"Pan-roasting is hot and fierce. Slow-roasting is low and slow. One major advantage of slow-roasting is simplicity. Anything you can braise—short ribs, pork shoulder, lamb shoulder—you can slow-roast with a fraction of the effort. Unlike braising, you can skip the initial browning (which could take 20 minutes for a hefty cut, like brisket), you don't need a ton of aromatics to infuse the liquid, and you don't need a large volume of stock, or any wine, for that matter. Although slow-roasting essentially is a dry-heat method, it's gentle, and the finished succulent texture is similar to what you'd get with a braise. Meats become shreddable and moist, internal fats and collagen melted into tenderness. Slow-roasting coaxes tough-skinned winter squash into total submission (no peeling, no chopping), yields whole heads of cauliflower soft enough to eat with a spoon, gives whole chickens a rotisserie-esque texture, caramelizes and concentrates juicy things like fennel or sweet peppers, and is the most facile and impressive way to cook large fillets of fish."
Reprinted from Where Cooking Begins: Uncomplicated Recipes To Make You a Great Cook. Copyright © 2019 by Carla Lalli Music. Photographs copyright © 2019 Gentl and Hyers. Published by Clarkson Potter, an imprint of Penguin Random House, LLC. —Food52
Featured in: How Changing the Way I Grocery Shop Has Made Me a Better Cook —The Editors
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