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Beef Stew

You'll need: Large pot or Dutch oven. Adapted for home kitchens by Halite from the U.S. War Department's Army Recipes (TM 10-412, 1946): scaled down from 100 servings, 1946 ingredients swapped for ones sold today, and the method rewritten. The recipe as printed is the Original version in this recipe's history.

6 servingsBy U.S. War Department on Army Recipes, TM 10-412 (1946)

Ingredients

  • 953g (2 ⅛ lb) Beef chuck, boneless, 1½-inch cubes
  • 7.7g (1 ¼ tsp) Salt
  • 0.85g (¼ tsp) Pepper
  • 54g (¼ cup) Lard, or vegetable shortening or vegetable oil
  • 191g (6 ¾ oz) Onions (unpeeled weight)
  • 170g (1 cup) Tomatoes (canned)
  • 383g (13 ½ oz) Carrots (unpeeled weight)
  • 653g (1 ½ lb) Potatoes (unpeeled weight)
  • 710ml (3 cups) Water, not in the book's list for this recipe as a standalone ingredient; the fresh-vegetable swap removed the dehydration water that supplied the stew's liquid in the book's version, so water is added back as broth.

Instructions

  1. 1

    Season the beef with the salt and pepper. Brown it in the lard in the pot over high heat.

  2. 2

    Peel and chop the onions.

  3. 3

    Add the onions, tomatoes, and water to the pot with the beef. Cover and simmer on the stovetop or in the oven for about 1½ hours.

  4. 4

    Peel and cut the carrots and potatoes into pieces. Add them to the stew and continue cooking until tender, about 1 hour.

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Beef Stew

100 servingsBy U.S. War Department on Army Recipes, TM 10-412 (1946)

Ingredients

  • 35 pounds (25 No. 56 dippers) Boneless beef chuck, IJ^-inch cubes, fresh or frozen
  • 4 ½ ounces (9 mess kit spoons) Salt
  • ½ ounce (2 mess kit spoons) Pepper
  • 2 pounds (1 No. 56 dipper) Lard
  • 9 ounces (1 No. 56 dipper) Onions, dehydrated
  • 1 ½ quarts (1½ No. 56 dippers) Water (for onions)
  • 6 pounds 4 ounces (1 No. 10 can or 3 No. 56 dippers) Tomatoes (canned)
  • 1 pound 2 ounces (1 No. 56 dipper) Carrots,, dehydrated
  • 3 quarts (3 No. 56 dippers) Water (for carrots)
  • 4 pounds (6 No. 56 dippers) Potatoes, dehydrated, julienne style
  • 8 quarts (8 No. 56 dippers) Water (for potatoes)

Instructions

  1. 1

    Season beef with salt and pepper. Dump into large bakepari and brown in the lard. A hot stove is necessary.

  2. 2

    Bring 1J4 quarts of water to a boil and pour over the dehydrated onions. Allow to stand for 20 minutes.

  3. 3

    Place meat, onions, tomatoes, and water in the large stockpot. Cover and cook on top of the stove or in the oven. Allow to stew or boil for approximately 1^ hours.

  4. 4

    Soak carrots and potatoes for 40 to 60 minutes either separately or together. Bring to a boil then add them to the stew and continue cooking until they become tender (approximately 1 hour),

Typed from the page scan above. If the two disagree, go with the scan.

What we changed

  • Cut from the book’s 100 servings to 6 servings.
  • Swapped “Onions, dehydrated” for “Onions, fresh (unpeeled weight)”.
  • Swapped “Carrots, dehydrated” for “Carrots, fresh (unpeeled weight)”.
  • Swapped “Potatoes, dehydrated, julienne style” for “Potatoes, fresh (unpeeled weight)”.
  • Scaled 8 amounts and rounded each to a kitchen measure, like ½ cup.
  • Fixed 3 fractions the scan of the 1946 page misread.
  • Tidied 4 ingredient names.
  • AI rewrote the method for a home kitchen. Tap As printed at the top to compare.

Taken from the log we keep of every edit to this recipe. We left out the line-by-line unit conversions.

Where this recipe comes from

It’s from Army Recipes (TM 10-412), the cookbook the U.S. War Department printed in 1946 for Army mess halls. As a U.S. government work, it’s in the public domain.

See the scanned book →

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