Kitchen Essentials

The Art of the Braise

Braising is one of the easiest ways to turn a tough, inexpensive cut of meat into something soulful and delicious. But fear not, the meat need not be so tough you can see where the marks from where the jockey was whipping it. You can braise just about anything including chicken or even pork belly. Braising requires a minimum of active cooking time, allowing you to do other things like watch the Saints, talk about the Saints, or listen to people talk about the Saints.

Without getting technical, to braise is to cook a piece of meat in a minimal amount of slightly, bubbling broth enhanced with aromatics and herbs. Think of it as an all day shabu shabu or fondue. This post will lay out the general structure of how to braise something. It is by no means an expert report nor definitive, but I hope you will try the technique soon.

You can use any hunk of meat you like. I find that cuts with a lot of fat and a bone work best. Recently I braised some pork belly from Cochon Butcher. (If you are nervous about eating pork belly, its just the non-cured, non-smoked name for bacon.)
If the piece of meat you are using has a side with a good layer of fat, you can leave it, trim it, or "score" it. To score it, simply run asharp knife over the fat and make some shallow slices. Then rotate the meat 90 degrees and do again to create a diamond pattern. Congrats you have scored for the first time and you didn't even need to rent a tux.

Now, we need to season that big hunk of sexy. So apply some Kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper to all side. You want to over season it. Its a large hunk, it can handle it, I promise. You are using real pepper and Kosher salt right?

Then we want to sear the meat over medium high heat on all sides to develop an nice brown crust. So get your dutch oven smoking hot, add a little oil, and place the meat fatty side down in the oil. Let it go for about 15 minutes. Meanwhile preheat your oven to 300 degrees. After meat has browned, remove it from pot. It should look like this, but if you go darker, even better.

At this point there will likely be a lot of rendered fat in the pot. Remove the majority of it. Then into the pot, place your mirepoix. Here I used a diced carrot, slices of onion, celery, a leek, a few hot peppers, garlic, and thyme. Use these aromatics to scrap up all the brown bits from the pan. Cook on medium heat for about 10 minutes or until mirepoix has softened.

Into pot add two cups or so of liquid. You just want the liquid to begin creeping up the sides of the meat. Do not completely submerge your meat. You can use whatever liquid you like, be it stock, beer, wine, or even just plain old water. Bring to simmer, cover, and place in oven.

Come back three hours later, add another cup of liquid, and cook uncovered for another hour. You want the meat to be soft, when it is, it is done. You can experiment with cooking it uncovered or covered. Cooking it uncovered will help the sauce concentrate. Sometimes I cook it completely uncovered on the stove on low heat, just depends. On this piece of belly, I went in the oven. But the key is even, steady, low cooking.

You can also let the meat cool and serve it the next day. If you do this (which tends to make it taste better), make sure it cools in the liquid you braised it in and that the meat is completely submerged.

One of the best effects of braising is that the dish makes its own sauce. All the mirepoix soften and combine with the juices and fibers of the meat to make something really special. Chef Warren Stephens of Cochon Butcher and Calcasieu recently shared this tip on how to turn the sauce into an amazing gravy. After you remove the meat, place the sauce and mirepoix in a blender. Blend until smooth and pour over sliced meat. The result is spectacular. The fat emulsifies with the juices and mirepoix creating a thick and creamy sauce. Another trick is to remove the meat and add a cup of rice to the mix. The rice will absorb all the flavors and you end up with a hybrid gravy-rice pilaf thing which is just delicious.

The possibilities of braising are endless. Try chicken with garlic, saffron, Pernod and tomatoes for a take on bouillabaisse (obviously I call it Pouletbaisse, clever right?), or beef short ribs with a deep red wine like Cabernet, or lamb with carrots, star anise, and ginger.

Braise something this weekend. Just the smell alone of slowly simmering meat and aromatics is worth it.