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Home › Cooking Beef › Braising BeefTo me, braising beef is a great way to make one of those wonderful winter meals. The kind where the house smells amazing for hours. And then, when you finally get to eat it, it’s so tender you can pull it apart with a fork. It’s hot, comforting and delicious.

Now, apart from the fact that it’s so good, there are a few reasons that braising is such a great way to cook beef.

First of all, it’s really easy. If you have the right cooking gear (a dutch oven works really well), you can make it all in one dish. And once it’s in the oven, you hardly need to worry about it. When dinnertime comes around, you only need to take care of some side dishes. No last minute mad-scramble!

Braising is also a wonderful way to cook tougher meats. Braising beef can turn even the toughest cut of beef into a meal that will melt in your mouth. The tougher cuts are usually a lot less expensive, so it’s a thrifty way to satisfy a beef craving!

So, what is braised beef? Just read on. In this article I’ll start by explaining what braising is. After that, I’ll go through the process of cooking braised beef, step by step:

Here we go!

 

So What Is Braising?

Braising is a cooking technique where you slow cook a tough cut of meat in just enough liquid to cover the meat half way. The main reason to use this cooking method is to tenderize the meat.

Tougher cuts of beef are full of connective tissues like collagen. It’s these tissues that make the meat so tough. So, if you want to turn your tough beef cut into something a bit more tender, you need to get rid of those tissues. And that’s where braising beef comes in!

You get rid of collagen by melting it. When it melts, collagen turns into gelatin. That makes the beef more tender and moist!

Unfortunately, collagen needs to be very hot for a very long time before it’ll melt… If you just put the beef in the oven to roast, it’ll burn long before the collagen melts.

How does braising help? Well, the key is the liquid. When you start cooking your beef, some of that liquid evaporates. But with a tight lid on the pot, it can’t escape, and so you get an environment full of moisture for your beef to cook in. And when something is moist, it’s much harder to burn!

All that moisture lets you get your beef hotter for longer, so the heat can penetrate deep down into the piece of beef and melt all that tough collagen.

But braising beef isn’t just about tenderizing. It’s also about flavoring! The beef cooks for so long that whatever liquid you use will have plenty of time to infuse the beef with flavor. You can use all sorts of different liquids to give your braised beef a unique, delicious flavor.

Well, that’s what braising is. Now, let’s find out how do it!

Braising Beef – Step By Step

Step 1: Selecting a Cut of Beef

A tough cut of beef is the best choice if you’re planning on making braised beef. The whole point of braising beef is to cook it hot and long enough to melt all the collagen.

A tender piece of meat, like a t-bone steak, doesn’t have any collagen in it. There’s no reason to braise it. Instead, you can grill it, broil it, or use some other dry heat technique to cook it.

So what are the best cuts for braising beef? Try

• Any cut from the chuck, including short ribs. Check the package at the grocery store. The word “chuck” should be on there somewhere.
• Any cut from the shank. These come from the animal’s hard working leg muscles, so they’re full of tough connective tissue. Perfect for braising!
• Cuts from the brisket.
• Certain cuts from the round. Try cuts from the bottom round or the eye of round, or rump roasts.
• Flank steaks can be a bit tough, and are great for braising.

Step 2: Browning the Beef (optional)

Now that you’ve selected a tough cut of beef to braise, we can get started.

The next step is to brown the beef. Why do we want to do this? Well, first of all, a nicely browned piece of meat is a lot more appetizing.

But it’s not just about presentation. When you sear beef, it forms a very flavorful brown crust. This makes it even more delicious, and adds a little something to the meal.

To brown the beef, first pat it dry and dredge it in flour. Shake off any excess flour. A thin coating of flour will help the beef brown more evenly, and will help prevent it from burning or sticking to the pan.

Next, heat a bit of oil in a pan over medium high. Cook each side of your piece of beef until it has a nice brown color. Remove the beef from the pan, pour out the fat, and… you’re done step 2!

Tips

• If you’re planning on braising beef in a pot on the stove, use that same pot to brown your beef. Or, if you have a dish that can go both on the stove and in the oven, you can brown your beef on the stove, then place the dish in the oven. Fewer dishes to do… that’s always a good thing!
• There’s a rumor floating around that searing the beef helps keep the moisture in. That’s not actually true. Luckily you don’t have to worry about that for braised beef! There’s so much moisture in the air in the pot that your beef won’t get dry at all. The real reason you want to sear the meat is for that extra bit of flavor, and how it looks.

