braising question

[Louisa Chu]

No. In fact I prefer to braise with no cover. But covering or not covering is not important - braising with just enough liquid at a low temp for a long time is.

[Jinmyo]

No cover means more and quicker reduction of the cooking liquid. That's about it.

[JAZ]

Should braising always be done with a tightly covered lid?  This is what I have done in the past, but recently came across some recipes that called for leaving the lid slightly ajar or covering the pot with parchment paper.

johnjohn

The nice thing about braising with a cover is that you don't have to pay as much attention to the dish as it's cooking. I prefer to braise without a cover, or to start with a cover and remove it part of the way, through, because the liquids evaporate and become more concentrated. If you do it right, you don't need to reduce at all at the end, because the liquid reduces slowly throughout the cooking process.

[mikeczyz]

thanks to everyone who helped. short ribs turned out beautifully. next tuesday....oxtails! i love the ease of braising in a crockpot!!

mike

[mikeczyz]

braising season is back and i'm kicking it off with a pot roast. my question is about adding pigs trotters to the pot. i've seen a few recipes that add them for extra gelatin and collagens that eventually lead to a 'silkier' final sauce. since i don't wanna go out and find pigs trotters, can i add a few oxtails instead? i hear those are loaded with gelatins and such. and they taste great!

mike

[slkinsey]

Do you live anywhere near a "Chinatown?" I am usually able to find cut up pig's feet in Chinese butcher shops.

I'm sure you could use oxtails. My only caveat would be that you might want to start the oxtails several hours before putting in the potroast meat. Oxtails take forever before they start to give up their goodness and become tender. I personally find that potroast is best if it is only braised long enough to melt the connective tissue. If it goes much longer I find it overly dry and in need of a sauce as opposed to complemented by a sauce (this is one problem I have always had with the "leave it in the crock pot all day on low" method). This is especially true of pot roast cuts that don't have a great deal of internal fat.

Just braised some short ribs last weekend in the crock pot. They turned out awesome, and I simply sat them in a foil-wrapped pan in a warming oven while I strained/defatted/reduced the braising liquid and then mounted it with butter. Worked like a charm. Tons of flavor, nice consistency and mouthfeel.

[Jim Dixon]

russ mentioned high heat braising durng his Q&A. Anybody tried it?

Jim

[slkinsey]

russ mentioned high heat braising durng his Q&A. Anybody tried it?

Jim

Isn't that called boiling?

[Jim Dixon]

I'm at work so I don't have any cooking reference books handy, but Webster's says braising is cooking "slowly with fat and a little liquid." Here are a couple of quotes from the Q&A:

I will put in a plug for the book, there are some killer braises in there, including some high-heat stuff that is just amazing. Leg of lamb at 400 degrees for 5 hours!

and from a recipe for mushroom pot roast:

cover Dutch oven with tight-fitting lid and place in 450-degree oven. Cook until meat is easily pierced with sharp fork, 2 to 2 1/2 hours. Every 30 minutes, turn meat and stir liquid mixture. If liquid begins to dry out, add up to 1 cup water, little at a time, to keep from scorching.

So if you take 'slowly' to mean a long time, then these are braising. I'll take russ' word that the results are good, but I'm curious to try the technique.

Jim

[slkinsey]

Sounds interesting, although I have a hard time understanding how anything inside the tightly closed Dutch oven could be any warmer than 212 F -- the 450 F oven temperature notwithstanding.

Now that I think about it, I use a "high heat braising" technique myself when I make the Marchegiano dish pollo (or, better yet, coniglio) in fricò. The meat is browned in a pan over high heat; some garlic, rosemary and juniper berries are added; local white wine is poured in, but only enough to make a small layer on the bottom of the pan, and the pan is covered; the pan is kept on high heat and the wine is replenished "piano a piano" as it evaporates; when the bottle is empty, the dish is done.

[vengroff]

Sounds interesting, although I have a hard time understanding how anything inside the tightly closed Dutch oven could be any warmer than 212 F -- the 450 F oven temperature notwithstanding.

I agree in principle, but it also depends a lot on how much liquid there is and how "tightly closed" the lid is. If the pressure inside is high or the liquid has all become steam, it can get hotter.

[slkinsey]

Sounds interesting, although I have a hard time understanding how anything inside the tightly closed Dutch oven could be any warmer than 212 F -- the 450 F oven temperature notwithstanding.

I agree in principle, but it also depends a lot on how much liquid there is and how "tightly closed" the lid is. If the pressure inside is high or the liquid has all become steam, it can get hotter.

Well... yes. But I can't imagine that the lid could possibly be so tightly closed that the temperature would rise much above, say, 230 F.