As with many many well-loved and often-made family dishes, ingredients and measurements in Mom’s stews changed every time she made them. There are no measurements given here, because you can make as much or as little as you need, depending on how many people you are feeding for dinner, or how expensive a particular cut of meat is this week. In other words, here is the paint; put anything you want on the canvas.

• Cubed chuck steak or butcher’s stew meat (about ¼ – ½ cup per person)
• Onion, chopped
• Carrots, chopped
• Celery, chopped
• V-8 juice (12-16 ounces at minimum)
• Potatoes (firm varieties are best), peeled and cubed or chopped
• Lawry’s seasoned salt
• Peas (optional – remember that peas will add sweetness to the stew)
• Flour
• Olive oil

You’ll need to start with a deep cooking pan – we like hard-anodized, enamel, and cast-iron Dutch ovens, but you can work with what you have. That said, nonstick surfaces don’t work very well.

If the meat has a lot of obvious fat, tendon, or gristle, trim it off. Cut into slightly larger-than-bite-sized pieces. Chop onion, carrots and celery into bite-sized pieces.

Splash enough olive oil into your pan to cover the bottom, and turn the heat up to medium. Tip: always heat your pan before adding meat, or the meat will stick and you will be unhappy.

Dredge meat in flour. When coated, start adding pieces to the pan to brown. Tip: brown small amounts of meat at one time, instead of trying to brown them all at once. If you have more than one layer, the meat won’t brown properly and the dredged flour will turn gummy.

When meat is browned, add chopped onion, carrot and celery to the pan, and just cover meat and vegetables with V-8 juice. Add a generous sprinkle of Lawry’s salt. Cover, and simmer until almost tender – about 1 ½ hours. Chop potatoes and add to stew, and cook for an additional 30 minutes or until potatoes are tender. If you want to add peas, wait until the stew has about 10 minutes to go before adding them. When the stew is done, check seasoning and add salt, pepper, or Lawry’s to taste.

The stew can be served as is, but the sauce will be somewhat thin. If a thicker sauce is desired, remove the meat and vegetables from the Dutch oven and cover to keep warm. Increase heat under sauce to medium or medium-high. In a small bowl or cup, make a thick slurry of about ⅓ cup flour and ⅔ cup water – make sure there are no lumps, because they will NEVER dissolve. Make it smooth, or remove the lumps before adding it to the stew. Add slurry to sauce, and cook until it has reached the desired thickness. Check seasoning again. Add meat and vegetables back to the Dutch oven, and toss to coat in sauce.