Step 3: Aromatic Vegetables and Herbs (optional)

This step is where a lot of the dish’s flavor comes from.

First, chop up some aromatic vegetables. An aromatic vegetable is a vegetable that gives rich flavors and aromas when you cook it. Onions, carrots and celery are three great aromatic vegetables.

Next, select some herbs. Pick whatever you want to flavor your roast with. Rosemary and thyme are some examples, but any herb you like works.

In the same pan you browned the beef, sauté the vegetables and herbs over medium heat for about a minute to release their flavors.

Tips

• Wondering how finely or coarsely to chop up your vegetables? Well, that’s up to you. But here are some guidelines. When you’re done braising the beef, you’ll be left with quite a bit of liquid in your dish. You can use this to make a flavorful sauce. At this point, you can either leave the veggies in there as is, or puree them into the sauce.
• If you want to leave your vegetables as is, chop them finely. It’ll look much better in the sauce than big chunks.
• If you’re going to puree the veggies, you can chop them more coarsely. They’ll be soft enough to puree easily by the time you’re done. Just remember, you sauté the veggies in this step, so they shouldn’t be too big!
• Since braised beef cooks for so long, you could even skip the sautéing step. Just toss some big chunks of veggies in there after adding the liquid. They’ll have plenty of time to add flavor and get soft.
• As I mentioned, this step is optional. The only essential part to braising beef is the liquid (Step 4) and the slow cooking (Step 5). But this step really enhances the flavor of your braised beef. It’s definitely worth chopping up a few veggies, if you have the time.

Step 4: The liquid

Finally, it’s time for the all-important liquid. This is what makes it braised beef.

You have a lot of different options here. Remember, braising beef means cooking the meat in liquid for a long time, so it’s a great opportunity to pick something that’ll add lots of flavor. Some good choices for your liquid are:

First, add a little bit of liquid to the pan where you seared the beef and sautéed the vegetables. Be sure to deglaze the pan – scrape up any brown bits left in the pan and stir them into the sauce. They’re full of flavor!

Next, place the meat back in the pan. Add enough liquid so that it reaches about half way up the beef. Don’t let it cover the beef completely! If you do that, you don’t have braised beef anymore, you have a stew.

Tips

This is a good time to add some extra seasonings to the liquid. Spices like star anise go great with beef, and the long cooking time will really bring out the flavor.

Step 5: Cooking

Now it’s time to cook the beef! Whether you’re braising beef on the stove or in the oven, here are the guidelines you need to follow:

• You need to have a tight lid on your pot or dish. You don’t want any moisture escaping – it’s there to keep your meat from burning, and to allow it to get hot enough to melt the collagen.
• When braising beef, the liquid should be kept at a simmer. If it’s boiling, reduce the heat. For the stove, you can usually leave the burner on low to keep it at a simmer. For the oven, anywhere between 250F and 350F works. Just remember, the lower the temperature, the longer the beef needs to cook.
• To test whether the beef is done, try pulling it apart with a fork. It should fall apart. Of course, the only way to really be sure that the meat is cooked is with a meat thermometer. It should have reached a temperature of about 160F.

Step 6: Making the Sauce

Alright, the beef is cooked and ready. The next step in braising beef is to make a delicious sauce to go along with it.

The first step is to take the beef out of the pot and set is aside. Be sure to cover it so that it stays warm.

Now, we make a sauce from the liquid left in the pot. First, skim any fat from the surface. You can actually just use the liquid as is, but here are some ways to dress it up a little:

• If you want something a bit thicker, you can add a bit of flour or cornstarch to the mix and bring it to a boil, stirring constantly. You can make a roux rather than adding the flour directly to the sauce. It’ll help prevent clumping.
• If you don’t want the chunks of vegetables in there, you can either strain the sauce to remove them, or puree them into the sauce. A hand blender works wonders for that.
• You can also add some seasonings to the sauce. Just taste, and add whatever you feel it needs… salt, pepper, garlic, or anything else you like.

Step 7: Serve and Enjoy!

All that’s left is to serve the meal.

Be sure to let the beef stand 10 to 20 minutes before you carve it. That way, the juices have time to distribute evenly through the meat. You can cover it to keep it warm.

Once it’s had a bit of time to rest, slice the braised beef or cut it into chunks, and serve them with some of the sauce and whatever side dishes you like.

And now that you know all about braising beef… enjoy!

