What is considered stew meat?

Question

I am trying to cook a nice stew, its Vegetable soup and on the recipe is says stew meat, im not sure what kindof meat that they are talking about and nor do they hint at any, Would that be considered a roast of some kind? And its Beef by the way.

Answer 1

the most common is Chuck steak , it comes from the shoulder area, gravy beef is quite good as well it comes from the cows shank, both of these meats are quite lean and suited for this kind of  cooking. they are also the cheapest cuts, however they need allot of slow cooking  

Answer 2

The best kind, but also the most expensive for me, is Sirloin about an inch thick cut in squares.  I buy "stew meat" at the store most all the time.

Answer 3

yeah you can use a small roast or a loin that you cut up.

some grocery stores package meat as "stew" meat

generally it's a cheaper cut of meat but you can use anything

Answer 4

Just go to the meat section of the grocery store and in the steak area you should find a package with cut up steak and it will say on the package stew meat. Or just get a cheap steak and cut up in cubes. Also you could just ask the butcher and they will cut up some for you.  

Answer 5

I am a former chef and the stew meat in the butcher shops and supermarkets is generally trim from roasts and steak and is not cut in a precise order, for a tender cut use some of the suggested cut the other have given, for me I like shank meat it has a bit of fat and the connective tissues break down and give the sauce a nicer flavour, and they are generally overlook by most people, I use them for my Guinness stew, steak and kidney/mushroom, soups and onion pies, even ground and in spaghetti sauce with a bit of blade or round is nice. This goes fro beef, lamb and veal, even pork hocks or trotters make a good stew for flavour.

You can buy whole roasts and trim them down, but usually the butcher shops and grocery stores have larger steak size pieces a roast can be more expensive per pound than a steak cut.

Answer 6

stew meat is usually the tougher more fiberous cuts of meat that need to  be cooked for a longer time than usual to get tender.