First what kind of meat are you using. Some meat an be tough even in soup. The best for soup is shoulder blade chuck roast, them bottom round beef roast. These will cook up tender and fall apart in your soup. Hope this helped

Soup will taste best if your meat includes a good sized bone. The marrow in the bone adds a wonderful flavor that plain meat just doesn't. Ox tail soup is an old fashioned, delicious vegetable soup that is still wonderful. I have a couple of grocery stores in my area that debone all of their meat. UGH! Don't buy from them when I can help it.

unless you are cooking filet mignon..........almost every other beef cut I cook low and long.....be it in the crock pot, oven or on top burners

This is how I do it. Works every time!

slow cook with lipton's soup mix.. MMMMMM...then add veggies

If you cook it in one chunk until tender, then remove and cut into reasonable pieces. Or if you are using beef cubes right from the start, brown first, then add onion and garlic and enough water to cover bottom of pan and only half way up the meat. Keep adding a little water or broth until almost tender. Then add the rest of the needed liquid and veggies and simmer slowly. The meat needs to be braised to make it tender. If it's in a big vat of water/broth from the beginning of the cooking process, you've boiled the meat and it gets tough. Years ago this wasn't always the case, but now the meat is so lean.

I always beat the meat with a tenderizer or a large heavy metal sppoon will work. beat it-add a lil adolph's tenderizer if it is a cheaper cut. and I agree the lipton soup mix is a great flavor booster. we use a can of tomato soup and a can of mushroom soup. the soup mix. meat and veggies of your choice. slow cook. delish

I agree, simmer it very slowly with chopped onion, chopped celery and beef broth for about an hour, then add the remaining ingredients. I try to make a large roast first so I'll have roast beef left over to make into a stew or soup. It's very tender that way.

I too cook mine a couple of hours slowly. Also, you want a cut of meat that has marbling in it. Not thick gristle, but just thin streaking of fat. I also add seasoning (except salt, it makes it tough), garlic and onion to season the broth while the meat is cooking. I add salt if needed when I add the veggies. I add every veggie I can think of that I can sneak in.

I start any soup around 5:00 AM and cook it ALL day long, low and slow. I cook with beef, venison or chicken, turkey and it always turns out nice and tender. The longer it cooks, the tender-er it gets. Either crock pot or top of stove, makes no never mind, it turns out! Venison is almost more tender than beef. Good luck. I don't make a big deal out of soup, just throw in whatever is available, barley for sure with beef and venison - rice or noodles with chicken and turkey. The more you tend to it, the more it tends to bite you in the butt!!!!!!!! We enjoy "slop" suppers the most around here. That is usually reserved for Thursday (the night the refrigerator gets emptied) - shopping on Friday. So whatever is floating around in the fridge without any green on it, goes in the pot. I can make a mean soup! You wanna try something absolutely delicious and fast????? Bear Creek Bean Soup mix (in a bag) - about $3.49. Makes a lot of soup and then I add diced ham to it! Does that make a super soup!!!! Haven't tried the other Bear Creek, because I like to make my own, but my Mom made it (age 96) and gave me a taste and I was hooked. Has a little kick to it. Good on a cold night!!!!! Have fun with your soup! Edie