grain and plenty of fat It has a deep, beefy flavor and a robust, ropy texture that holds up well to long cooking • Round comes from the rear leg and is available as many different cuts Bottom round, with a flavor similar to chuck, is the best for braising, though its odd shape makes it a bit harder to handle Eye of round is by far the leanest of all of the braising cuts and so has a tendency to dry out a bit If you keep a careful eye on the temperature and make sure to remove it from the oven as soon as it is tender, it does make a decent lower-fat option (but where’s the fun in that?) • Short ribs are technically part of the chuck but are sold separately They come in three forms: as hunks of meat on top of 6-inch sections of rib bones (called English-cut short ribs); as pieces of meat attached to three- to four-rib-bone crosssections (flanken cut); and boneless All three make great stew meat Their abundant fat and connective tissue ensure that they’ll be meltingly tender and rich when properly cooked EXPERIMENT: Boiling Water Under Cover Does leaving the lid on or off really make much of a difference when cooking in an oven that’s supposed to be maintaining a constant low temperature? Try this quick experiment to see for yourself Materials • Two identical pots filled halfway with water • One lid • An instant-read thermometer Procedure Preheat the oven to 275°F Place both pots in it, one with the lid on and the other with the lid off Let the water heat for hour, then open the oven and immediately take the temperature of each pot of water Results The water in the lidded pot should be at around 210°F, while the water in the uncovered pot is probably closer to 185° to 190°F Because of the cooling effect of evaporation (it takes a significant amount of energy for those water molecules to jump from the surface of the liquid—energy that they steal from the liquid itself, cooling it down), an open pot of stew in a 275°F oven will max out at around 185°F Good news for you, because that’s right in the optimal subsimmer stewing temperature zone Pop the lid on, and you cut down on the amount of evaporation Less evaporation means a higher max ... An instant-read thermometer Procedure Preheat the oven to 275°F Place both pots in it, one with the lid on and the other with the lid off Let the water heat for hour, then open the oven and immediately... take the temperature of each pot of water Results The water in the lidded pot should be at around 210°F, while the water in the uncovered pot is probably closer to 185° to 190°F Because of the. .. evaporation (it takes a significant amount of energy for those water molecules to jump from the surface of the liquid—energy that they steal from the liquid itself, cooling it down), an open pot of