To: Pashuteh Yid – and others:
What makes “kiddush” chulent taste the way it does, are (I believe) two ingredients…
1) Caterers tend to put in more salt than many of us do at home. It’s not healthy, but try putting in a bit more salt than usual.
2) When we buy our chulent meat, many of us are turned off by meat that looks too fatty, so we buy something more lean. Though (again) the fat is not healthy, the meat fat is also one of the main factors that creates that “kiddush chulent” taste. If you don’t want to clog up your families arteries, but still get that good taste, get an only moderately “marbled” (i.e. fatty) piece of meat, and then add 1/4 – 1/2 cup of olive oil to your chulent. That will give it more of that “meaty” taste but olive oil is a good-for-you healthy fat.