Vol. XVI · Moist Heat Plate 6 of 11stew, curry, layering flavour, cut size, spices, aromatics, finishing, garam masala, acid, herbs, 炖菜TF

Stews and Curries.

A 3 cm cube of beef is hot through in a quarter of an hour and tender in three. The hours are for the collagen, not the heat.

A stew cuts tough meat into pieces and simmers it in liquid that will become the sauce. Cutting does not much speed tenderness — collagen conversion depends on temperature and time (XVI.4), not on size — but it makes the meat easy to eat, lets the sauce reach every piece, and shortens the time to heat through. A curry is the same method with a spiced sauce, often thickened by onions, tomatoes, coconut, yoghurt, nuts or lentils.

Flavour goes in layers, each with its moment. Brown the meat (VIII.1) and deglaze (VIII.7). Soften onions slowly (VIII.5). Bloom whole and ground spices in the fat (XI.8): this is the Indian tadka or bhuna, the Chinese 爆香. Add the liquid and simmer gently. Then finish: the aromatic spices that do not survive long cooking (garam masala, XI.9), fresh herbs, a squeeze of acid (XI.4), a knob of butter or swirl of cream, and a last taste for salt (XI.11). The workshop shows the two clocks of a stew.

Below: for cubes of the size you choose in a simmering stew, the minutes for the centre to reach 90 °C (thermal bench, sphere) against the hours for the collagen to become tender at 93 °C (course rate) — two very different clocks.

What you will learn
Workshop
Thermal bench: beef cubes as spheres of the size chosen, from 5 °C in liquid simmering at 95 °C (h 500 W/m² K), until the centre reaches 90 °C. Collagen: the course rate at 93 °C to 90 % converted, assumed the same for all sizes once hot.

Hours for collagen, minutes for heat

In this model a 20 mm cube is hot to the centre in about 5 minutes, a 50 mm cube in 28; but either needs about 3 h 13 min at 93 °C for its collagen to be tender. So cut pieces for the eater — bite-sized for a curry over rice, larger for a French daube — and use the hours of simmering to build the sauce. Very small pieces in a long stew can fall apart into shreds; very large ones are awkward to serve.

A few habits make stews and curries better. Do not crowd the meat when browning (XV.3). Cook onions further than seems necessary: deep golden onions are the backbone of many curries. Fry spice pastes until the oil separates from them (the Indian "bhuna" stage), which means their water has gone and the spices are frying. Keep the simmer gentle. Add potatoes and vegetables at the time they need, not at the start. Finish with something fresh. And make it a day ahead if you can (XVI.4).

At the stove

Make a curry and divide it in two at the end: finish one half with a pinch of garam masala, chopped coriander and a squeeze of lime, and leave the other plain. Taste them side by side.

Curry is a British word, probably from Tamil kari (a spiced sauce or relish); in India the dishes it covers have hundreds of names — korma, salan, kuzhambu, jhol — each with its own method.

Terms

Stew
Small pieces simmered in liquid that becomes the sauce.
Layering
Adding and cooking flavours in stages.
Bhuna
Frying a spice paste until the oil separates.
Finishing
Fresh aromatics, acid, fat and salt added at the end.
Cubes heat through in minutes but tenderise in hours; cut for eating, build flavour in layers, and finish with fresh spices, herbs, acid and salt.

Sources

  1. A teaching value chosen for the course: the right order of magnitude and shape, not a measurement of a particular food.
  2. H. McGee, On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen, 2nd ed., Scribner, 2004.