Why doesn't my meat brown properly?!


Question: Hello!
Before making a stew, I'd like to brown the meat. But if I heat up a little oil in a pot and drop the cut meat into it, after a short while the juices seem to drip out and start bubbling. The meat never gets brown, and it just sits there stewing in its own juices, and ends up tasting terrible.
What am I doing wrong, and how do I make it brown?


Answers: Hello!
Before making a stew, I'd like to brown the meat. But if I heat up a little oil in a pot and drop the cut meat into it, after a short while the juices seem to drip out and start bubbling. The meat never gets brown, and it just sits there stewing in its own juices, and ends up tasting terrible.
What am I doing wrong, and how do I make it brown?

Here are a number of things you can try.

Trim off large amounts of fat, as these will simply render (melt) while cooking and cause the meat to steam rather than brown.

Use a different pan with a different type of surface. Different types of surfaces, such as nonstick versus anodized aluminum can make meat brown faster or slower. Also different pan designs foster or hinder browning. This isn't advice to go out and buy a new pan, just try another pan. You can also increase your success by using a larger pan, as size does make some difference in this case.

Another thing is to brown meat in smaller batches. Browning too much in too small a pan will result in the meat being too close together. The meat will steam itself rather than brown. try browning the same amount that you specified in three separate batches instead of one. If there is excessive fat in the bottom of the pan, pour off a little before adding the next amount of meat.

Make sure that the meat pieces have some space between them.

Try higher heat.

Try to use less oil. Just use enough to lubricate the bottom of the pan. Too much means that the oil is heating up and giving off moisture, which will prevent good browning.

High heat is the trick. The heat sears the meat and allows it to brown as well as seals it. You have your temperature set too low to brown properly.

Try using butter instead of oil. Or dont use anything and cook it in a non stick pan... You could also try Pam.

you might be overloading your pan and putting too much meat in to brown at one time. Try not overcrowding the pan, and putting less meat in.

You need to make sure the oil is HOT. You might also want to dredge the meat in a thin coating of flour first.

Your heat isn't high enough. Also, don't crowd the pan...if you have a lot of meat, do it in two batches.

seems like your meat may be a little on the moist or wet side , try a paper towel to dry it some , or you could turn the heat up + sear it good , letting the juices evap a good bit b-4 scraping all the remaining juice + stuff into stew

Hi heat - make sure you prewarm your pan and/or burner before you add the meat. It should be around 375 F or to the point that you can drop a droplet of water from your fingertip into the hot oil and it should sizzle and make a spattering noise immediately. If the water droplet just sits there, it's not hot enough.

As the meat begins to cook, you can drain off some of the excess juice and oil - this will allow whatever is remaining to sautee faster.

Use a wide fry pan to brown meat when possible - more surface area creates a larger surface where more meat can be in contact with the heat and get overall browned faster.

Lastly, don't stir constantly - you have to give the part of the meat touching the pan long enough to darken.

You are crowding the pan with too much meat, causing it to steam rather than sear. Be sure your heat is up to med-high and pan is really hot. Add oil and then 1/2 or 1/3 of your meat. Cooking in batches will help your meat brown well so you aren't trying to explain later why the meat is gray.

like everyone says high heat, add a bit of flour to lightly coat the meat in batches. When this is done simmer the mess untill its tender yum i made stew last night





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