Braising questions

[ozmouse]

Ooh!  And country-style pork ribs braised in tequila, chicken stock, and cider vinegar with mexican oregano and cinnamon!

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Ooh! i would like more details of this recipe. Sound interesting....

[irodguy]

Lamb osso bucco -- Lamb shanks 1.67 LB @ Sams but have to buy a case. So yes I have fixed much Lamb osso bucco.

40 clove chicken

coq a vin

Curried Fish

[wkl]

Braised veal breast last w/e.Seasoned with salt,pepper,powdered morita(a smoked chilie pepper).Braised in chicken stock and still moscato.It came out very good.Leftover meat made tasty ragu sauce for pasta.

[Tonyy13]

Pork Butt, cubed, and braised with tons of carrot puree, and a little bit of red wine, lots of roasted garlic, until the carrot is totally broken down, and you have this sexy sauce type of ragout thing that is really good on papardelle

[Brad Ballinger]

It might be a shorter list of what doesn't come to mind. But what's coming to mind right now for my favorite method of cooking is lamb shanks, ossobuco, short ribs, brisket, chuck roast, pork shoulder, blade roast, breast of veal.

I also like braising vegetables and pureeing them for a sauce.

[mnebergall]

My favorites are pot roast, carbonnade, goulash, boeuf bourguignon, lamb shanks and osso bucco, (not in any particular order). When I find beef chuck on sale, I usually buy a couple and slap them in the freezer so that I have them when I need them. For the beef braises I do, beef chuck seems to be the most versatile.

Edited January 27, 2005 by mnebergall (log)

[fimbul]

Ooh!  And country-style pork ribs braised in tequila, chicken stock, and cider vinegar with mexican oregano and cinnamon!

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Ooh! i would like more details of this recipe. Sound interesting....

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I fear I'm not so good with details. I'm more of a seat of the pants cook, especially when I braise.

I usually rub the ribs with salt and cinnamon, and let them sit over night. Sear the ribs in peanut oil, lard, what have you, in a large, deep saute pan, then set the ribs aside.

Deglaze the pan with a splash of tequila, add veggies (onions,carrots, celery or fennel, maybe a poblano or a few jalapeno chiles), brown them a bit, then return the ribs to pan.

Add stock to cover no more than 1/3 of the ribs, a splash of cider vinegar, season with a couple black peppercorns and a touch of Mexican oregano, maybe more cinnamon, a touch of ground chipotle if you want....

Voila. Cook in a low oven, checking occassionally to turn the ribs over, taste for seasoning, etc.

[snowangel]

Stop at the library and check out Molly Steven's All About Braising (or just buy it). I'm having a really good time with this cookbook.

[Really Nice!]

The usual suspects - short ribs, lamb shanks or shoulder, duck legs. Also, I love braised fish. I use braised monkfish recipe from The Craft of Cooking a lot.

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Forgive a dumb question, but why braise fish? It's already moist and tender. Seems like it would dry out (why I never eat paella) and fall apart. Is it a "real" long-term braise or a briefer encounter between the fish and water?

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It's called a white meat braise (Escoffier 2176) and the main differences from the braise that we're used to are:

• Use tender cuts of meat or fish

• Don't brown the meat or fish

• Don't brown the vegetables

• The cooking liquid is white stock

• Cook until done, not for hours until the meat/fish becomes tender (because it's already tender)

Personally, I like braises where the meat comes from any of the four corners of the animal. This is where the meat is toughest and it requires that long, slow cooking.

[M. Lucia]

I actually love braised vegetables, it is a good technique for things beyond the trad. meat cuts.

Braised brussels are great (with shallots) and braised leeks are a favorite (with butter).

[DTBarton]

My old favorite is beef short ribs (long cut if you can get them, I love that: long cut short ribs, like jumbo shrimp)

My new favorite that my Mom cooked for us during the holidays: fresh ham. The best tasting pork roast type thing I've had in a while what with the leanification of the pigs. She simmered the ham in water for about an hour, drained it and simmered it in beer with onions, brown sugar, and carrots for another 3 or 4 hours. It was great. Can't wait to try it myself.

[carswell]

Can't believe no one has mentioned rabbit. (Actually, given North Americans' silly aversion to eating Thumper, I guess I can.) Anyway, it takes beautifully to braising.