Home › Cooking Vegetables › Braised VegetablesBraised vegetables are a great way to enjoy delicious vegetable side dishes. By cooking the vegetables in just a bit of stock, wine, or juice, you end up with delicious veggies, and you can even make a tasty sauce full of complex flavors.

And it’s really hard to go wrong making braised vegetables. A quick sauté over high heat will help get a nicely caramelized exterior, and once that’s done, it’s as easy as adding a bit of liquid, and letting the vegetables cook slowly.

Braising is all about the great blend of flavors. The caramelization is awesome, but you also get to add a lot of flavors in the sauce. That makes braised vegetables different from any other type of cooked vegetable.

In this article, I’ll go over everything you know about braising vegetables. First, I’ll go over what braising is. Then, I’ll talk about what ingredients to pick and how to prepare them. Then, I’ll show how to braise the vegetables. Finally, I’ll go over how to make a delicious sauce from the cooking liquid.

Here we go!

 

What Is Braising?

Braising is a cooking technique where you cook food by partially submerging it in simmering water, in a tightly covered pot. You can also sauté or sear the food beforehand. It’s not necessary, but browning the exterior quickly over high heat can add an extra dimension of flavor to your braised dish.

Braising is especially useful for tough cuts of meat, because the long, slow cooking time helps break down tough fibers so that you end up with a nice tender meal. But it’s also a great cooking technique for vegetables, because of the wonderful flavors you can add, and because it can really help soften tough, starchy veggies.

It might sound very similar to boiling, but there’s a key difference: the amount of liquid used. When you boil vegetables, they’re completely submerged in the water: the water is what cooks them. When you braise, only part of the vegetable is in the water: both the liquid and the steam contribute to cooking the vegetable.

Because you use less liquid, you get less nutrient and flavor loss, so that your veggies taste better. But using less liquid also allows you to use something other than water, without being wasteful. Vegetable or chicken stock can add a lot more flavor to vegetables than water!

And the best part is, once you’re done cooking the vegetables, you have the perfect amount of liquid to make an amazing sauce with. A bit of wine, stock, and citrus can turn ordinary vegetables into amazing ones!

Preparing The Ingredients

When you’re making braised vegetables, there are a few things to prepare. You need to pick and prepare your vegetables and seasonings, and you need to pick a liquid to braise them in.

The Vegetables

There are lots of different vegetables that are great braised. Tough roots, like carrots, parsnips, sweet potatoes, turnips and beets are wonderful, but you can also braise asparagus, green beans, squashes, leeks, cabbage, onions, broccoli, or any other vegetable you like. You can even braise fruit, too. Pineapple, pears and apples can add a sweet touch to your meal.

Once you’ve decided which vegetable to braise, you need to prepare itproperly. That means washing it and trimming it first, and then cutting it up. And how you cut the vegetable is pretty important. Here are a few things to keep in mind.

• The smaller the pieces, the faster they’ll cook. It’s all about how long heat will take to penetrate to the center of the vegetable chunk. So a long, flat piece will cook faster that a largish cube.
• Cut the vegetables into even-sized pieces. If some are much smaller than others, they’ll cook faster and be overdone by the time the rest are ready.
• Try cutting the pieces so that they have at least one flat surface to rest against the bottom of the pot or pan. That way, if you want to brown them first, you have lots of surface area to caramelize.

Once your vegetables are all cut up, you can think about seasoning them.

Seasonings

Braised vegetables are even better with a little bit of seasoning. You can use herbs, spices or aromatics to add a ton of extra flavor and make outstanding dishes.

• Aromatics like onion, garlic, chives, or shallots are great chopped up finely and sautéed when you sear the vegetables. Or for a prettier look, you can use pearl onions and leave them whole.
• Herbs and spices can be used three ways.
  • For extra flavor, add them to the hot pan while you’re searing the vegetables – the heat will help release even more of their flavor. You can leave them in after adding the cooking liquid.
  • For a milder flavor, just add them to the simmering liquid.
  • You can also sprinkle some fresh chopped herbs on the braised vegetables once they’re done cooking.
• You can also use any other seasoning you like. Citrus zest is a good example that goes great with broccoli.

The Cooking Liquid

The cooking broth is one of the things that sets braised vegetables apart from other types of cooked vegetable side dishes.

Because you need so little liquid – just enough to reach about halfway up the vegetables – you can use something a bit more interesting than just water. It’ll add extra nutrition and flavor to your braised vegetables, without being wasteful.

