Boeuf bourguignon with mashed potatoes

Why

A roux is flour cooked in fat, usually in a ratio of roughly 1 : 1 by weight. The fat coats each flour particle, so it disperses in the liquid on its own instead of clumping; the starch then swells and thickens fully only close to boiling point. Lumps form when flour meets hot liquid too suddenly: the outside of a clump gelatinises instantly and seals dry flour inside – which is why you combine cool roux with hot liquid or hot roux with cool liquid, and add the liquid gradually. The longer and darker a roux cooks, the more the heat breaks its starch into shorter pieces that thicken less: a dark roux smells nutty, but you need more of it for the same thickness. Once thickened, let the sauce simmer gently for a while so the starch swells completely and the raw-flour taste disappears.

How to do it

1. Weigh out fat and plain flour in a ratio of roughly 1:1.
2. Stir the flour into the fat over low heat; a light roux takes a few minutes, a dark one needs time and attention.
3. Pour cool or lukewarm (not ice-cold) liquid into hot roux, or hot liquid into roux that has cooled.
4. Add the liquid gradually, the first splash carefully and at arm's length: hot roux, especially a dark one, spatters and the steam burns. Whisk it in at once, not with a wooden spoon.
5. Then simmer the sauce or soup gently, usually for 10–20 minutes, stirring often and tasting until the floury taste is gone.
6. Use more flour for a dark roux; it thickens less than a light one.

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Why

The brown crust and aroma of seared meat come from the Maillard reaction, in which proteins and sugars on the surface turn into hundreds of aromatic compounds; it only gets going quickly above roughly 140 °C. As long as the surface of the meat is wet, the water holds it at around 100 °C and the meat steams instead of searing – which is why you dry the meat and get the pan and fat properly hot. Put too much meat in the pan and its temperature drops sharply, juices run out and the pieces simmer in them, grey and crustless. The idea that searing 'seals the pores' and keeps the juices in is a myth: the crust isn't watertight and seared meat loses as much juice or even more – you sear for flavour, not for juiciness.

How to do it

1. Pat the surface of the meat thoroughly dry with kitchen paper.
2. Heat the pan first, then add a fat that can take high heat, such as rapeseed oil or clarified butter; don't heat a non-stick pan empty on full power.
3. Leave space between the pieces; if they don't fit, sear in batches.
4. Leave the meat alone and don't move it until it releases by itself; if it sticks, it hasn't formed a crust yet.
5. Deglaze the browned bits on the bottom of the pan with wine or stock – they are the base of a sauce.

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Why

Tough cuts such as shoulder, shin, neck or cheek contain a lot of connective tissue, and its main protein, collagen, slowly dissolves into gelatin under long, moist heat – noticeably from roughly 70 °C, and over hours, not minutes. Meanwhile the muscle fibres lose more water the hotter they get, and a hard boil tightens and wrings them out, so the meat ends up dry and stringy even while sitting in liquid. That is why you braise covered, just below the boil, with only the occasional bubble breaking the surface: the collagen has time to break down and the fibres are not heated more than they need to be. The gelatin then coats the fibres, making the meat succulent and the sauce glossy and rich; lean cuts with little connective tissue, such as pork tenderloin, only dry out with long braising because they lack the collagen that would rescue them.

How to do it

1. Choose cuts with sinew and connective tissue for braising: shoulder, shin, neck, cheeks or oxtail.
2. Brown the meat well first, then add liquid to come only about halfway up the meat.
3. Keep it at a bare simmer, with the surface barely trembling; in a covered pot in the oven, about 140–160 °C is plenty.
4. Test for doneness with a fork, not the clock: the meat is ready when it pulls apart easily.
5. Let the cooked meat cool a little in its liquid: the surface won't dry out and the gelatin-rich juices will coat it.

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Why

Fresh mushrooms are mostly water, button mushrooms about 90 %, and they release it into the pan as they heat; so they first stew in their own juice and brown only once the water has evaporated. An overcrowded pan or fat that isn't hot enough only prolongs this stage, and salt added at the start draws the water out sooner; mushrooms taken off the heat before the juice has evaporated end up grey and rubbery. Wild mushrooms are not eaten raw, even edible species often cause digestive upsets when raw, and dishes made from them should therefore be cooked for at least 15 minutes. The widespread claim that mushroom dishes must never be reheated is only half true: problems come mainly from badly stored mushrooms and dishes, whereas a dish cooled quickly and kept briefly in the fridge can be reheated once. Only gather and eat mushrooms you can identify with certainty; phone apps often cannot identify a species unambiguously.

How to do it

1. Clean mushrooms with a knife or brush, rinse dirty ones only briefly and dry them at once; never leave them sitting in water.
2. If you want them browned, heat a pan with fat and fry them in batches in a single layer; for a sauce or soup, softening them is enough.
3. Let fried mushrooms evaporate their juice and brown; you can salt them at any point, salt at the start only speeds up the release of water.
4. Never eat wild mushrooms raw, and cook dishes made from them for at least 15 minutes.
5. Cool leftover mushroom dishes quickly, refrigerate them (ideally at 2–4 °C), use them up soon and reheat only once, until piping hot throughout, to at least 74 °C in the centre.
6. Gather and cook only mushrooms you know with certainty; have uncertain finds checked at a mushroom advice centre, not by an app.

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