Learning to Braise Meat: Tips and Tricks
Housewives who are just starting their fascinating journey through the world of cooking and cooking methods often get confused when they need to stew beef, pork or other meat.
How to cook them is clear, frying them is also not difficult.
And stewing is a slightly more interesting and delicate process. How to cook stewed meat correctly and deliciously?
The first thing to remember is that the stewing technology itself involves cooking meat over low heat in a small amount of liquid.
Much depends on what kind of meat is used and in what form. For example, classic stewing is done with meat cut into small, identical pieces. And there is also the process of "brezing" - when a large piece of meat is stewed at once, without adding liquid.
The method of stewing in oil is also interesting, especially if the meat ingredient is duck legs.
The cookware for cooking meat by stewing should be capacious and deep enough. Cast iron frying pans, cauldrons, duck pans, and multicookers are suitable for this purpose.
Should you fry the pieces of meat before adding broth or water? Not necessarily, but it is advisable: frying will add additional flavors to the meat and make it juicier.
If you want to make tough meat softer by stewing it, add a little apple cider vinegar or dry wine to the broth or water. The acid will soften the fibers, and the dish will become much softer. A good solution that has a positive effect on both the texture and taste of stewed meat is to add a little prunes when stewing.
How long does it take to stew meat? Small pieces are cooked in liquid for 40 minutes to an hour, a large piece can simmer for several hours in its own juice. Check the meat from time to time and if it has become soft, the dish is ready.
What to add to a stewed meat dish to make it more filling and delicious? Of course, all kinds of vegetables will come first: potatoes, tomatoes, carrots, eggplants. It is advisable to fry them before adding meat to the frying pan or cauldron, and then stew them together.
In autumn, mushroom pickers add their "loot" to the stewed meat - porcini mushrooms, honey mushrooms, chanterelles. This mix also turns out to be very tasty and filling. It is best to take pork meat for such a dish. If there are no wild mushrooms, use store-bought champignons.
Another source of protein that goes well with stewed meat is beans. To speed up the cooking process, use ready-made canned beans in their own juice.
Finally, stewed meat goes well with herbs and tomato paste. If it was simply stewed in broth, it is enough to add a little tomato paste mixed with basil, thyme and rosemary to the serving portions.
For reference
Meat is the skeletal striated muscle of an animal with adjacent fatty and connective tissues, as well as adjacent bone tissue (bone meat or meat on the bone) or without it (boneless meat).
