Beef Stroganoff

Yield: 12 servings

Ingredients

Meat

• 2.5 lbs ground beef (80/20)
• 1.5 lbs ground pork
• Savory/Cajun blend, to taste (1 Slap Ya Mama : 2 Holy Cow : 2 Holy Voodoo)

Sauce base

• 1–2 tablespoons lard or tallow (the meat renders its own)
• 2 large onions, diced
• 1.5 lbs cremini mushrooms, sliced
• 4–6 cloves garlic, minced
• ½ cup all-purpose flour (for the roux)
• Additional lard as needed (to bring roux fat to ~½ cup)
• 8 cups beef broth (2 cartons)
• ¼ cup Worcestershire sauce
• 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
• 2 teaspoons dried thyme (or just use Italian seasoning)
• Salt and pepper to taste (or house seasoning)

Finish

• 3 cups sour cream (adjust for preference, 3 cups is a lot)
• 3 lbs egg noodles
• Fresh parsley, chopped (optional, for garnish)

Instructions

1. Brown the meat. Heat 1–2 tablespoons lard in a large Dutch oven or heavy pot over medium-high. Add the ground beef and pork, season generously with the Savory/Cajun blend, and brown — breaking the meat up — until cooked through with some real color on it. Drain off the excess fat, leaving about 2 tablespoons in the pot, and set the meat aside. (Or just leave all the fat in, since you are adding more tallow/lard later)
2. Build the base. In the same pot (keep the browned bits — that's flavor), cook the onions in the rendered fat for about 5 minutes until softened. Add the mushrooms and garlic and cook another 5 minutes until the mushrooms release their liquid and it cooks back off. Bloom in a spoonful of the Savory/Cajun blend with the aromatics.
3. Make the roux. If the pan looks dry, add lard to bring the fat to about ½ cup. Stir in the flour and cook 1–2 minutes, stirring constantly, until it smells nutty and loses its raw-flour taste.
4. Build the sauce. Gradually whisk in the beef broth, scraping the bottom to lift the fond. Add the Worcestershire, Dijon, and seasoning. Bring to a gentle simmer and cook 10–15 minutes until thickened to a sauce that coats a spoon. Taste and adjust seasoning.
5. Return the meat. Add the browned meat and any juices back to the pot. Simmer 5 minutes to warm through and marry the flavors.
6. Cook the noodles. While the sauce simmers, cook the egg noodles separately according to package directions. Drain.
7. Temper and finish. Pull the pot off the heat. Stir a ladle of the hot sauce into the sour cream to temper it, then stir the warmed sour cream back into the pot. Adding it off heat keeps it from breaking. Do not boil after the sour cream goes in.
8. Serve. Toss the noodles with the sauce, or plate noodles and spoon sauce over the top. Garnish with parsley.

Notes

Gallbladder health

• Drain the fat: Ground pork brings good moisture but also fat, so drain the meat well after browning — you only need a couple tablespoons left in the pot for the aromatics. Skim again before the roux if it looks greasy.
• Sour cream swap: Substitute full-fat or 2% Greek yogurt for the sour cream to cut fat while keeping the tang and body. Temper it carefully — yogurt breaks more easily than sour cream, so always add it off heat and never let it boil.
• Leaner option: Use 85/15 beef and a leaner pork to bring the overall fat down further; the sauce stays plenty rich from the sour cream.
• Portion the sauce: With 8 cups of broth this makes a generous amount of sauce. Serve it spooned over the noodles rather than drowning them if you want to keep the fat-per-serving moderate.

Scaling and make-ahead

• Equipment: Use a 12-quart pot, or split the browning between two pots so the meat sears instead of steaming.
• Make ahead: Prepare through step 5 (sauce + meat, no dairy), refrigerate, then reheat gently and add the tempered sour cream just before serving. The sauce holds well; the dairy does not.
• Sauce thickness: 8 cups of broth runs a touch loose by design. For a thicker sauce, simmer longer in step 4 or hold back a cup of broth and add it only if needed.

Variations

• Add venison: Swap up to a third of the beef for ground venison for game flavor. Keep it at or under a third so the blend stays moist — the pork and 80/20 beef carry the fat.
• All beef: Replace the full 4 lbs with 80/20 ground chuck if you don't have pork on hand.
• More depth: A splash of dry sherry or white wine to deglaze before the broth adds another layer.