Moist heat and slow cooking

Know your bubbles

• Boil: 212°F, big rolling bubbles. Pasta, potatoes, blanching green vegetables. Salt the water until it tastes like the sea.
• Simmer: 185°F to 205°F, small bubbles breaking the surface here and there. Soups, stews, sauces, braises. Most things that say boil mean simmer.
• Poach: 160°F to 180°F, the water shivers but does not bubble. Eggs, fish, chicken breast. Gentle, and almost impossible to overcook.
• Steam: food above the water, lid on. Vegetables, fish, dumplings. Keeps color, texture and nutrients.

Braising and stewing

This is where tough cuts shine. Short ribs, chuck, pork shoulder, chicken thighs, lamb shanks: the cuts with lots of connective tissue. Sear them first for browning, add aromatics, add liquid to come partway up the meat (braise) or cover it (stew), lid on, then low heat for hours: a 300°F oven or the lowest simmer on the stove. The collagen melts into gelatin and the meat goes soft and rich. It is almost impossible to rush and almost impossible to ruin.

Braises taste better the next day. Make them ahead.

The full Braise lesson →

Sous vide

Food sealed in a bag, cooked in water held at an exact temperature by a circulator. Set 130°F and a steak cannot go past medium-rare no matter how long it sits. Set 145°F and pork chops are juicy edge to edge. Then a fast sear for the crust. It is the most forgiving way to cook expensive meat, and the egg bites on this site cannot be made any other way.

The full Sous vide lesson →

Rice, grains and pasta

• Rice: rinse it, one part rice to one and a half parts water, bring to a boil, lid on, lowest heat, 15 minutes, then 10 minutes off the heat without lifting the lid.
• Grains like quinoa and farro: cook them like pasta in plenty of salted water and drain. Easier and more forgiving than measuring.
• Pasta: a big pot, lots of water, salted hard. Stir in the first minute so it does not stick. Pull it a minute before the box says and finish it in the sauce with a splash of the cooking water.

When it goes wrong

Mushy rice

Too much water, or the lid came off. Measure, and leave the lid alone.

Tough meat in a stew

It boiled, or it needs longer. Hold a bare simmer and give it time.

Gluey pasta

Too little water, or no stir in the first minute. Use a big pot and stir early.

Dull, gray green vegetables

They boiled too long. Blanch them briefly and move them straight to ice water.

Everything tastes bland

The water wasn’t salted. Salt it until it tastes like the sea.

A full lesson on each method

This page is the big picture. When you want one method all the way through, the steps, the temperatures and the fixes, go here.

• PoachCook chicken, fish and eggs so gently they can’t dry out.
• BraiseMake the cheap, tough cuts the best thing on the table.
• Slow cookerPut dinner on in the morning and come home to it done.
• Sous videSet the exact doneness you want, and hit it every time.
• ConfitCook slowly in fat, and get meat that is rich, tender and keeps for weeks.