Add More Flavor To Your Beef Stew By Making It The Filipino Way

Although it's among the favorite comfort food suppers of many diners, beef stew can sometimes feel like a well-worn, old-fashioned recipe with relatively little new to offer curious palates. To those who want to change things up for their next batch, we suggest looking to other cultures for inspiration. In this case, our spotlight is on the Philippines. For beef stew with an ultra-savory boost, follow the lead of Filipinos and add some tomato and soy sauces.

The technique is derived from traditional Filipino beef stew, known as mechado. These umami-heavy additions are combined with onion, garlic, bay leaves, black pepper, brown sugar, and water at the earliest stage of cooking, ensuring they fully meld throughout the rest of the process. Typically, about one 15-ounce can of tomato sauce and roughly ⅓ cup of soy sauce or tamari are used for a batch size of 3 pounds of beef. 

The secret to the extra savoriness comes from the high levels of glutamates (especially glutamic acid) present in both additional ingredients. Tomatoes provide hearty, full-bodied flavor, while soy sauce offers complex umami notes with hints of sweetness, sourness, and bitterness.

Adding tomato sauce and soy sauce to your beef stew unquestionably punches up its savoriness. That said, it's also vital to recognize that the final product will taste different from a typical European-style beef stew recipe in other ways as well. Many of these recipes are built around beef broth and red wine, which provide a distinct flavor to the stew liquid. Neither broth nor wine is part of Filipino mechado stew, so those who want to add the tomato sauce and soy sauce combination to their familiar recipe should reduce other liquids accordingly and keep the flavors balanced.

While tweaking your meal to dial up the umami, it's critical not to lose sight of the overall dish and to avoid the mistakes everyone makes when cooking beef stew. These include everything from using the wrong cut of beef to overthickening the broth and failing to skim off extra fat.

Why bore your taste buds with the same beef stew you've made countless times before? For a rich, flavorful improvement, grab a can of tomato sauce and a bottle of soy sauce and transform your home-cooked meal in a subtle yet powerful way.