Here are a few liquids you can use when you’re making braised vegetables.

• Water
• Broth or stock – chicken, vegetable and beef are all good
• Wine
• Juice

Those are just a few examples. If you think a liquid will taste great with your vegetables, don’t be afraid to try it! And you can also combine different liquids and make a delicious blend of flavors.

Another neat thing about the cooking liquid is that you can use it to make a tasty sauce to go with your veggies. And that means there’s absolutely no waste. You get to keep the liquid you used, and any nutrients that were leeched out of the vegetables as they cooked. Different cooking liquids will give you a different tasting sauce.

There are so many possibilities, you’ll never get tired of braised vegetables!

Braised Vegetables

Once you’ve picked and prepped your vegetables, seasonings and cooking liquid, you’re ready to make braised vegetables! It’s so easy. Just follow these instructions and you’ll have a tasty vegetable side dish you’ll love!

Here’s how you do it.

1. Heat some oil or butter in a pan over medium high heat.
   • The pan (or pot) should be big enough to hold all the vegetables in a single layer, if possible. That way, each veggie piece touches the broth without being submerged.
   • The pan should have a fitted lid. You don’t want to let any moisture escape when you braise!
   • If you’re going to make a sauce from the leftover broth, butter will give a nicer flavor than oil.
2. Sear the vegetables in the pan. You can let them brown as much as you like. At this point, you can also add any aromatics or herbs, if you want to intensify flavors.
   • If you like, you don’t have to sear the vegetables at all. Searing adds a certain flavor to braised vegetables, but if you don’t like it, just skip it!
   • The vegetables will sear more quickly if you don’t move them around too much. This way, the outside will brown without the inside cooking – so that it can cook by braising instead.
3. Add the cooking liquid and any other seasonings, and bring to a boil.
4. Place the lid on the pan, and reduce the heat. You want the liquid inside to simmer gently.
5. Let the vegetables cook until they’re as tender as you like them.
   • You can test them by sticking a knife in them to see how soft they are, or just by eating a piece every so often.
   • Check the level of the cooking liquid, and add a bit more if it gets too low. You pan should never be dry.
   • Vegetables don’t take too long to braise. For dense, hard vegetables like turnips or beets it might take 30 minutes or more, but most vegetables will be done under 15 minutes.
6. Serve, and enjoy!

That’s really all there is to braised vegetables. The real magic comes in when you pick different vegetables, seasonings and cooking liquids. And experimentation is the best way to find a meal you’ll love!

Notes

• If you prefer, you can also braise the vegetables in the oven. Once they’re seared, just place them in an oven safe dish, add the cooking liquid, and place them in an oven preheated to 300F. This method is nice if you have a dish that can go on the stove-top and in the oven, to minimize cleanup.

Making A Sauce

Once you’re done braising the vegetables, you’ll notice you have some cooking liquid left over. And although you could throw it out, you’d be throwing out delicious flavors from the broth, and all the nutrients it leeched from the vegetables.

If you like, you can save the broth, and use it in a soup later. But you can also make a delicious sauce to accompany your braised vegetables. It’s really easy to do.

Here how to make a sauce to go with your braised vegetables.

1. Taste the cooking liquid. If it’s not tasty, don’t use it. If it’s a little bland, you can add some extra liquid for flavor at this point. Juice or wine make a nice addition to a sauce, but you could also use soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, or anything you like.
2. Add some seasonings, as needed. You might just need a bit of salt, but you can also add herbs like rosemary, or some aromatics like garlic, or even other seasonings like Dijon mustard. Just try out different combinations with different vegetables, and you’ll get a feel for what tastes great.
   • Remember that if you boil down the sauce, it’ll get more concentrated in flavor, so go easy on the seasonings!
3. Bring the liquid to a boil, and let it boil uncovered until it starts to thicken.
   • You can also use flour or cornstarch to thicken the sauce. You don’t need a lot, maybe half a teaspoon. It’s especially helpful when your sauce just refuses to thicken – sometimes it just works out that way.
   • Reducing the sauce and thickening by boiling rather than with flour has an advantage: concentration of flavor. As water evaporates from the sauce, the sauce gets more and more flavorful.
4. Spoon the sauce over the braised vegetables, or toss the veggies in the sauce to coat them.
5. Serve and enjoy!

And that’s how you make braised vegetables, and a delicious sauce to go along with them. It’s so easy, you can do it every night!

