Amazing braising: Turn cheap cuts of meat into succulent dishes

Editor's note: This is the first installment in an occasional "Cooking School" series.

Jacques Pepin says it produces the ultimate comfort food.

It's perfect for the season, warming your kitchen during its slow simmer atop the stove or in the oven. And it's perfect for the economic times, turning cheap, tough cuts of meat into meltingly tender, richly flavored dishes that, as an added bonus, make their own sauce.

It's braising.

If you've made a pot roast, you've practiced braising. It's the process of cooking something in a small amount of simmering liquid in a closed pot, with low heat, for an extended period. Its mantra is "low and slow."

Braising has its origins in hearth-simmered dishes cooked in banked embers in the family fireplace, or brought by family cooks to the town bakery to cook overnight in the oven’s retained heat after the day's bread had been baked.

How it works

The magic of braising is twofold.

Its tasty results stem partly from the fact that the cheaper cuts commonly used for braising usually yield more flavor than the more expensive ones. Braising enhances and intensifies that flavor via an exchange of flavors in the braising liquid and the steam it creates. The juices of the food being braised combine with the liquid, which is also infused into the meat along with the flavors of the other ingredients added to the pot.

And the secret of braising's ability to alchemize chewy cuts into succulence lies in the connective tissue found in well-muscled cuts of meat. It's called collagen, and when cooked only briefly, as you would a medium-rare steak, or by high heat, as you would a roast loin of pork, it stays tough and chewy. If cooked slowly enough on low heat, however, it dissolves into gelatin, enriching and silkening the already flavorful sauce.

What to braise

You can braise meat, poultry, vegetables — even some fish and shellfish. But the technique is most commonly used for large pieces of meat and for meat from the more well-muscled cuts: chuck roast or brisket instead of, say, sirloin of beef; or lamb shank instead of lamb chops; or chicken thighs instead of boneless, skinless breasts. This is one case in which you want to stay away from the leanness and tenderness we typically pay a premium for. Here are the cuts and vegetables to buy:

-- Beef: Short ribs, chuck or shoulder roast or steaks, top blade roast or steaks, flank steaks, brisket, shank, oxtail

-- Veal: Shoulder, breast, shank

-- Lamb: Shoulder, breast, neck, shank

-- Pork: Shoulder (boneless pork butt or Boston butt, the upper part of the shoulder, is easier to work with than picnic, the lower part of the shoulder), country-style ribs and spareribs, pork belly, sausage. Pork chops, especially the cheaper boneless sirloin chops, and pork loin can benefit from braising, too, since so much of today's pork is bred for extreme leanness, with a consequent loss of flavor.

-- Poultry: Whole mature birds; bone-in, skin-on parts, especially thighs and drumsticks

-- Vegetables: Hearty vegetables, such as cabbage, fennel and celery, all root vegetables and sturdy greens

What to cook it in

For braising, you want a vessel that is heavy and conducts heat evenly, with a tightly fitting lid (although you can improvise with foil). And you want the pot to fit the food being braised rather snugly, without a lot of extra space around the food or between the food and the lid, so the steam will be concentrated.

Cast iron, plain or enameled, is a top choice. For a larger cut of meat, use a Dutch oven or oval lidded casserole; for shallower items, a heavy lidded skillet or saute pan. Clay and earthenware also make good braising pots, though the food will need to be browned in another pan, as they aren't flame-proof.

Cooking steps

Browning: Browning is essential to add a layer of flavor that can't be achieved by the low-heat simmering that will follow. The food will look more attractive when browned, too.

You can dredge the food in a light coating of flour first, to promote browning and to thicken the eventual sauce somewhat, or use a dry spice rub.