Tips and tricks

Browning

A simple rule of cooking is that brown tastes good. The chemical reactions between sugars and proteins that turn food brown are known as Maillard reactions. They produce a bunch of flavour compounds we find tasty.

These browning reactions happen at nearly any temperature, but they occur most quickly at high heat. That’s why we fry meats to turn them brown before stewing. If we didn’t brown the meat before stewing, it would still brown a little through the stewing process, but not as much as if it was fried first.

To brown meat effectively, fry it in small batches over medium heat, not high. High heat may cause meat to burn in places producing burnt flavours before you get good browning. Medium heat gives you more even browning, and also helps keep the “fond” from burning. The fond is the brown bits on the base of the pot that gets scraped up into the liquid through the process of deglazing (adding liquid and scraping up the fond).

Once you realise it’s only the amount of browning – whether on the meat or on the base of the pot – that matters, this step becomes very straightforward. Just look for the meat and/or the pot to become brown. It doesn’t need to be browned all over. The more brown it is visually, the more of the rich Maillard flavours will be in your final stew.

Braising

The key to juicy braised meats is to cook it slowly. Braising turns the collagen of tough connective tissue into gelatine, which is what gives stews their silky texture. That gelatine also captures the flavourful juices from the meat. The conversion of collagen to gelatine happens at around 75C, so the goal of braising is to get the meat to about that temperature for as long as possible, to break down the connective tissue, and not very much above that temperature, so that the muscle fibres don’t contract too much and squeeze out all their moisture.

Braise meats at a rolling boil and you’ll find that the meat may well be falling apart tender, but it may also taste stringy and dry. So why don’t we braise at 75C? Well, in many cases we do. That’s what slow-cookers do. The drawbacks are that low-temperature cooking takes a very long time, and doesn’t produce the same flavourful reactions as higher temperatures. Simmering something for an hour or two will produce an overall more flavoursome dish than slow-cooking for 24 or 48 hours at 75C, or at, say, 90C for 8 hours or longer.

Finishing

Slowly cooking a stew for a few hours develops a lot of flavour, but how you finish it can make or break a great dish. Think of finishing a stew in terms of what I like to call “The Three Rs” – Rest. Reduce. Refresh.

1. Rest. Rest a stew like a steak. As it rests, the meat to reabsorb some of the liquid it has released through the cooking process for a juicier result. And if you’ve ever thought a stew tastes better the next day, it’s because it does. Evaporation over time intensifies the flavours and low temperature chemical reactions (both Maillard and others) produce even more complex flavours.
2. Reduce. One key mistake with stews is adding too much liquid too early. Meats and vegetables will release liquid and may leave your stew too watery. I try to manage the amount of liquid by simmering either with the lid on or off, but if my stew is too watery, I’ll remove the solids and reduce the liquid to concentrate the flavour.
3. Refresh. A stewed dish will usually benefit from a bit of refreshing at the end. Try a dash of vinegar or squeeze of lemon for a little acidity, or a scattering of herbs for freshness. Even a simple grind of pepper or a dash of fruity olive oil can add piquancy and interest to refresh a stewed dish.