Home › Cooking Vegetables › Boiling VegetablesIt’s hard to imagine anything easier than boiling vegetables. You heat some water, toss in the vegetables, wait a bit, and you’re done, right? But the truth is, there’s a bit more to it than that. For example, should you cover the pot or not? It actually depends on the vegetable you’re boiling.

Boiling vegetables is really super easy. But if you don’t do it right, you can end up with watery, flavorless, tired looking veggies, instead of bright and tasty ones. The key is to cook each vegetable just right so that you lose as little flavor, color and nutrient value as possible during the boiling process.

One of the most important things to keep in mind is that boiling leeches nutrients out of the vegetables, and so the goal is to have them in water as little time as possible, while still getting them cooked!

In this article, I’ll go over the preparation work you need to do, and then I’ll talk about how to boil vegetables.

 

Preparation Work

The nice thing about boiling vegetables is that there’s really no complicated preparation work involved. All you need to do is get your vegetables ready, and get your water ready. But there are a few things you want to keep in mind.

Preparing The Vegetables

No matter what vegetables you’re using, there are a few things you need to do to get them ready for boiling.

• Wash the vegetables. Whether you’re using organic or mass-produced veggies, you need to do this. Gently scrubbing the vegetables under lukewarm water is the best way to go.
• Cut up the vegetables into chunks.

  

  • The smaller the chunks, the faster they’ll cook. That means less nutrient loss, but it also means that it’s a little bit harder to get them to stay just a bit crisp.
  • The chunks should be evenly-sized, so that they cook evenly. Otherwise, smaller pieces will be ready before bigger ones.
• It’s best to cut them not too long before you’re ready to boil them, so that they stay fresher. You can also cut them ahead of time and keep them fresh in water, bu that tends to make the vegetables a bit mushy and waterlogged.

And that’s pretty much all there is to it!

Getting The Water Ready

So you might be wondering what you need to do to get the water ready. It’s just boiling water, right? But to get the best possible results, there are a few things to keep in mind. Remember, the goal is to cook the vegetables as fast as possible. The less time they spend in the water, the less nutrients and flavor they lose.

• No matter which vegetable you use, it’s best to bring the water to boil before adding the vegetables. And if you cover the pot, the water will boil faster.
  • If you add the vegetables when the water is already hot, you don’t need to boil them as long, and you won’t lose as many nutrients.
• For green vegetables, you should use as much water as possible. The more water you use, the less it’ll cool down when you add the vegetables.
  • This is important for green vegetables, because it’s best not to cover them when you boil them. Yes, it’ll help the water get hotter faster, but it’ll also cause the acids and chlorophyll in the boiling vegetables to react, and the veggies will lose their bright green color.
• For any other vegetables, you should use as little water as possible – just enough to completely cover the veggies when you add them to the water.
  • The less water you use, the less nutrient loss. And if you’re not using green veggies, you can cover the pot to get the water boiling again really quickly.
• A little bit of salt goes a long way when you’re boiling vegetables. It serves two purposes.
  • Salt raises the boiling point of water. That means the water boils hotter, and cooks your vegetables faster. And that means less time in the water for your veggies.
  • The right amount of salt will enhance the vegetables’ flavor. You don’t want to use so much salt that they taste salty, but a bit will make the vegetables taste better. Half a teaspoon to a teaspoon of salt per quart (liter) of water will do the trick.
• Bring the water to a boil before adding the salt. The water will boil a bit more vigorously for a second when you do, but it’ll ensure that the salt is dissolved right away. If you add it before boiling, it could deposit on the bottom. Depending on what your pot is made of, the salt could react with it and discolor it.

Once your veggies are chopped and the water is boiling, it’s time to boil the vegetables.

Boiling The Vegetables

Now that your vegetables are cut into chunks, and you have some boiling, salted water, we can talk about boiling vegetables.

Here what you need to do:

1. Add the vegetables to the boiling water. You can just drop them in, in which case you should watch out for splashes, or you can lower them in using a spoon.
2. Bring the water temperature back up.
   • For green vegetables, leave the pot uncovered and keep the heat high. It’ll help preserve the green color.
   • For other vegetables, cover the pot. You can reduce the heat, so long as the water stays at a boil.
3. Cook the vegetables until they’re done. Depending on what vegetables you used and how big the pieces are, it’ll take more or less time. The best way to tell if they’re done is to taste a piece every so often. When it tastes done, it’s done!
   • A lot of people like their cooked veggies to still be a little crispy. But however you like them best it the best way to do it. But remember, the more you boil a vegetable, the more nutrients it loses!
4. Remove the vegetables from the water. You can take them out with a slotted spoon, or drain the water out of the pot.
   • If you’re not serving the vegetables right away, you can immerse them in ice water for a few seconds. That’ll stop the cooking process, so that they don’t become overcooked after you take them out of the water. To reheat them, immerse them in boiling water for a few seconds.

