Flouring Meat Before Browning - What Does It Do?

Just the other day, I decided to braise some lamb shanks. Most recipes that I see call for the meat to be dredged in flour before browning, so I began to wonder why. Is it really necessary at all?

As with most cooking questions, there is a lot of conflicting information, both in cookbooks and out on the Internet. I am not sure why this is, but I imagine that most cookbook authors and chefs learned from people who just used different techniques. Perhaps in one culinary tradition, flouring the meat before browning is standard operating procedure whereas in other traditions, it might be unheard of.

Thickening The Sauce

Most resources that I found agreed that flouring the meat before browning helps to thicken the eventual sauce. This stands to reason, as a very common method of thickening is through the use of a roux.

A roux is a mixture of equal parts flour and fat which is then cooked to achieve a certain color and complexity of flavor. When we flour meat and then brown it in oil, we are essentially making a roux—the flour on the meat mixes with the fat in the pan and cooks, providing thickening power when additional liquid is added.

Flavorful Crust

Aside from it thickening power, flouring meat, especially with seasoned flour, can provide both a flavorful crust and insulate the meat from the high heat in the pan. Whenever a recipe calls for flouring, it pays to look at the rest of the ingredient list to see if you can add any additional flavoring to the flour—flavors that will complement the dish.

For example, if you are making a Cajun-inspired meal that calls for flouring meat, you might consider adding some cayenne pepper and some Cajun seasoning to the flour before dredging the meat in it. Since flour contains both proteins and sugar, the browning is the result of Maillard reactions, just like when you brown meat.

The difference is that, during cooking, the starches in the flour mix with meat juices and gelatinize, or swell up. The gelatinized starch provides a sticky coating that serves as an insulating layer between the meat and the hot pan. This can be particularly useful in the pan searing of delicate foods, especially fish. The fish cooks nicely without drying out and ends up with a thin but crisp and flavorful coating.

When you flour meat, the meat itself gets cooked, but since it is insulated, it doesn’t necessarily brown. The flavors produced from the Maillard reactions in the flour will be slightly different than the flavors produced from browning unfloured meat, but there will still be complexity.

I imagine that, when having to choose between browning floured meat and not browning the meat at all before cooking, the dish with the floured and browned meat would have a more complex flavor.

Other Options

There has also been some discussion about using floured meat as a thickener. Many chefs consider browning in flour kind of a cheat and think that thickening and enriching should be done through reduction—slowly simmering a sauce to reduce the water content, thereby thickening it and intensifying the flavor. At the end of the day, the choice is yours: dredge your meat in flour before browning and then add liquid to provide some body and thickening, or reducing the sauce after cooking to produce a slightly thickened silky sauce.

In the case of thickening, there are a couple of other options available. While some professional chefs might consider it cheating, you can thicken a sauce by adding a slurry of flour (or corn starch, arrowroot, potato starch, etc) and cold water (or broth) to the sauce and then boiling for a few seconds. The boiling cooks off the “raw starch” flavor and helps the starches to swell up, thickening your sauce.

Another option is to knead equal amounts of butter and flour together into a paste and add this to the sauce as it simmers. This is called a beurre manie and will enrich as well as thicken a sauce. As far as I’m concerned, if my goal is to get a meal on the table on a weeknight, I will not feel bad about “cheating” with one of these thickening options.

Question For You - Do You Flour Your Meat, Chicken, Fish or Vegetables Before Browning & Why?

Valentine’s Dinner—Final Touches

If you think preparing a romantic meal is tough for some guys, how about setting a romantic table? Maybe you settled on a simple cheese plate, the fish with a salad and some chocolate fondue. Maybe you’ve decided to go all out with cheese, soup, salad, fish, meat and dessert.

No matter what special meal you have decided to create for your Valentine, know that you will be appreciated as much, if not more, for your efforts than for the food itself. Taking the time and going that extra mile to cook for someone special speaks volumes. This is especially true when it comes to setting the atmosphere.

With your menu squared away, there are still some issues to address. The finest meal in the world loses a bit of luster if you’re eating at a bare card table with plastic knives and forks. (Not that there’s anything wrong with eating at a bare card table, but for this meal, let’s throw a tablecloth over it.)

Now is the time to round out the mood: pick the right music, set a lovely table, maybe even pick a romantic movie to watch together after dinner. Your attention to detail with the finishing touches will serve to complement and complete the romantic Valentine’s Day dinner you have planned.

The Music

If you have a song that you consider “your song,” Valentine’s Day is a great day to play it. With music, there is a fine line to walk here. You want the music to be romantic and to set an intimate mood, but you don’t want to cross the line into overt cornball cheesiness or something that will distract from the food and moment.

Play the kind of music you enjoy listening to together. I don’t recommend listening to commercial radio. Nothing says mood killer like hearing a loud commercial for an antacid during the soup course! Stick with CDs or the music channels you can get with digital television. You could also download a nice mix of music to your personal MP3 player.

Here are a few of my favorite all time romantic albums that I think you might enjoy:

Chet Baker - The Best of Chet Baker Sings
Marvin Gaye - Let’s Get It On
Frank Sinatra - Greatest Love Songs
Sade - Lovers Rock

If you check out my Squidoo lens A Romantic Valentine’s Day Dinner you’ll find several more and can vote on your favorite in my poll.

