cook at the same rate from beginning to end. For these
reasons, it’s better to use the oven for long, thick braises.
(For more on this, see “Pot Roast,” here.)
Here’s another question we touched on earlier (see here):
lid on or lid off? If you believe the classical wisdom, you
want your lid on as tightly as possible, in order to preserve
moisture. And more moisture in the pot means more
moisture in the meat, right? Unfortunately, that’s not really
how braising works. Basically, when you are braising, there
are two counteracting forces that you need to balance.
Collagen breakdown—the conversion of tough
connective tissue into soft gelatin—begins slowly at around
140°F and increases at an exponential rate as the
temperature goes up. Pork shoulder cooked at 140°F might
take 2 days to fully soften, while at 180°F, the time is cut
down to a few hours. On the other hand, muscle fibers
tighten and squeeze out moisture as they are heated,
beginning at around 130°F and getting worse as the
temperature rises. Unlike collagen breakdown, which takes
both time and heat to take place, the muscle squeezing
happens almost instantaneously—meat that has been heated
to 180°F for even one second will be wrung dry.
Like an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object,
it’s nearly impossible to achieve collagen breakdown
without simultaneously squeezing muscle fibers. The good
news: the gelatin created by collagen breakdown goes a
long way to mitigating the drying effects of tightening
muscle fibers. But the real key to a well-cooked braise is to
cook it at a low temperature so that the meat doesn’t enter
the so-tight-even-gelatin-can’t-save-it range.
nandana
(Nandana)
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