Hi, I got some advice from a nice lady in the grocery store, but I think
it's not working out. I was cooking beef and vegetable soup in a crock
pot. She suggested instead of water I use red wine and beef stock. She
said I should use half and half, instead of water. So I have half red
wine (burgundy) and half beef stock. It's been cooking a few hours, but
it doesn't taste very good. The liquid doesn't cook off in a crock pot.
It also has carrots, onions, garlic, green chili, olive oil, in addition
to about 3 lbs of good roast. Should I spoon out most of the juice and
replace it with water?

Thank you very much for any help.

Jim

On Tue, 16 Dec 2003 01:21:18 -0700, Jim Kroger >
wrote:

> So I have half red
>wine (burgundy) and half beef stock. It's been cooking a few hours, but
>it doesn't taste very good. The liquid doesn't cook off in a crock pot.
>It also has carrots, onions, garlic, green chili, olive oil, in addition
>to about 3 lbs of good roast. Should I spoon out most of the juice and
>replace it with water?
>
>Thank you very much for any help.
>
>Jim

That's a lot of wine for a soup. Instead of throwing out the liquid,
let some of it evaporate so you have a stew :^)

Jim Kroger saw Sally selling seashells by the seashore and told us all
about it on Tue, 16 Dec 2003 01:21:18 -0700:

>Hi, I got some advice from a nice lady in the grocery store, but I think
>it's not working out. I was cooking beef and vegetable soup in a crock
>pot. She suggested instead of water I use red wine and beef stock. She
>said I should use half and half, instead of water. So I have half red
>wine (burgundy) and half beef stock. It's been cooking a few hours, but
>it doesn't taste very good. The liquid doesn't cook off in a crock pot.
>It also has carrots, onions, garlic, green chili, olive oil, in addition
>to about 3 lbs of good roast. Should I spoon out most of the juice and
>replace it with water?
>
>Thank you very much for any help.

Cook it some more - it should be great! It'll take a long time for the
flavours to meld - crockpots are designed for long slow cooking, much
more than just a couple of hours.

(huggles)

~Karen AKA Kajikit

Nobody outstubborns a cat...

Visit my webpage: http://www.kajikitscorner.com
Allergyfree Eating Recipe Swap: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Allergyfree_Eating
Ample Aussies Mailing List: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ampleaussies/

In article >, Jim Kroger
> wrote:

> Hi, I got some advice from a nice lady in the grocery store, but I think
> it's not working out. I was cooking beef and vegetable soup in a crock
> pot. She suggested instead of water I use red wine and beef stock. She
> said I should use half and half, instead of water. So I have half red
> wine (burgundy) and half beef stock. It's been cooking a few hours, but
> it doesn't taste very good. The liquid doesn't cook off in a crock pot.
> It also has carrots, onions, garlic, green chili, olive oil, in addition
> to about 3 lbs of good roast. Should I spoon out most of the juice and
> replace it with water?
>
> Thank you very much for any help.
>
> Jim

Too late for this one from me, BUT - beef broth is a great thing to use
- and red wine - but not half and half in a crock pot. I would use beef
broth, and water (mostly to cut the salt, but if I was using home-made
beef broth, or low-sodium, I'd use all beef broth) and a splash of red
wine, very dry, for body.

In a crock, I'd skip the wine pretty much, because you're right - it
doesn't reduce well.

But that's me, and your mileage may vary.

--
Nancy Howells (don't forget to switch it, and replace the to send mail).

Jim Kroger > wrote in message
...
> Hi, I got some advice from a nice lady in the grocery store,
> but I think it's not working out. I was cooking beef and
> vegetable soup in a crock pot. She suggested instead of
> water I use red wine and beef stock. She said I should
> use half and half, instead of water. So I have half red wine
> (burgundy) and half beef stock. It's been cooking a few
> hours, but it doesn't taste very good. The liquid doesn't
> cook off in a crock pot. It also has carrots, onions, garlic,
> green chili, olive oil, in addition to about 3 lbs of good
> roast. Should I spoon out most of the juice and replace it
> with water?

Three things come to mind immediately: 1) The wine (who's the maker?) you
used is not something you would normally drink and has overpowered the
stock. You could try and remove some of the stock, reduce it over normal
heat, and see if that helps. 2) The amount of wine you used seems out of
proportion to the amount of beef stock -- but I don't use burgundy; it's too
powerful/domineering. 3) The soup hasn't been cooking near long enough. How
long is a "few hours?"

The crockpot won't reduce liquid like a normal stock pot; the lid seals and
doesn't allow much evaporation. Also, did you brown the meat prior to
starting it cooking in the crockpot? That will also affect the taste of the
soup.

The Ranger