Braising is a simple cooking technique with huge outcomes!
What Is Braising?
No, it's not some college initiation ritual. Braising is a cooking method where meat or vegetables are first browned in a little fat, then slowly cooked in a tightly covered pot with some cooking liquid over low heat for a long period of time.
This method of cooking is great for tough cuts of meat but also works well with chicken, fish and/or vegetables. You can braise in a crock pot, pressure cooker, large saute pan or the most often used cooking vessel for braises, a Dutch oven.
Some popular dishes you may have heard of that use a braising technique are osso buco, pot roast, braised veal & lamb shanks and braised cabbage. You can braise just about any meat, fish or vegetable you want and be as creative as you like with seasoning, but there are some ingredients that are better for braising and some you want to cook using other techniques like grilling or roasting.
What's Best For Braising?
Meat
When it comes to meats, you want to stick with the tougher, less tender cuts that come from an animals more exercised muscles. These cuts tend to have more connective tissue that breaks down making the meat tender and flavorful. A lean cut from the loin area is a waste to braise. The meat is already tender and has little fat or connective tissue.
S
ome good cuts of meat for braising include:
- Top Blade Roast
- Chuck Eye Roast
- Seven Bone Roast
- Ribs
- Brisket
- Shanks
Chicken
The best cuts of chicken, in my opinion, are the legs and thighs although lots of people like to braise a whole chicken. You also want to be sure to use chicken on the bone with skin so you get all the fat and connective tissue. There's really no reason to braise boneless, skinless chicken breasts. You are better off sauteing or grill them.
Fish
Although you can braise just about any fish you like, I think large, firm fish are the way to go. Shark, swordfish are worthy of a braise but tender filets like tilapia or even cod will just fall apart on you. If you do braise a more tender cut like flounder, be sure to shorten the braising time.
Fruits & Vegetables
Again you want to stay with the hardier varieties. Squash, sweet potatoes, leeks, parsnips, carrots, beets, cabbage and onions are great braised alone or along with meat and chicken. In the fall and winter, I like to braise meat with firm pears and apples but in the summer, I might braise chicken with pineapple.
The Science of Braising?
Without getting to specific, the meat that we eat is muscle and made up of muscle fibers and connective tissue. The muscle fibers are the long thin strands we can actually see and think of as meat. The connective tissue is the thin, translucent film that you sometimes ask the butcher to remove and helps hold the bundles of muscle fiber together. Connective tissue is made up of mostly collagen, a very strong protein that breaks down if enough heat is applied to it.
So braising meat is about breaking down tough connective tissue and changing it into collagen by applying moist heat for a period of time depending on what you are cooking. With more time and heat, the collagen breaks down and dissolves into gelatin. It takes a temperature of about 140 degrees F. to break down the collagen into gelatin.
What happening to the muscle fiber while this connective tissue is breaking down (collagen is melting)? The fibers start to contract, coil and expel moisture. In effect, the heat is drying out the meat like squeezing a sponge. As the process continues and the meat breaks down, you end up with very tender but very dry meat.
The good news is at some point, the muscle fibers have had enough and they begin to relax. When this happens, they begin to absorb back some of the moisture which just happens to be the melted fat and gelatin giving the meat a wonderful texture and flavor. And don't forget you have all this wonderful liquid made up of melted fat, gelatin and whatever cooking liquid you started with.
And this is why braised meat tastes so incredible when cooked properly.
Braised Vegetables - the science is the same expect the moist heat breaks down the vegetable's cellulose and expands its starches. The fibers soften giving the vegetables an incredible texture and flavor depending on the cooking liquid you are using.
Recipes Utilizing the Braising Technique
Check out my Braised Pork with Brown Cabbage or Osso Buco for examples of this cooking method. Make sure to use a tight fitting lid on your pot to prevent the liquids from evaporating.
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