9.3 Moist heat for tough cuts; acids and enzymes

Why tough cuts need moist heat

Less tender cuts of meat are cooked with moist heat. The two moist-heat methods for meat are braising and stewing. Both show how heat and moisture together change the proteins in meat.

Terms to know for cooking tough cuts:

• collagen
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• gelatin
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• elastin
• myoglobin, the meat pigment, and its forms, oxymyoglobin and denatured globin hemichrome
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• non-enzymatic browning

Ways to tenderize

Tenderizing techniques fall into three groups:

• Enzymes. Meat is treated with proteolytic enzymes such as bromelain or papain, used as enzyme tenderizers.
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• Mechanical. The meat is ground, or it is swissed: pounded flat.
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• Acid. The meat sits in an acid marinade for a long time.
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The shared pattern: brown, then cover and cook low

Almost every moist-heat recipe for meat follows the same steps:

• Brown the meat in a little oil or shortening.
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• Add liquid.
• Cover the pan.
• Cook at low heat until the meat is fork tender, which means a fork goes in easily.
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Stewing

For a beef stew:

• Cut the meat into ¾-inch cubes and brown it well.
• Add water, salt, pepper, Worcestershire sauce and a small piece of bay leaf.
• Simmer with the lid on for about 1 to 1½ hours, until the meat is tender.
• Take out the bay leaf and skim most of the fat off the top.
• Add carrots, potatoes and onions, and simmer about 30 minutes more.

The stew is thickened at the end with a roux: 2 tablespoons of oil or shortening cooked with 3 tablespoons of flour on medium heat until it turns a light brown, which takes 1 to 2 minutes. Add it a little at a time, bring the stew to a boil after each addition, and stop when it is thick enough.

A creamier stew uses browned meat simmered in bouillon and water with thyme and bay leaf for 35 minutes, then pearl onions and mushrooms for 15 more. Evaporated milk mixed with flour and nutmeg thickens it, and lemon juice and egg noodles are stirred in at the end.

Swissing and braising

Round steak shows how mechanical and moist-heat tenderizing work together.

• Cut through the epimysium around the edge of the steak every inch.
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• Sprinkle the steak with flour mixed with oregano, salt and pepper, and pound it with a swissing iron. Turn it, flour it and pound again. Keep going until the steak is about half as thick as it was.
• Brown both sides in a heavy skillet.
• Add tomato juice or water, cover tightly, and simmer over low heat for about 90 minutes, until fork tender.
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A breaded pork blade chop is braised in a similar way. After breading and browning, it cooks covered over low heat for about 45 to 60 minutes. Take care not to knock the breading loose while browning.

Lamb blade or arm chops are browned, then simmered under a lid with water, bouillon, celery, green onion and thyme for 30 to 45 minutes. The pan juices, skimmed of fat, become a sauce finished with sour cream, which is only heated through so that it does not curdle.

Pot roast: in the oven or under pressure

In the oven, a beef blade roast cooks this way:

• Brown it in an ovenproof skillet.
• Add tomato juice and onions and cover tightly.
• Cook at 300°F for 1½ to 2 hours, adding liquid if it dries out.
• Add potatoes and carrot about 45 minutes before serving.

A pressure pan cuts the time sharply. For a heel of round roast:

• Brown the roast slowly.
• Set it on a rack with onions and water.
• Cook for about 30 minutes at 15 pounds of pressure.
• Let the pan stand at room temperature for 5 minutes, then cool it further under cold running water.

The same tool handles other tough cuts. Beef tongue cooks in a pressure pan with water, onion, garlic, bay leaf and salt for 40 minutes at 15 pounds; after cooling, the skin is peeled off and the meat shredded for tacos. Pork shoulder, browned on each side and set in an electric pressure cooker with chicken broth, is cooked for 25 minutes on the pork setting and then shredded.

Gravy from the drippings

Pot roast drippings make the gravy:

• Let the fat rise and skim it off.
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• Cook 1½ tablespoons of flour in the pan for 1 to 2 minutes.
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• Add the rest of the drippings, topped up with water to 1 cup.
• Stir all the time until it boils, scraping up the browned meat juices stuck to the pan.
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• Boil for one minute, then season with salt and pepper.

Questions to answer

• Name the two moist-heat methods for less tender cuts. How do they differ?
• Give three reasons to cook meat with moist heat.
• List three common ways to tenderize meat before it is cooked.
• How is collagen different from elastin?