With prunes, pearl onions and lardons

With white wine, mushrooms and thyme

With Pineau des Charentes

With celery, vinegar, olives and capers

With red peppers

With cream and dijon mustard

With red wine, tomatoes, pine nuts, saffron and orange peel

With white wine, anchovies and capers

With carrots, leeks and green beans

With preserved lemons and garlic

With cider

With tarragon and cream

With bacon and brandy

With choucroute

With green or red cabbage

With beer

Niçoise style (eggplants, zucchini, red peppers, tomatoes)

Sicilian style (parsnips, celery, pine nuts, golden raisins, fennel seed, vinegar and chocolate)

Cacciatore style

Etc., etc., etc.

Edited January 28, 2005 by carswell (log)

[dorachadas]

In the category of vegetable braises, I did the first recipe in the Molly Stevens book a few nights ago (potatoes with garlic and bay leaves) - talk about a great return on a ridiculously simple recipe. It took all of 5 minutes to get it started, and the result was perfect potatoes with a silky, garlicly olive oil sauce...

[SiseFromm]

I live for short ribs braised in red wine and roasted veal stock. I've done it so many times I really do believe mine can stand up to the best of them. Succulent meat with an absurdly rich sauce. How can you go wrong? I always use a gremolata and serve them with pureed potatoes and caramelized baby onions. My absolute all-time favorite dish hands down.

[crinoidgirl]

Yesterday, turkey thighs (first time I've tried them this way), using white wine (Hardy Chardonnay) and chicken stock.

Cheap and GOOOOOOOOOOD!

(edited to correct spelling)

Edited January 28, 2005 by crinoidgirl (log)

[CtznCane]

I love braised dishes, with lamb shanks and oxtails being at the top of the list. This week I've made 2 braises, Coq au Vin on Sunday, and then Tuesday I just winged one which came out great. It was a pork loin that I browned with some diced onions, and then added crushed maraschino cherries and wild cherry pepsi as the braising liquid and cooked it for 1.5 hours at 350. It came out quite tender and then I thickened the sauce with a little corn starch. Turned out excellent.

I too like the Molly Stevens book on Braising. I like that she is giving you the method from which you can then go your own direction. A large part of the pork roast I did was essentially following her guidelines and then plugging in flavors I like.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Braising has never been something I've done well. But I have studied the braising seminar and I am working on trying to improve my methods. Tonight has not been a good night.

I started with a good size white onion, a nice lamb shank, some home grown tomatoes, garlic (lots of garlic), cannellini beans, rosemary, bay leaves, chicken stock and an inexpensive tannic malbec. Not really a recipe.

In a Le Creuset dutch oven I browned the lamb shank in olive oil, removed it, sauteed the onion, added the cannellini, garlic, tomato, rosemary, and bay leaves. I put the browned lamb shank on top and poured in roughly equal amounts of stock and malbec to the level of about an inch. Then I inserted a temperature probe in the shank (maybe too close to the bone) and covered the ingredients with parchment paper. I put more parchment at the top so that hopefully the full weight of the lid was not resting on the cable for the temperature probe. Finally I placed the pot in a 200 deg F oven.

After two and a half hours the temperature of the meat was not quite 172 deg F. I turned off the oven, cracked the door, and allowed the temperature to slowly fall over the next hour. When I went to eat, after three and a half hours in the oven, the lamb was pink and hard, and the beans were soupy.

Figuring I could not make matters any worse, I put the pot back in a hotter oven, 250 deg F this time, and brought the temperature of the meat up to just over 181 deg F. I reduced the oven temperature to 225 deg F, and that's where I am now.

I believe I have undercooked the meat, but I may have overcooked it. Any advice would be most welcome.

Edit: I hope I have done the right thing in starting a new thread, rather than posting in an old one.

Edited October 19, 2012 by JoNorvelleWalker (log)

[nickrey]

It's definitely underdone. Breaking down meats until they are tender at low temperatures requires time at temperature, not just taking the meat up to temperature. For example, with sous vide cooking you may cook beef ribs at 135F but you would do so for three days.You typically need to cook lamb shanks until they are fork tender. Some recipes refer to a 325F oven for almost three hours. At 172 or even 250, you'd need a lot more time.

