Jakub Burton here from Stella culinary
calm and in this culinary QA I'm going
to answer a very common question about
brazing versus stewing so Jenny M from
Chicago Illinois writes what's the
difference between stewing and braising
is it simply that braises are done in
the oven and stews are done on the
stovetop
to me it looks like the exact same
technique tough meats cook low and slow
and liquid until the following apart
tender what am I missing
thanks Jenny well Jenn has a great
question but before we can even get into
the difference between braising versus
doing we first need to understand why we
would choose to use these techniques and
also where the techniques originated
from so the reason why you would use
braising or stewing or really any low
and slow cooking method like slow
roasting for that matter is this thing
right here which I'm drawing and it is a
triple helix of gelatin and when you
have three gelatin intertwined in a
triple helix like this is actually
called collagen and collagen is a
connective tissue that works as a
structural element within muscles and so
the more work a muscle gets in an animal
the more collagen or connective tissue
you will have so things like extremity
cuts like the shoulder of the shank the
ribs all have a lot of collagen in them
and it says collagen that makes your
meat tough and chewy now at around 150
degrees Fahrenheit at this temperature
when enough time is applied the collagen
will unravel into three individual
strands of gelatin ok gelatin and when
this happens when this unravels into
gelatin then your meat is no longer
tough and chewy
it is now succulent and tender which is
why you would want to braise or stew
something so the actual technique of
braising originated
back before modern stoves right so they
would use cast-iron pots cast-iron and
the thing that this is a closest related
to nowadays that we find in our kitchen
are a cast iron dutch ovens and the
biggest difference would be that these
cast iron pots would have heavy
extremely tight fitting lids that were
flat so flat lids and this is important
and we'll see here in a second why
that's so important now because they
didn't have modern stoves like we do in
our kitchens today they cooked over coal
and in fact the French word for dying
coal is very similar to braise and that
is where the term braze was derived from
it was derived from the French word for
dying coals so what would happen is they
would take a large piece of meat and the
only condition for this piece of meat
was that it was tough that it came from
a portion animal that got a lot of work
out so because of that I had a lot of
connective tissue were collagen and they
would commonly put some vegetables on
the bottom of this pot and because this
is a French technique the vegetables
would most likely be mirepoix right
mirepoix which is our carrot celery and
onions and then on top of this mirepoix
or aromatic vegetable mixture they would
place a large piece of meat that again
contain a lot of collagen okay so it was
tough it was chewy and then where this
technique starts to deviate from our
modern understanding of braising or a
modern application of braising is they
would add just a small amount of liquid
now this liquid could be water wine
stock and use you is just enough to
cover the bottom of the cast-iron vessel
they were using the brazen sometimes
they'd add just enough to cover the
vegetables that the meat was resting on
top of but
I would never actually add enough liquid
to where it would be touching the meat
now once the everything was in the pot
they would then place another big pile
of coals right on top of this
tight-fitting flat lid now these coals
on top would cause heat to radiate
downwards through the cast-iron pot so
that basically the coals would heat up
the cast iron the cast iron wouldn't
turn radiates heat into the meat and
this would cause an actual browning
reaction through the my yard reaction so
the radiant heat radiant heat within
cause the my yard reaction which is what
causes vegetables and meat to brown and
give you those colonization flavors and
notes okay
now also what happen is so you have this
these coals right here radiant heat
downwards on top of the meat while these
coals on the bottom are heating up this
liquid causing it to simmer and then
turn into steam so you have this steam
rising within this vessel but because
this lid is tight-fitting the steam can
escape so it's creating a humid
environment humid environment and that
humidity is important because these the
cast iron pot would have natural hot
spots and as those hot spots start to
radiate inwards that they were going to
cost scorching and uneven cooking so
this humidity within the pot creates a
buffer zone that allows the meat to cook
a little more gently and also as this
liquid starts to condense back down it
will baste the meat and then when you're
done with this process at the bottom of
the pot you have a very flavorful liquid
that makes a delicious sauce now some of
you may be looking at this and saying
hey I recognize this technique but I
call something different I call it pot
roasting
and indeed our modern take or our modern
approach to pot roasting is the exact
same thing as classic braising so what
we now today commonly confuse with
brazing or what we call braising today
and in very loose terms is almost the
exact same thing it's still a moist heat
cooking method we're still a lot of
times going to put our aromatics on the
bottom of the braising vessel with the
meat on the top mainly because that just
helps to keep the meat from scorching
but the main difference is is now the
water is taken up to about two-thirds of
the meat so 2/3 and this could be wine
stock water whatever just some sort of
water-based liquid and then some chefs
will even take it all the way above the
mean is just a personal preference all
right what happens is this is placed in
an oven sometimes with the lid usually
with a lid but not always lid and it's
cooked in the oven low and slow for
anywhere for three to eight hours
depending upon the actual cut of meat
what size it is so larger cuts means
you're going to take a longer time short
ribs usually take around four hours and
so this is going to use this moist heat
to slowly break down the collagen into
gelatin strands yielding a tender piece
of meat and the meat is taken out
usually the vegetables are strained and
tossed so just yeah the liquid remaining
that liquid is reduced into a glaze
the meat is reintroduced and then serve
so this is what we commonly refer to as
braising but technically this is not
braising this approach is stewing and it
gets confusing because in modern
terminology we refer to as stew as
usually a hearty or heavy soup that's
served in the wintertime that contains
chunks of of meat that's been cooked
nice and low and slow and that are
tender but really stewing it is pure
our sense is a technique and it's a
technique applied such as this to where
the meat is covered for the most part in
liquid and cooked low and slow versus
braising is what we call today pot
roasting now however this is become such
commonplace
if you cook short ribs like this I
guarantee you they're going to call it
braising I'll call it braising but it's
still nice to know we're braising and
stewing came from and understanding the
lineage and the difference in their
applications if you have your own
culinary question you can get answered
by shooting me an email jacob pat stella
culinary comm or you can Twitter me at
chef Jacob