Flour will help to distribute the seasonings more uniformly over the meat, and they'll stick more easily in the beginning of the cooking process. It will also help thickening the stew later on.

You can probably skip that step, since it's a long cooking time (10h) and there's no browning in the beginning.

Flour will help to distribute the seasonings more uniformly over the meat, and they'll stick more easily in the beginning of the cooking process. It will also help thickening the stew later on.

You can probably skip that step, since it's a long cooking time (6 to 10h) and there's no browning in the beginning.