Once the vegetables are done boiling, they’re ready to serve as is, but you can always add a bit of butter or seasonings for some extra flavor.

And that’s all there is to it! Boiling vegetables is so easy, and so convenient. The trick is knowing how to deal with the vegetable you have.

Home › Cooking Vegetables › Boiling Carrots

One really easy way to cook carrots is to boil them. All you need to makeboiled carrots is a cooking pot and some water, and you’re ready to cook!

Cooking carrots by boiling might like it’s kind of boring. And while it’s true that they don’t have the caramelized sweetness of roasted carrots, or the crispness of sautéed carrots, boiled carrots can be very delicious if you know how to do it right.

In this article, we’ll talk about how to prepare the carrots for boiling, and how to boil them.

Preparation Steps

Boiled carrots are really, really easy to make, so there’s actually not a whole lot of preparation work needed. Here’s what you need to do.

Wash The Carrots

Like any vegetable, you need to wash the carrots to get rid of any dirt or chemicals that might still be on the surface. Just scrub them gently under lukewarm water, being sure to get all the dirt out.

Peel The Carrots?

A lot of the carrot’s flavor and nutrients is near its surface. So often it’s better just not to peel the carrot, and just wash it thoroughly – you get much more flavorful carrots than way. But if you need to peel the carrot, use a vegetable peeler and be sure to only peel off a single layer.

Cut The Carrots

There are a few things to keep in mind when you’re cutting up your carrots for boiling.

• Boiling causes the carrots to lose some flavor and nutrients, by leeching them out through the surface. When you cut the carrots, you’re exposing more surface area, and so you lose more flavor and nutrients. The result? Bigger carrot chunks taste better when boiled!
• Smaller carrot chunks take much, much less time to cook than whole carrots. Very small pieces might only take a few minutes to boil, whereas really large, whole carrots might take a whole hour.
• You’ll also want to trim the carrot, cutting off the top, which can be kind of tough and woody. You might also want to cut off the tip, too, if it’s not very nice looking.

It’s all about balancing flavor, time, and how crisp you like your vegetables. If you like slightly crisp vegetables, they won’t take as long to cook, and so even cutting them up in small chunks won’t mean too much flavor and nutrient loss. But if you like soft veggies, you might get better results boiling whole carrots. And if you prefer small pieces of carrot? Don’t forget that you can always cut the carrot into smaller pieces after it’s done!

Of course, if you’re short on time, even cutting the carrots in half can make a huge difference in how much time it takes to cook.

How To Boil Carrots

Once the carrots are washed, trimmed, and cut the way you like them, you’re ready to boil them. It’s not hard at all.

Here’s what you do.

1. Bring a pot of water to a boil.

2. If you want, salt the water. About half a teaspoon per liter of water is plenty.

   • Salting the water raises its boiling point, making it boil hotter, so that your carrots cook faster. And the slightly salty water will also flavor the carrots. Of course, if you’re trying to cut back on salt, it’s not necessary – just convenient and tasty!

3. Add the carrots to the water.

4. Cook, covered, until the carrots are as done as you like them. This can take anywhere from a few minutes to half an hour depending on how you cut them and how cooked you like them.

5. Drain, season and serve. Cut them into smaller pieces if needed.

   • You can serve them as is, or with a bit of butter, salt, or other herbs and spices.

There’s really not a whole lot to making boiled carrots. The key is really to know how you like them. If you like them crisp, take them out when they’re crisp! But if you like them very soft, don’t be afraid to leave them in a bit longer. Just test them regularly, and take them out when they’re just perfect for you.

Enjoy!

Home › Culinary Schools

Why should you be interested in the best culinary schools? Well, if you’re visiting us at Enjoy How To Cook, chances are you’re interested in cooking and learning how to cook. And we’ve got lots of information to help you really understand how cooking works.

But what do you do if you don’t just want to learn to cook? If you’re really passionate about cooking, you might be thinking of making a career out of it. And that’s where culinary arts schools come in.

There’s a lot of information online, and you can learn a lot. But the best culinary schools give you even more than information: you get professionals to guide you, a structured curriculum, and a lot more insight into the professional world.

