recipe experimentation!

Poking around in the what's-this-bento-thing-all-about excavation I mentioned yesterday, I found this recipe for Korean beef stew (from a Filipina blogger whose food photos and descriptions, at least, fill me with confidence).  My customary beef stew is very US-winter-comfort-food, so I'm excited to try this one.  The recipe, for those who don't want to follow the link offblog, is thus:

1 kg beef ribs
6 cups water
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup vinegar
sesame oil
sesame seeds
green onions

1.  Wash ribs, then set to boil.  Make sure beef pieces are covered in water.
2.  When the water's boiling, set the fire to low, then continue simmering until beef is tender, about an hour or an hour and a half.  Make sure to skim off the scum (come on, say it fast, skim off the scum!) from the top of the water.
3.  Mix sugar, soy sauce, and vinegar, then add it to the stew.  Simmer for another 30 minutes or so.
4.  Add a few drops of sesame oil, some sesame seeds, and green onions.  Serve while hot.

People ask her about when the meat comes off the bone, etc., but I have solved this by using boneless ribs.  It is my fervent wish that this would mean there'd be no scum to skim off, as well, which may be the case, but there's plenty of fat going to cook out of these things, because I didn't trim them.  Meh.

Anyway.  I did not wash the meat.  I keep seeing recipes that say (usually of chicken) "rinse and pat dry", and I generally believe this has to do with skin-on meat, so with skinless poultry and the other sorts of packaged meat I buy, I tend to thaw it and cut it up and go.  Is there a reason I should be doing something different?

I cut up about three pounds of boneless beef ribs into rectangles about 1x1x1.5, seared them (my mother did teach me some things), and threw them in ten cups (it turns out, necessary to cover) of water with a couple dashes of garlic powder.  When the water was boiling, I turned the heat down and covered the pot, but now I'm thinking maybe I should uncover it so the water cooks away a bit.  Anyone have thoughts?

I'm going to use a whole cup each of sugar and soy sauce, because of the extra water (I may use a cup and a quarter of each), and 3/4 cups of vinegar ... which is where I run into trouble.  I have white vinegar and apple cider vinegar.  Which should I use?  I do not have red wine vinegar.

Then I have green onions, and I have a whole pan of sesame seeds ready to toast before adding to the pot at the last minute.

I anticipate yumminess.

update on the stew

The house is full of a teriyaki smell (shocking, when you heat up soy sauce and sugar, is what that is), and the beef is super-tender.  I will leave the pot uncovered overnight in the hope that I'll have more luck skimming off the fat after it congeals a bit.

I have a "vanilla lime" candle burning in the living room, and it makes me think that a little lime juice in this stew wouldn't go amiss.  Or maybe squeeze a lime over it when serving it with rice.

[ETA:  Changed my mind.  I've removed the meat and enough liquid to almost cover it, and am boiling the rest of the liquid in an attempt to cook it down on account of I'd like it to be thicker, more like a sauce than a soup.  We'll see how that works.]