The Table

Guys, let’s be honest here. We might be able to grill a great steak or even toss together a mean salad. We can install a dimmer switch for the chandelier and maybe even change the oil in the car ourselves. But, give us forks and knives and expect us to know where they go? That may be asking a little much for some of us.

It has been my experience that women tend to think we are incapable of setting a table, and not without reason. So, on this Valentine’s Day, I share with you how to set a basic table. I used to work as a set dresser in the film industry and worked on a lot of movies and commercials where I had to know how to set a table, both formal and informal. I want you to look good, and your Valentine will appreciate the fact that, at least for this meal, you knew where to place the salad fork!

Before you can set the table, you will want to use a tablecloth. A simple white one is the most elegant way to go, here. For Valentine’s Day especially, you will want to be able to look at each other and sit close during dinner. Don’t set the places at opposite ends of a long table. If you have a small square or rectangular table, set the plates on adjoining sides. If you have a small oval or round table, set the places next to each other. Leave about 18” between the seats, though. You will need room to serve and to set the table, and it will be easier to talk to your Valentine if you leave a bit of space between the seats.

If you are going to put candles or flowers on the table, do not use scented candles or buy flowers that have any scent. The perfume can interfere with your enjoyment of the meal. The candles and the flowers should enhance the meal, not compete with it. There is no need to go crazy with the centerpiece. Two red tapers in simple candle holders and an unscented orchid are more than enough. Many grocery stores and even drug stores sell Valentine’s bouquets and centerpieces. Pick up one of those. If the flowers are scented, though, don’t put them on the dining table. Just place them somewhere in the room.

Guys, if you don’t own cloth napkins, now is the time to get some. Red or white would be appropriate. Cloth napkins are easily found in any store that sells home goods. Make sure that you wash the napkins before using them. If you do not want to invest in cloth napkins because you know you will never use them again, buy some of those nice, thick paper napkins available at the grocery store. I found a video that will show you how to fold them in a very cool way that will be sure to impress your Valentine.

Setting the Table

The main rule to remember when you set a table for multiple courses is that we eat from the outside, in. This means that the silverware that you will use for the first course will be farther away from the plate. The silverware that you use for the last course will be closest to the plate.

If you intend to serve all the courses I’ve covered, you will need silverware for the soup, salad, fish, meat and dessert courses. That’s a lot of silverware! (Serve the cheese course away from the table and before the main meal. For example, it’s fine to place your cheese platter on the coffee table). If you have enough silverware, go ahead and go all out. If you don’t own enough, don’t panic, and don’t run out to buy extra forks and knives. Use what you have, and arrange them in a way that makes sense for the meal you are serving. Your Valentine will not be upset by having to use the same fork for her fish course and her meat course.

I’ve looked through some etiquette books and read a lot on the Internet about place settings. There are many, many ways to set the table. I’m going to give you a fairly straightforward way to set the table. I know you have enough to worry about with all the courses you are serving.

The rule seems to be that you place the utensils for the first courses farthest from the plate and the utensils for the later courses closer to the plate. You should place the utensils so you use them from the outside of the setting to the inside of the setting. So, from left to right, you will need a salad fork, followed by two dinner forks. These will be for the salad, the fish and the meat course. Then, put the plate on the table. To the right of the plate, put a dinner fork with the blade turned toward the plate, another knife, and a soup spoon. These will be for the salad, the fish/meat course and the soup course.

If you are serving bread and want to put it on a separate plate, place it above the forks to the left of the plate. Place the water and or wine glasses to the right of the plate above the knives and spoon. The water glass should be closest to the plate with the wine glass next to it. Last, fold the napkin and place it either in the water glass or on the plate. As far as dessert goes, bring any necessary utensils to the table with the course. You don’t need to pre-set for dessert.

And that is really all there is to it. For those of you visual learners out there, I’ve put together a small library of links to helpful videos.

Learn how to fold a cloth napkin to put in the water glass.

Learn how to fold a paper napkin into a “love knot.”

Learn a neat way to fold a cloth napkin to place on the plate.

Learn how to set the table.

Here’s another way to set the table.

I received an email from Glenn asking “how to coat fried breaded zucchini better”.

He asked,

“My father just asked how to make the breading on fried zucchini  stick (better)? He just made some but the bread crumbs didn’t stick to the zucchini very well.  He dipped zucchini slices into egg and then bread crumbs. The bread crumbs ended up kinda burned, oiley and fell off, but the zucchini was fine.  Thanks for any tips you can give.”

Breading Vegetables For Frying

When breading veggies (or anything) the rule is:  dry sticks to wet and wet sticks to dry.  Wet and wet doesn’t work; dry and dry doesn’t work.

In order to get your breading to stick on your zucchini (eggplant, green tomatoes), first pat the veggies dry as much as possible.  Then dredge them in a bit of seasoned flour (cornstarch or rice flour to make a crispier end product).

Next dredge the vegetables in your wet batter - either an egg wash or egg-buttermilk combination or you can try a tempura batter consisting of 1 cup ice water, 1 egg and 1 cup flour.

Finish with a dunk in some panko (Japanese breadcrumbs) or other dried, seasoned fine bread crumbs.

I recommend deep frying for fried veggies since the outer coating will have a tendency to burn if they’re sitting in a hot pan.  If you are going to pan fry, use about 1/2 inch oil, keep your heat moderate and be very gentle when turning them.

If you have a favorite technique or recipe for fried vegetables, please post in the comments section below.