{"id":448,"date":"2009-06-02T13:36:37","date_gmt":"2009-06-02T13:36:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/?p=448"},"modified":"2009-06-02T13:36:37","modified_gmt":"2009-06-02T13:36:37","slug":"so-thats-what-they-mean-by-slow-cooking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/so-thats-what-they-mean-by-slow-cooking\/","title":{"rendered":"So That’s What They Mean by “Slow Cooking”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Removing the soup bones from my slow cooker this morning, they were melting apart.\u00a0 Had to scoop them out with a slotted spoon.\u00a0 The meat glistened with tender silkiness.\u00a0 It was still early, but I had to try a bite:\u00a0 Just like the melt-in-your-mouth, slow cooked lamb shanks I’ve had in good restaurants.<\/p>\n

So this is how those good chefs transform the toughest cuts into the tenderest and most flavorful dishes.<\/p>\n

I’ve known the rule for years:\u00a0 low and slow.\u00a0 But in my hurry up world, I tried to do low on a gas stovetop that was calibrated for hot, fast cooking.\u00a0 My last batch of soup bones came out as tough as leather, even though I had cooked them on low.<\/p>\n

Of course it probably didn’t help that I “got things going a little” by bringing the water to boil over high before turning it down to simmer.\u00a0 And then I left it to simmer on the turbo-burner, not the wimpy simmer burner.\u00a0 I was in a hurry, you see.\u00a0 I’d decided at the last minute that the cool day would be a nice one for a last beef stew before summer’s heat settled in.<\/p>\n

Thankfully, we’re having yet one more “last” cool spell before summer.\u00a0 But yesterday morning I heard about the weather blowing in.\u00a0 So I promptly pulled the last package of soup bones from the freezer and let it thaw all day.\u00a0 Last night I dumped the bones into my slow cooker, filled it with cold filtered water, put on the lid and turned the heat to low.\u00a0 Then the truly low heat (with no advance boiling) and the truly long time (12 hours) worked it’s magic.<\/p>\n

\"Its
It's old and dumpy, but it still works magic<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Guess there’s something to be said for forethought and patience–and that cheap, completely un-cool and un-designer kitchen appliance called the Crock Pot.<\/p>\n

P.S. After removing the soup bones, I threw in celery and carrot tops and some raggedy ends of Egyptian green onions and spring garlic.\u00a0 They’ll simmer a few hours to add even more goodness to the broth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For years, I’ve known the rule for cooking tough meat cuts: low and slow. But in my hurry up world, I tried to do low on a gas stovetop that was calibrated for hot, fast cooking. My last batch of soup bones came out as tough as leather, even though I had cooked them on low. . . Patience and forethought came to my rescue<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,24,1],"tags":[137,140,152,309,535,634],"class_list":["post-448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-healthy-cooking-basics","category-basic-healthy-cooking-techniques","category-uncategorized","tag-cooking-patience","tag-cooking-stew","tag-crockpots","tag-how-to-cook-tough-meat","tag-soup-bones","tag-what-are-crockpots-and-slow-cookers-good-for","masonry-post","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-50"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=448"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}