Everyone enjoys their meat prepared in different ways. We are all familiar with the degree of how we like our steak cooked, rare to well-done, but there are different methods to prepare meat. You may be stuck in your ways of broiling your chicken or barbecuing your steak, but there are different ways to cook meat. Here is a breakdown of the different methods of meat cooking.
Moist Heat
Moist heat method cooking includes boiling, stewing, braising and pressure cooking. These methods are normally used with bird meat such as chicken, turkey or duck. All of these processes can be used with meat low in fat and high in muscle. A major myth of moist heat cooking is that this method is used to keep the meat tender and moist after it has been cooked. Many times, it does not matter how much water or broth you use, moist cooked meat still may end up very dry. Meat will not absorb water during the cooking process, it will only expel water. Some research has shown that because steam is so hot, allowing a hotter environment than what air would, you can lose much more moisture if you keep your cooking temperature too high.
Dry Heat
Dry heat methods include some of the most common including barbecuing, broiling, grilling, pan frying, roasting, and stir-frying. Most of the time, open air is present with cooking these ways. The type of meat used in dry heat methods is normally for cuts of meat that is tender and a bit more delicate to handle. Broiling is used on a top rack or a pan used for grilling under high temperature high. Broiling is used for shorter cooking times as well. Grilling is a term that means different things in different locations. For example, the term grilling in the United Kingdom means putting something under a flame while in North America it means putting it on top of a flame. Griddling, on the other hand, means to cook on a large, heated, flat surface.
A full understanding of the different ways to cook meat will allow your cooking to expand in taste. You will be able to expand your knowledge and skill set to best prepare any type of meat you chose to cook.