I follow recipes to the letter- brown the meat if required, etc.
However, whilst the meat (be it pork, lamb or beef) is very tender, it never has any flavour.
Thoughts?

Hmm, that's a bit odd. Slow cooking normally produces very tasty meat. What kind of things are you cooking? I never follow recipes to the letter - don't be afraid to add extras!

Firstly, are you using cuts of meat that are meant to be slow cooked - so, for example, with beef: shin, flank, skirt, silverside, brisket. Basically, the cheaper, tougher cuts are best, as a lot of the flavour is in the sinew and muscle. Secondly, what other ingredients are you putting in? You need to work a bit to get a really rich stew, for example. Use a decent stock and add a good splosh of red wine. Marmite or Bovril are brilliant added to stews to give a rich, deep flavour, ditto a splash of Lee & Perrins. Do you use herbs and spices?

Did a pork loin a few days ago.....from a recipe....balsamic, Worcestershire sauce, soy, pepper flakes, garlic etc.....even gave the pork a light salt n pepper rub beforehand.....nada....

A lot of flavour comes from the liquid you cook in. Are you using stock, wine, tinned tomatoes, or what?

As per recipes.....if it calls for 200ml of chicken stock, that's what it gets.....same with wine or tinned tomatoes....

does pork loin have a lot of fat? I'm not sure if it does... And that's where a lot of the flavour is in pork. Or any meat really.

True enough......I'll start putting the cheap cuts back in.....although the meat here is very, very lean & offered for sale the same day as slaughter.
No chance to get 3 week aged beef....

If you're not getting aged meat then madinade it with either a dry or wet rub and let it marinade in the fridge for a couple of days.


If you watch the US shows like Diners, Drive Ins and Dives or Man v Food or You Gotta Eat Here (Canadian) you will see the different types of rubs they use.

Mostly its for use for smoking meat, but at other times they just slow cook them in the oven or make corned beef or pastrami.



The first episode of Tom Kerridge's new series he made a slow cooked brisket.

I smoke brisket & know my rubs...... for BBQ pork/ribs I use Alton Brown's 8+3+1+1....for brisket I use a lot of star anise...

But for slow cooking in a slow cooker, I don't want the rub to overpower the meat

Then don't put as much on

Well, it certainly sounds like you know what you're doing when it comes to marinading/rubs/adding flavour etc! Sounds like it's down to the meat you're using. Very lean meat just isn't cut out for slow cooking. Go for the cheap cuts.

You can also, by the way, have a go at aging beef yourself, if you can't buy it locally. You can't really age individual steaks, but you can larger cuts.

http://www.seriouseats.com/2013/03/t...f-at-home.html

I only use very cheap cuts for slow or pressure cooking. Always plenty of fat and flavour.

I render my own fat from lumps of fat cuttings from the butcher. I always add some to my meals.

Thanks for all this.....pork tenderloin was the latest disaster......not enough fat.

Re meat here in the Windies, it's very lean & even on an 8lb 3-rib piece of beef, there'll be very little marbling & no meaningful fat cap.

I've wanted to try ageing, but difficult for the same reasons as above & also don't have a spare fridge!

There's only one butcher on the island that knows his cuts (he used to own a butcher's in Ascot), but his supply chain is unreliable & it's a bit of a hike.

Brisket is my speciality & love to serve a 15lb flat for the boys....wifey hates it.

This is my Bible;

http://amazingribs.com/recipes/beef/texas_brisket.html

Have you tried shin? You cant fail to get flavour out of shin with bone in.

I have a Giles & Posner slow cooker and love it. I use it all the time for meat, pasta bake, spag bol sauce - anything. I use any small beef joint that's on offer when I go to the supermarket. For stock I use Vecon Vegetable stock along with bay leaves, onions etc. It's concentrated and comes in a jar and I buy it from Holland & Barrett and you use as much or as little as suits your taste.

Can you get hold of goat? Or try mutton (or failing that hogget) rather than lamb.

I find they give / retain a lot more flavour in slow cooked casseroles, curries etc.

Don't like goat!
And here, mutton & goat are interchangeable.....you don't know what you're getting.
Same with butter & margarine.....

Ah right, just seen your location.

By mutton I was talking about older sheep. Here under one year old is called lamb; one to two years of age is hogget; two years plus is mutton. The older the sheep was, the better it is for slow cooking and the stronger it's flavour will be.