Monday, September 1, 2008

Cooking Technique: Searing Meat for Stew





If you plan to make a stew, assuming it's not something unusual in which the meat should not be browned, as in a blanquette de veau, follow these steps to ensure the best flavor:

-season meat with salt and fresh ground pepper and then dredge the meat in flour
-shake off excess flour piece by piece (not doing this diligently guarantees poor results)
-get healthy amount of oil very hot in skillet (choose the right pan: very low and outward sloping sides to give steam a direct route into the atmosphere so as not to steam meat)
-set pieces of meat in hot fat so that there is ample space between each piece and brown on all sides

Note: the pan you make the stew in does not and should not be the same pan you brown the meat in, since the shapes are so different they could never serve the same purpose.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

first advice may be don't cook on electric range! haha, just kidding. nice stuff

paul said...

yep, one of the ironies of our fancy new house is we do all our cooking on this stove!

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