On Food and Cooking

meats succulent. The key is to cook slowly, at
or just above the collagen-dissolving
minimum, to minimize the drying-out of the
fibers. The meat should be checked regularly
and taken off the heat as soon as its fibers are
easily pushed apart (“fork tender”). The
connective tissue itself can help, because once
dissolved, its gelatin holds onto some of the
juice squeezed from the muscle fibers and
thus imparts a kind of succulence to the meat.
The shanks, shoulders, and cheeks of young
animals are rich in collagen and so make
fairly forgiving, gelatin-thickened braises.
One useful ingredient in long-cooked
braises and stews can be a prolonged time —
an hour or two — during which the cook
carefully manages the meat’s temperature rise
up to the simmer. The time that the meat
spends below 120ºF/50ºC amounts to a period
of accelerated aging that weakens the
connective tissue and reduces the time needed
at fiber-drying temperatures. One sign that