I always play this by intuition. I’ve got beef tri tip–and I’m prepared to put together the onions, garlic, mushroom, and secret ingredients in a beef broth–separately browning the beef strips. Then put them all together, adding sour cream as a final step.
What’s your secrets to make it special?
Ray
Dijon mustard and dill in the sauce along with the sour cream. A splash of cognac too.
Great ideas, Thanks.
Tomato paste! My mom made it this way - maybe about 2 T for 1-1.5 lbs of steak? I’m sure it is inauthentic but I like it. (I also leave out the mushrooms as I don’t like them.)
Nothing I would have thought of, truman,
broadens my thinking.
Ray
A healthy blup of cognac.
Shallots instead of onions.
And sometimes, if I’m not feeling the beef stock, I’ll use a combination of mushroom stock and red wine.
I prefer crème fraîche over sour cream, beef (or pork) tenderloin as meat, I add mushrooms, ample amounts of dill, sometimes pearl onions. Ditto on @LindaWhit 's Dijon and cognac or red wine.
Always over egg noodz.
Thanks, Linda,
All true personal “secrets” worth considering.
Ray
I like these ideas, but don’t scrimp on the meat–choosing quality is critical, and the highest quality piece of beef you can find is never a mistake.
Ray
I know it’s “sacrilege” and maybe even another dish entirely if you view it that way but we like to use a little mashed up potato and/or daikon/turnip in lieu of the sour cream. It’s more to my taste not being so creamy. Some booze never hurts, sake works well too.
I use potato in a lot of soups to replace the cream so I would agree.
I did my prep work yesterday, and did my “tri tip” Stroganoff for two–not sure my Japanese guest would like it at all. Used some of the tricks–the worchester sauce and the grey poupon mustard (and some dill). I left out the sour cream I was ready to add at the very end for him–but not for me–served his in a small oval Le Creuset dutch oven.
He went back for more: no leftovers.
Following to see why one might use the amazing tri-ip this way. Admittedly I don’t recall having made beef stroganoff. 
Sounds good. Maybe I should try it.
Chowhound’s much-missed sensei, Sam Fujisaka, asserted that gizzards, braised low and slow, made a great stroganoff. He was right. I sliced them about 1/4" thick and was careful not to rush the cooking. They turned out tender, and I doubt one cook in a hundred would suspect the meat wasn’t beef.
using so lean a cut for a dish like this is certainly unusual! very easy for it to dry out, so am glad the op had success.
My go to recipe has been Dana Crumb’s from her Eat It: A cookbook. The recipe, it turns out, was very similar to my grandfather’s recipe for Beef Stroganoff. I add tons of mushrooms. This cookbook is a must have!
Hi hotoynoodle,
The lean beef must be seared at high temperature, set aside, and added in toward the end. That keeps it from drying out.
I usually make Stroganoff after breaking down whole bone-in rib roasts or whole tenderloins, using the scraps from the narrow ~ 1.5 lb tail on the tenderloin or a chunk of the cap from the ribeye.
My MIL uses leaner meat but doesn’t know your method (quick sear, then add back at the end) and instead cooks it too long, making it tough and dryer.
I like a dollop (1-2 tsp in a 6-serving recipe) of Dijon as others have mentioned, and just a splash of Worcestershire. I haven’t tried a splash of cognac, which sounds good so I was glad to learn of it in this thread.
Also, consider replacing 1/2 and up to about 3/4 of the called-for amount of sour cream or crème fraiche with heavy cream. If you do, double the Dijon to replace the missing acidity (or a tsp of red wine vinegar).
I really like using mushroom stock but don’t make it nearly as often as I do beef broth, and I seldom think far enough in advance to have made it before I suddenly say “Hey, Stroganoff!”. Which is dumb now that I think about it - given I always know (to within a day or two) when I’m going to break down a Cryovac’d rib roast or tenderloin.
Garlic - seems few BS recipes call for it, but I think it adds something (a couple of largish cloves minced per 6-serving recipe).
Edit - not quite what you asked for, but a veggie (but not vegan) version is pretty good - I’ve got one mostly vegetarian daughter (she uses butter and cheese). Just use 3X as many mushrooms as normal, and slice fairly thick. Cook in a single layer without stirring until they get golden seared on the one side, then flip and do the same to the other. This gives them a nice bite and kind of meat-like chew. The downside is for 6 servings, this is 5 or more skillets full before you get all the mushrooms done. Then mushroom stock for the liquid base and everything else the same (except Worcestershire due to the fish ingredient).
My ex and I bought a whole beef tenderloin at the grocery store once when it was on sale. We had the butcher slice it into steaks. I used the end piece to make stroganoff once and we were ruined for life. Now I cannot have it with any other cut of beef.
I hear you, I originally used flank steak and one time there was none available so used a sirloin roast.
Sometimes there is no turning back the clock.
