For durability, ability to conduct heat evenly, price and especially versatility, I recommend that most of your pots and pans be made from stainless steel with a thick bottom layer of copper and/or aluminum. This combination of materials gives you the best of all worlds: the heat-conduction ability of copper and aluminum, and the non-reactive surface of stainless steel. Aluminum, unlined copper and cast iron by themselves react poorly with acidic ingredients (such as tomatoes, citrus juice, wine and vinegar) by imparting a metallic taste and an off color. Thus, it is extremely important to use a non-reactive pan when cooking acidic foods. When braising, it's essential that your cooking vessel have a tight fitting lid so food being cooked receives a steady supply of condensation while simmering. Since stews cook for a long time, using a lid that's not perfectly secure will allow steam (internal moisture) to escape and evaporate, leaving the mixture drier than desired. Another good choice when braising, and especially when making a delicate custard sauce, is enamel-coated cast iron, although the weight of cast iron can make them a quite cumbersome to use. But because the bottom of this type of (non-reactive) cookware is so heavy, the mixture has less chance of scorching.
To cook something very slowly surrounded by moisture. Although any meat or vegetable can be braised, this term is usually referred to cooking those tougher cuts of meats that contain a good deal of muscle and connective tissue.
Connective tissue has two main components: the major one is collagen and the other, elastin. When a tough, muscular piece of meat is cooked slowly with an uninterrupted supply of moisture and reaches 140°F, the collagen begins to melt down and convert into gelatin, which contributes to both succulence of texture and flavor. The elastin, which won’t break down during cooking, enables the meat to hold its shape after being rendered tender. Because this internal temperature of 140°F is needed for collagen to convert to gelatin, these tougher types of meats are served well-done. If you cooked a fillet mignon or a prime rib roast to 140°F, you would have an overdone, gray hunk of meat. Because these cuts have little or no connective tissue (and are thus naturally tender), you can, and should, cook these cuts much less. Personally, I think, when cooked properly, the tougher cuts of meat are the most delicious, and often, more affordable.
Although braising is a great way to render a tougher cut of meat tender and juicy, there are other ways to improve the texture and shorten the cooking time, substantially. One way is to choose a different cut, such as skirt steak, flank steak, etc. These thinner cuts need to be tenderized by marinating. Then, after cooking quickly until well seared on the outside and still very rosy on the inside (by grilling, broiling or pan-searing), these cuts must be sliced correctly to achieve maximum tenderness. To slice these meats correctly, they should be allowed to settle after cooking for about 5 minutes (tent loosely with foil to keep warm). Then, using a sharp carving knife, slice the meat on the diagonal into thin slices (not more than 1/4 inch thick). It’s important to slice the meat against the grain (the grain is the direction of the meat fiber, which is visible). So, if the lines of connection in the meat are going vertically, you’d slice the meat horizontally, on the diagonal. When there is no time for marinating, there is another way to render these cuts tender almost instantly. First, with a sharp paring knife, make shallow (about ¼-inch deep) criss-cross score marks in the meat. After seasoning as desired, sprinkle with a meat tenderizer containing papain, which is a plant enzyme that can digest protein. Because these tenderizers (which are available in the supermarket) are only activated by heat, it’s useless to use this in your marinade. Also, only use papain to tenderize thin cuts of tough meat, since the tenderizing potential is severely minimized on thicker cuts (it won’t penetrate the meat).
