Braising

What is actually happening

Hard-working muscle is bound with collagen. Below about 60°C collagen is tough and short cooking makes it tighter still, which is why a piece of shin cooked like a steak is inedible. Held above around 70°C in the presence of moisture for a long time, it steadily converts into gelatine — soft, rich, and dissolved into the surrounding liquid, where it gives a braise its body and its glossy, lip-sticking quality.

That conversion is slow and it cannot be hurried by turning the heat up. Above a gentle simmer the muscle fibres themselves contract and squeeze out moisture faster than the gelatine can compensate, and you get meat that is simultaneously falling apart and dry. See dry braised beef.

So braising is a low-temperature, long-duration technique, and "low and slow" is not folklore — it is the entire mechanism.

How to braise

1. Dry and season the meat, and brown it hard in batches in a heavy pot. This is for flavour, not for sealing, and a crowded pot will not brown.
2. Take the meat out. Soften onions, carrots and celery in the same fat, scraping up the browned residue.
3. Add aromatics and any tomato purée, and fry them briefly.
4. Deglaze with wine, stock or beer, scraping the base clean. Let it reduce for a minute or two.
5. Return the meat with enough liquid to come roughly halfway up it — not to cover it. The exposed top browns and the covered bottom braises.
6. Bring to a bare simmer, then cover and put it in a low oven, around 140 to 150°C, or keep it at the barest simmer on the hob. The oven is easier because it heats from all sides and cannot catch.
7. Cook until a fork goes in with no resistance. This is a state, not a time — check, and keep going if it is not there.
8. Rest it. Braises are better the next day, once the gelatine has set and the flavours have settled.

The decisions that matter

• Cut. Chuck, shin, brisket, oxtail, lamb shoulder, pork shoulder, ox cheek. Anything lean is the wrong choice and will end up dry.
• Liquid level. Halfway up. Fully submerged is a stew, which is also fine but gives less browning and a more diluted result.
• Temperature. A bare simmer — occasional bubbles, not a rolling boil. If the pot is bubbling hard, the oven is too high.
• Time. Longer than you think. A braise that seems tough at two hours is frequently perfect at three.
• Acid. Wine, tomato, vinegar. It brightens a long-cooked dish and helps break down connective tissue.
• The lid. On for most of it. Off for the last half hour if the sauce needs reducing.

Braising vegetables

The technique is not only for meat, and it is under-used on vegetables.

• Fennel, chicory, celery and leeks braised in stock and butter until collapsing and sweet.
• Cabbage wedges braised with bacon and vinegar.
• Whole heads of garlic, or halved onions, braised until spreadable.
• Beans and pulses, which braise beautifully with a piece of pork or a parmesan rind.
• The method is the same: brown, add a little liquid, cover, cook low until yielding.

Common questions