold, and even without hermetically sealed. Note that the stew in an autoclave is initially prepared using the usual method you like. For example, using an oven or multicooker. The differences begin after rolling. First of all, the sealed jars are not cooled in natural conditions, but are wrapped or placed in heat for a day. Then they are placed in the autoclave on top of each other. The container is filled with water so that even the lids do not protrude from under it. The autoclave is then closed and air is pumped to a pressure of one and a half bars, after which it is placed on the fire until the pressure rises to four. When the desired number is reached, the fire is reduced and the contents of the autoclave are sterilized for four hours.

After this treatment, rest assured that your stew will remain “as cooked yesterday” long years.

Everyone is used to buying stewed meat in the store, but you can make it yourself. Moreover, it turns out much tastier at home. And you won’t think about quality, because you will be sure that everything is made from fresh raw materials.

When purchasing, you cannot always be sure of the contents of the jar; sometimes it happens that instead of meat there may be only veins and water. But with homemade stew there will certainly be no such troubles.

Let's quickly find out how to make pork stew with your own hands.

Subtleties and tricks

Before you start preparing pork stew, you need to select and prepare the meat correctly. The entire taste of the stew will depend on the correct choice of meat.

Rules for selecting and preparing pork for cooking stew:

It is better to choose meat from the thigh, neck;
Pork should be fresh and fatty. The color should be bright red, not weathered;
If there is little fat, then you can add a little internal fat;
If there are bones, they must be cut off;
Next, the piece of meat is washed and cut into medium pieces;
It is advisable to fry the pieces until golden brown before stewing. This is necessary so that after stewing the meat retains its appetizing appearance;
The meat should be stewed for about 5 hours. The entire cooking process must be carried out over low heat.

In order for the stew to be stored for a long time, it must be sterilized and hermetically sealed. Be sure to add salt and spices - these are natural preservatives that preserve the taste of the stew.

You can store the stew in jars ranging from 500 ml to 3 liters. The top of the jars is rolled up with metal lids.

Step by step recipe

Let's start preparing pork stew at home:

How to cook stewed pork in the oven

What components are needed for 12 half-liter jars:

meat from the shoulder blade 3 kilograms;
2.5 kilograms of pork ham;
kilogram of pork flank;
60 black peppercorns;
12 bay leaves;
12 peas of allspice;
6 large spoons of table salt;
a little ground black pepper.

Cooking time – 5 hours.

Calorie content – 489 kcal.

Let's start preparing homemade stew in the oven:

The first step is to rinse the pork under cool water and wipe with paper towels;
If there is a film or skin on the meat, it is better to cut it off;
Cut the meat into large pieces, their width should be approximately 6-7 cm;
Place all the pieces of pork in a large container;
Season the pork with salt and pepper. Mix all the pieces well;
Close the container with a lid and leave to marinate for an hour;
In the meantime, you need to sterilize the jars. They can be sterilized over steam;
In a separate container, boil the lids for 5 minutes;
In each jar we put a bay leaf, a pea of allspice, 5 black peppercorns;
Next, put the meat in jars, put a piece of flank on top of each jar;
We cover the containers with lids, but do not tighten them very tightly;
Pour a kilogram of salt onto the surface of the baking sheet and distribute it in the form of an even layer;
Place the jars on a baking sheet in salt, it is important that their bottom does not come into contact with the metal surface of the baking sheet;
We remove the baking sheet with the jars to the lower tier of the oven and leave it there to cook at a temperature of 200 degrees;
As soon as the fat melts and begins to boil, the temperature should be reduced to 140 degrees and left to cook for 4 hours;
After this, remove the stew from the oven, leave to stand for about 15 minutes so that all the fat stops boiling;
After this, we wrap the jars with a warm towel and leave them to stand for 1-2 days;
You can store it in a cool room. This stew can be stored for 1 year.

Cooking meat in a slow cooker

What components are needed for preparation:

4 kilograms of pork meat;
bay leaf – 4 pieces;
4 large spoons of table salt;
15 black peppercorns;
1 small spoon of marjoram.