That’s why I created this section. If you love cooking so much that you’d like to become a professional chef, read on.

I’ll talk about the advantages of going to a culinary arts school, and about different things to consider when looking at culinary schools. Then, I’ll give a list of some of the best culinary schools.

Why Go To Culinary School?

If you’re really serious about wanting to pursue cooking as a career, then it’s a good idea to look into getting a culinary arts degree. You can learn a lot online (a ton, in fact), but the best culinary schools just offer so much!

Here are some of the benefits of going to a culinary arts school.

• You have expert chefs to teach and guide you. Often, when we’re learning to cook on our own, we tend to make lots of mistakes, and slowly learn from them. It helps to have a chef watching over your shoulder to keep you from making at least some of those mistakes!

• You get credentials. After graduating, you’ll have a culinary arts degree. And like any other field, a degree can open all sorts of doors, or at least make it much easier to get a foot in!

• Depending on the school, you can learn about so much more than just how to cook. Here are a few things you might learn:

  
  • A history of cooking, how cooking techniques have evolved over time.
  • How to plan meals and make a menu.
  • How a restaurant kitchen works and how to manage it.
  • Some programs even focus on nutrition.

But really, the greatest thing is that the best culinary schools can help you turn your passion for cooking into a career.

It’s not always an easy career path though, especially at first. Many chefs (some quite famous now) started out their careers washing dishes. The salaries can start out pretty modest, but get better as you move up the kitchen ladder.

And even when you do move up the ladder, it’s important to remember that as a chef, you can expect to work meal times and week-ends – when everyone else is eating, basically!

All that means it’s important to be very passionate about cooking if you’re thinking about getting a culinary arts degree. It’s so much easier to put in the hard work when you love what you do. Because then it’s not work at all – it’s fun!

Find The Right School For You

The first step towards finding the best culinary schools for you is to think about what you need. Different schools offer different things, so it’s important that you know what matters most to you. A great school for one person is not necessarily as good for someone else!

Here are a few things to think about when you’re looking into different culinary arts schools.

Hands-On Training

Does the culinary arts school offer lots of hands on training? Learning to cook means you actually have to cook. But that’s not all.

• Some of the best culinary schools have apprenticeship or internship programs. These allow you to take all the theory you learned and apply it in a real world, practical setting. It’ll give you a feel for how the industry works, and it’ll definitely give you an edge when you’re looking for a job. People prefer to hire someone with experience, after all!
• Some schools also run student-staffed restaurants. If you’ve ever been to one, it’s usually fantastic gourmet food at decent prices. But it’s also wonderful for the students to get to work in a real restaurant and understand how it works.

A good, solid, theoretical education is important. But being out there in the field is a tremendous learning experience, and it’s something you should consider when looking at culinary arts schools.

Student-Teacher Ratio

Some people do really well in large classes. But fewer students means that the teacher’s attention isn’t as divided. And even if you do well in a large class, it’s always nice to have extra help and attention. You learn much faster with an expert helping you with your mistakes.

Specialization Options

Does the school allow you to specialize in your area of interest? Some people have something specific in mind when they dream about being a chef. Here are just a few examples of possible specializations.

• Desserts. Is your passion actually baking and making desserts? You might want to look for a school that lets you specialize as a pastry chef.
• Specific cuisines, like Thai or Italian. Many culinary arts schools have wonderful French cuisine programs, but not all offer global cuisine programs.
• Health and nutrition. There are a number of absolutely delicious things you can make that are horrible for you. If you want to learn make delicious food that’s actually good for you, some schools will be better than others.

Resume Writing and Interviewing

Writing a resume for the first time can be intimidating. Often you get that lingering feel that you’re not doing it right. And interviews are even worse!

The very first job interview I went on, I was so nervous I wanted to run away and go back home. Luckily I wanted the job more, so I stayed… but I was terrified.

Some schools offer extra classes to help you with your resume writing and interviewing skills. And that can be a huge help. They’ll give you advice on what to include in your resume to ensure you get an interview. And they’ll help you practice for interviews so that you go in feeling confident. It makes a real difference!

Scholarships

A culinary arts degree can open lots of doors for you, and help you get a good job, but first you have to pay for the degree! If you need a bit of extra help paying tuition, don’t despair! Many of the best culinary schools have some kind of scholarships or financial aid, so check out what they have to offer.

