Mrs. Roundell's Practical cookery book

Braising". — Braising, a name which is derived from the French word braise, or live coal, is really cooking between two fires, and cannot be done too slowly. Braising is a combination of roasting and stewing, assisted by broth and plenty of vegetables. It is well to trim the joint to be braised, and to tie it into shape with tape, using all trimmings for the broth. Fowls, too, must be neatly tied into shape. A regular Braisingpan has an air-tight lid with a sunken top, so that live coals can be placed in the hollow, but any tolerably deep stewpan which has a cover answers perfectly. The pan must be large enough to hold the meat or fowl to be braised easily, and to allow quite two inches of clear space all round it. For instance, if a fillet of beef weighing four or five pounds is to be braised, the cook must first melt three ounces of butter or good dripping at the bottom of the pan, and put in a carrot, an onion, an ounce of celery (all sliced), a sprig of marjoram, parsley, and thyme (or a teaspoonful of each when dried), mignonette pepper, and salt. Lay the piece of beef on this bed, put the cover on the pan, and let the meat cook in its own steam on the stove for fifteen minutes, shaking the pan once or twice to keep the meat from sticking. Then turn the beef, add a pint and a half of good broth made from the trimmings and from fresh bones, place a buttered paper rather larger than the pan over the meat and vegetables so as to keep them from burning, and put the cover on. Fill the cover with live coals, and let the meat simmer. Every twenty minutes lift up the paper, and baste the meat with the gravy. When done, the gravy must be strained off, skimmed, and poured round the meat in a very hot dish. The vegetables braised with the meat can be served with it, but they are useful for the stock-pot, and freshly-cooked vegetables are nicer. Some cooks brown the meat by turning it in the butter first put into the pan ; others brush it over with a little butter and brown it in the oven for ten minutes after Braising. But the essential point in Braising BRAISING is the slow cooking of the meat in its own juices, supplemented by a strong broth made of vegetables and meat or bones. The time for Braising of course varies with the size of the meat. Forty minutes to the pound is not too much for thick pieces of meat. A beef-steak will require from an hour and a half to two hours ; a fowl, braised in broth made partly from its own giblets, will take two hours or thereabouts ; and a young pigeon will require about forty minutes. The cooking between two fires — that is, with top and bottom heat — is essential in Braising.