This morning, Monday morning, I dragged out the crockpot so as to observe a certain autumn ritual, something I've done ever since the first year I left home when still a teenager (meaning I've done it for too many years to count, every autumn)--that of making a pot of beef stew.
I'm not sure why I do this, but I do this only one time, every autumn, after which I pack away the crockpot until the next autumn. It had not been a family tradition or anything; it was just something I did, or do, simply because it felt like "the thing to do."
I make beef stew the old-fashioned way, from whatever's in the cupboards.
There are only two variations from what other people do. I don't buy beef especially marked as appropriate for stews; I buy the most-expensive cut of beef, about a pound or so (in other words, even though expensive, I don't buy much of it), sirloin or something--whatever has only little fat, or if possible, no fat, and chop that up.
I am not a fan of grease, or what the primitives call "juices."
The other thing is that I buy a large white potato, rather than a handful of small red potatoes.
The single white potato I purchased this morning, for example, weighed nearly a pound and cost a whopping fifty cents.
And now, after all these years, I'm beginning to wonder about something.
I started the stew this morning, and it's probably not going to be until Wednesday that it's edible, because of the potatoes. For some reason, on "low" heat, in the crockpot it takes at least a couple of days before the potatoes are cooked thoroughly, no matter how small I chop them.
I do not make the whole stew right away; at the moment all that's in the crockpot is tomato juice, a large chopped-up white potato, salt-and-pepper, paprika, and onion salt. No point in adding anything else, until the potatoes are edible.
After which I dump in the beef, frozen corn and peas, a can of tomato sauce, a can of vegetable soup, a can of tomato soup, a can of ready-made beef stew, a dash of mustard, a drip of syrup, more salt-and-pepper, paprika, and onion salt, a can of pure beef gravy, brown rice, and whatever other oddments happen to be in the cupboard or refrigerator.
And then it's ready inside of two hours.
I'm wondering if red potatoes might cook faster than white ones, even though I've always been partial to white potatoes (red potatoes were cheaper than dirt when I was a kid, and seemed to spoil much more quickly, which is why this partiality).
Has anyone noticed if red potatoes cook faster than white ones?
I've always chopped the potatoes up leaving the skin intact (when I was young and poor, I couldn't afford a potato-peeler, and thus this life-long habit).