Cooking time – 5 hours;

Calorie content – 495 kcal.

How to cook homemade pork stew in a slow cooker:

First you need to rinse the meat well under cool water and wipe with a paper towel;
If there is a film or veins on the surface of the pork, they should be cut off;
Cut the meat into medium pieces. Each slice should be 5 cm wide and long;
Next, place the pork pieces in the multicooker container;
Select the “Extinguishing” mode and time 5 hours. We stew only the meat; there is no need to add water, salt, or pepper to it. During the stewing process, all the necessary fat will be released from the pork, which will prevent the meat from drying out;
About an hour before cooking, you need to open the multicooker container and add salt, bay leaf, peppercorns and other spices to the meat;
There should not be too much salt, but not too little. It is due to this component that the shelf life is ensured;
Close the multicooker and continue to simmer;
Meanwhile, we wash the jars and sterilize them over steam or in the oven;
If you decide to sterilize jars in the oven, then place the container there with the neck down, select a temperature of 150 degrees and leave to sterilize for 15 minutes;
The lids need to be boiled for 5 minutes;
Next, put the meat in jars and fill with the remaining fat;
Cover with lids, but do not close too tightly;
Place the container in the oven and leave it to simmer at 200 degrees for 20 minutes;
Then we take everything out, roll up the lids;
As soon as the stew has cooled, it should be put in the refrigerator or cellar for storage. Can be taken out to the balcony;
This meat stew can be stored for 6 months.

Stewed pork at home is soft, juicy, and aromatic. For variety, you can add herbs, various spices, and aromatic herbs. It can be used to prepare any dishes - soups, cereals, potatoes, pasta.

In addition, it is stored for a long time, so it can be safely stored for the winter. You can store it in a cool place on the balcony, in the cellar, in the pantry, in the refrigerator. On average, meat lasts from 3 months to one year.

Homemade stew is not just tasty, it is very tasty. It helps us out not only in the winter when it’s freezing outside and you don’t really want to go to the store in the cold. But even in the summer, when camping, at the dacha, or fishing, it is convenient to take a jar of stew on a long trip and have a ready-made tasty and satisfying meal on the road. You can add it to pasta or cook soup. You can also make a delicious meat pie based on stew. In general, stew is a universal product.

But today it is very rare to find really high-quality stew on the shelves. Therefore, more and more housewives are resorting to home-made stew. And as it turned out, preparing homemade stew is not so difficult. The algorithm of actions is not at all complicated, and almost any meat can be used. In addition, the seasonings for cooking also need a little onion, bay leaf and peppercorns, that’s all. But of course there are recipes with a lot more seasonings, and we will consider all the options for preparing homemade stew.

And the very first recipe will not just be made from chicken meat. Chicken is the most affordable meat today and also not expensive. This type of stew is very popular among summer residents, since during the season you can raise chickens at the dacha and prepare stew from them, thereby preserving the meat for the winter.

To prepare stew, take jars and first sterilize them in any way available to you. Then place a bay leaf, three or four peppercorns and garlic into empty sterilized jars. Garlic is not necessary so as you like. And a little onion. Place the onion between the layers of meat.

Place the chicken pieces into jars, cover with lids, and place in the oven for 4 hours. The most optimal temperature for cooking is 145 degrees. But even if it is 150 it is not critical. I immediately warn you that during the cooking process the meat may shrink, so it is worth putting a spare jar of meat in order to then transfer the meat from it to those jars in which the meat will shrink especially.

After four hours of stewing, close the jars and send them to cool at room temperature. Chicken stew turns out very tasty and nutritious. Chicken meat contains a very large amount of amino acids so necessary for the human body. So don't forget to include chicken in your diet.

Homemade pork stew

If in the recipe for making chicken stew, the bones could not be separated from the meat. But with pork this trick won’t work here and the bones will be thicker and their structure will be different.

So we separate the meat from the bones and then rinse the meat well in water.

Meat pulp 1 kg.

Black pepper 1 teaspoon

Salt. Before putting the meat in jars, simply rub it with salt.