The Graduates

How well do the graduates do? If you want to pursue cooking as a career, you want to make sure that your culinary arts degree will actually help you. Check out the schools’ graduates. Are they successful? If most of them are, odds are it’s a great school!

Some celebrity chef graduates can be neat, but remember to look at the graduates as a whole. Not everyone can go on to have their own television show, but if most of the graduates get to cook and live out their dreams, then that’s a good sign.

Some Of The Best Culinary Schools

Here are just a few culinary schools out there. Check them out, and find out which one is right for you.

• New England Culinary Institute
• Culinary Institute of America
• French Culinary Institute
• American Culinary Federation
• Cordon Bleu Culinary School
• International Culinary School at the Art Institutes

All of these schools are great culinary arts schools. Any one of them is a good place to start looking for the right school for you!

Remember, figure out what you want, and then find the best culinary school for you. It’s the first step towards earning a culinary arts degree, and turning your passion for cooking into a wonderful career.

Home › About Me

Yes, anybody. My mother might tell you that if I was able to learn to basic cooking skills, there’s hope for just about anyone.

She has this great, embarrassing story about how at the age of twelve I still didn’t know how to make a sandwich. And sadly, it’s perfectly true.

But I’ve come a long way since then… I’ve learned to love cooking, and even though I cook everyday, I still just love the feeling of eating something delicious that I made myself.

I’ve learned quite a few tricks and techniques over the years, and it’s made a world of difference for my cooking skills. And I’ve really found that a great quality meal just makes you feel better.

So I created this website to pass on what I’ve learned about cooking! Because it’s not that hard – anybody can learn basic cooking skills. You just have to know what to do!

And once you do, you’ll find that the best restaurant in town is right in your own home.

 

Growing Up

I may not have always loved cooking, but I have always loved baking. Cookies, cakes, fudge, brownies… that’s what got me started in the world of cooking.

I may not have known how to make a sandwich when I was twelve, but I could make cookies or a cake from scratch if I was in the mood for something sweet!

Of course, at some point I realized that cookies and cake make a delicious diet, but maybe not such a balanced one. And I knew I was going to have to move out of my parents’ place someday, and then… no more mom to cook for me!

So I hovered in the kitchen. In the year or two before I moved out, I learned all the basic cooking skills I could. I practiced, and I went online and found recipes. And I found out that cooking something good isn’t so hard after all.

But the biggest revelation for me was realizing that a cooking method is worth a thousand recipes. It’s one thing to have a great cream of celery soup recipe. It’s a whole other to realize that you can make pretty much any cream of vegetable soup following the same technique.

And once you know the basic cooking method, you can start improving every recipe you come across!

Life Really Begins…

In 2008, I met the man of my dreams. In 2009 we got married, and I moved from Canada to the United States so that we could be together.

And nothing in the world could make me happier!

Of course, going through immigration meant that I couldn’t work for a while. I had just left a job in Montreal where overtime was a regular thing. So going from that to having all day long to do whatever I wanted took a bit of adjustment.

Meaning I had to find something to do or I would have gone crazy!

Having all day meant I could spend as much time as I wanted cooking, but there’s only so much we can eat. So I created this website.

I’ve always loved teaching. I’ll admit it… I’m a bit on the nerdy side, and in school, I’d help my friends with their math homework. And it was always such a great feeling to sit down with someone, work through a problem and see that light come on as they just got it.

And I thought, wouldn’t it be great to help people learn basic cooking skills? To show them how easy and fun it can be, and improve their quality of life by giving them the chance to make first-class meals for themselves.

Enjoy How To Cook

My goal with this website is to show people that great cooking is something anyone can do. And that it’s something you can actually learn to love.

I think that the best way to do it is to start with basic cooking skills: how to pan fry, how to make soup, how to roast… because without those basics, every time you cook, you can feel as though you’re swimming into unknown waters – and that’s not the best feeling.

I do my best to explain what you have to do and why you should do it. It’s amazing how knowing why can make all the difference.

Here’s an example that isn’t related to cooking. I recently got a sewing machine. I had never owned one, and basically had no idea how it worked on the inside, but I could use it.

Well, something happened and it stopped working. And it was so frustrating because I didn’t know what to do about it.

So I went online, and read up on how a sewing machine works. I learned all about bobbins and thread and tension, and just knowing how it worked helped me figure out what had gone wrong with mine.

Well, cooking is the same way. If you know the chemistry of what’s going on, then suddenly a whole new world opens up for you.

And that’s the world I want to show you!