Heston Blumenthal's secrets of slow-cooking meat

What's the best way to bring out the full flavour of meat? If you want to get those juices really flowing, you need to cook it long and slow, and with the temperature down low, says Heston Blumenthal. Your patience will be rewarded
Three slow-cooked lamb recipes

One of the most commonly heard culinary inaccuracies is that "browning meat will seal in its juices". Unfortunately, many a kitchen enthusiast takes this as gospel and is worse off for doing so. Imagine meat as a sponge; the more it is cooked, the more the fibres contract and squeeze out the juices, regardless of whether or not the meat is browned first.

This is not to say that meat shouldn't be browned. On the contrary, browning gives two benefits. It creates precious juices with which to make a sauce; and it provides flavours that we love. Browning, therefore, can be great, but it does not seal in the juices! While we're on the subject, browning is not caramelisation, but a process called the Maillard reaction, probably the most complex in cooking. At present, the food manufacturing industry can't replicate the Maillard reaction. That's why roast beef flavoured crisps never taste of roast beef.

The point of cooking meat is to bring out its flavour and to render it tender enough to eat. For cooking purposes, meat consists of, among other things, lean tissue, proteins, collagen and water (usually around 75%). Collagen exists in flesh, bone and connective tissue, and is very important to the cook because the amount of collagen in a piece of meat will determine the length of time it should be cooked for.

The important temperatures in the process of meat cookery are as follows: at 40C, proteins in meat start to denature. At 50C, collagen begins to contract. At 55C, collagen starts softening. Between 70C and 75C, the meat no longer holds oxygen and turns grey. At 100C, water in meat begins to evaporate. If meat is cooked at 100C, the pressure caused by the evaporation obliterates the meat, and any juices left in it disappear.

Therefore, the higher the level of connective tissue, the longer the meat will need to be held in the temperature range of 55C. So, when cooking meat, you will first need to decide whether or not it has a high amount of connective tissue.

All cuts of meat that have had to do some work - oxtail, shin and shoulder, for example - will have more connective tissue, and require long, slow cooking. Leaner cuts, such as steaks and chops, require less time at this temperature, although they still benefit from slow cooking.

Which brings me to the two most valuable pieces of kitchen equipment, both thermometers, and neither of which will break the bank. An oven thermometer will give the temperature of your oven and not the temperature that it has been set to. The second thermometer is a meat probe with a digital read-out. Stick it into the meat and it will tell you exactly whether it is underdone, done or overdone. It will make your cooking life so much easier.

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