Bay leaf.

Onion.

Garlic.

If the meat is not fatty, you should add a little pure lard. For 1 kg of meat, 200 grams of lard is enough. It is better to cut the lard into pieces several times smaller than the meat. This way it will dissolve faster and saturate the meat with fat and your stew will turn out juicy.

And so, first of all, we sterilize the jars. Place dry and clean jars in the microwave or oven for 3-4 minutes. Afterwards, carefully take out and place the seasonings in equal quantities into the jars. Of course, despite the fact that the banks are all the same. It is advisable to take small jars, about half a liter, this is the best option for containers for stew.

Place bay leaf, pepper, and onion at the bottom of the jar. Then we lay out the meat and lard. But we don’t leave too much space for the liquid that will be released and in which the meat will be stewed.

After the meat is placed in jars and covered with iron lids, we put the jars in the oven and keep them there for 4 hours at a temperature of 140-150 degrees. Then screw the jars on and keep them with their lids down until they cool completely. It is advisable to cover all jars with a warm blanket.

Recipe for homemade stew in a cauldron

There is a second option for preparing stew. In this option, all the meat can be stewed in a cauldron or in a duck pot.

Place the meat in a cauldron or duck pot and add the necessary seasonings. Pour a small amount of water and leave to simmer on low heat after the water boils. Simmer the meat for 5 hours. During the process, make sure that there is liquid remaining in the cauldron.

After five hours, place the meat in sterilized jars.

Cover the jars with lids or foil, put them in the oven and keep them there for 15 minutes at a temperature of 110-120 degrees, then take them out and screw on the lids. That's the whole recipe for cooking pork stew in a cauldron or in a duck pot.

Homemade beef stew

As mentioned earlier, stew can be prepared from almost any meat. Now the time has come to learn how to cook beef stew.

In order for the beef stew to turn out juicy and tasty, you should add lard to it, which will provide the meat with a special taste and add juiciness to the dry beef. For 1 kg of meat, 200 grams of lard will be enough. But before that, you should remove the hard skin from the lard.

And so the meat is cut into pieces such that they fit into the neck of the jar. Before laying out the meat should be washed thoroughly.

Place bay leaves, peppers, onions, and allspice into half-liter jars.

Lay out the meat and leave room for lard.

Spread the top layer of lard and cover the jars with foil.

Of course, we only take sterilized jars.

Before placing the jars on the baking sheet, a little trick.

It is better to cover the baking sheet with foil, since during cooking fat may spill out of the jars and will certainly burn. And the foil will protect your baking sheet.

And so we put the jars in the oven and heat them there at a temperature of 180-200 degrees for 2-3 hours.

Then turn off the heat completely and wait for the oven to cool naturally. After about an hour, the jars can be closed with lids and sent to cool at natural room temperature.

How to quickly cook stew at home

For this recipe, you should first prepare the brine. For 5-6 liters of water, 800 grams of bay leaf salt, onion pepper.

Mix everything and send it to the fire.

While the brine is boiling, place the meat into the boiling brine. Boil for 20-30 minutes. As soon as the meat is ready, put it in jars and fill it with brine. What you get is not quite a stew, but the recipe is very suitable; in fact, the meat is ready and can be consumed. With one caveat, remember that it is very salty. And if you prepare soup using this meat, be careful with salt.

Homemade duck stew in a slow cooker

Yes, you can also cook stew in a slow cooker. And for this you can also use almost any meat, but for today’s recipe we’ll take duck meat.

Trim the carcass and cut it into small pieces so that they can easily fit into the neck of the jar.

We put the meat in the multicooker bowl and season it with spices, and this is the same bay leaves, a couple of leaves, a teaspoon of salt, 3-4 peas of allspice, one onion and you can also add a little black pepper for a spicy taste.

Pour a little more water into the multicooker bowl so that the meat does not burn immediately after turning on the device. Set the multicooker to stewing mode for 3 hours.

The water boils away, and the meat continues to stew in its own juices. After 3 hours, put the stew into jars and screw on the lids.