Braising

Braising is sometimes referred to as a combination cooking procedure, because it combines dry heat—for browning the item—with moist heat—for cooking the item to tenderness in a liquid and at the same time making a sauce. A detailed guide to the braising procedure is given in Chapter 15. Because these procedures have many steps, it is a good idea to review them carefully before continuing with this section.

As Chapter 15 explains, there are three main types of meat items cooked by the braising procedure: large cuts, individual portion cuts, and stews. The core recipe used to illustrate braising is for individual portion cuts, in this case short ribs. In this section, you will find recipes for large cuts and stews as well. The first two recipes are for a classic beef pot roast and a classic beef stew. The pot roast is cooked in an unthickened liquid using the first braising method, and the stew is cooked in a thickened liquid using the second braising method.