Rather than playing with meat temperature as your guide, I'd look up recommended cooking times and use those. Then you can measure and adjust your temperatures accordingly. Vegetables and beans require different cooking methods and times so I'd be tempted to do them seperately and add them towards the end of cooking.

[heidih]

In addition to what NIck says above I do not see how from dry deans you could expect a good result - were they really dry?

[Mjx]

I do a lot of braises, since I love the result (and I can continue working while dinner is kind of making itself).

I think I would have gone with more liquid; after browning the meat and what-have-you, I add enough liquid to the pot for it to come about halfway up the meat (unless it's simply colossal, then I'll go with a couple of inches), quickly bring it to a boil over high heat, then immediately snatch it it off the stovetop and put the pot in the oven.

I check every couple of hours to make sure not much of the liquid has cooked away (I use a Le Creuset, too, and the lid isn't super tight, so there's some loss).

I braise between 125 and 150 C/260 and 300F, and figure a large piece of meat will take a minimum of three hours; I'll often leave it for five.

Keep in mind that with the liquid inside, the temperature in the pot will be much lower than that of the oven. If I were going with a temperature as low as 200F, I'd be prepared for it to take seven hours (never tried it, however). I don't use a thermometer when braising, but at about the three or four hour mark, I'll poke at the meat a bit with a fork, to get an idea of where the texture is.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Thanks, everyone for the answers. I gave up for the night and had leftover fava beans for dinner. The lamb is still in the oven. Last I checked it was much more tender, but it has a ways to go. I will resume tomorrow. In one of my cookbooks I found a suggestion of 250 deg F for seven hours.

Heidi, the cannellini were not added dry, they were canned.

For the past couple months I have been on a Moroccan food kick, and want to be able to do braising on the stovetop, but I do not yet have a tagine. I've had very good results with spit roasted chicken mechoui and various other things.

[Mjx]

Until you get a tagine, you can use a Dutch oven. I've done stovetop braising with no problems, even in the kitchen I'm currently using, which has a lousy cooktop prone to heat spikes, making this a bit tricky.

[Dave Hatfield]

I think Mjx is right.

Do everything as you did, but submerge the lamb shank or at least nearly so.

I do a recipe that's the same ingredients as yours except that I use dry green lentils. I also just let mine cook on top of the stove at a bare simmer. The oven works equally well.

2-3 hours and the lamb is moist, tender and just right. In fact the lentils are the pacing item.

[OliverB]

I think it was Williams Sonoma (or maybe SurLaTable) that had a Tagine with a recipe book for quite cheap in a nice set not too long ago. That might be a good investment, especially if you want to experiment more with Moroccan, which I believe the book was about or at least covered to quite some extent. I might have seen this a year ago (pre xmas) so it might be a good time now to look for it.

Wait, I just looked, it's Surlatable.com and they still have it, Tagine, book and some spices for $60. they also have Tagines by LeCruset and some other company with a metal base, personally I'd stick with the completely earthenware original though. And those are really quite cheap and probably a lot of fun to play with. Definitely on my shopping list :-)

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Finally. After about fourteen hours the lamb shank was tender and just right. The rest of the dish was quite edible, but not as good as I had hoped. Nothing had cooked down. Except for a slightly darker color everything looked as I had originally put it in the pot. The garlic cloves were whole, the tomato quarters were intact. The liquid had not reduced. I had been hoping for a nice thick sauce.

I couldn't degrease as the liquid did not come up to the level of the beans. All I could think of was to strain the solids, chill, and then degrease, but I did not feel up to doing that tonight. On the plus side, the bottle of malbec after having been open for a day was much improved! I would love to have ideas how I could improve the sauce for leftovers. For one thing I intend to bake some bread this weekend.

As for tagines, I looked at those from surlatable, thanks. I already have two tagines on order, but it was interesting to see what surlatable offered. The Le Creuset they have is tiny. It is only 8 inches. I live by myself but that seems too small even for one person. And I don't like the red color. The earthenware tagines they have are glazed, which is not what I would want.

I have an unglazed Moroccan tagine on order from bramcookware. And because I am not at all sure I can cook with unglazed earthenware, I ordered a Le Creuset. But a 12 inch Le Creuset, not one of the smaller ones, and not red! Probably any Berber woman could cook a tagine in unglazed clay, and maybe Paula Wolfert. But I am not they. Two of my friends have told me of disasters when their clay has cracked. But I'm going to give it a try.