Dry Heat Cookery

Direct vs Indirect heat

With direct heat cooking methods, large amounts of heat are transmitted to the cooked items from one direction. With indirect heat, a fluid substance such as air, or an oil/water/alcohol based liquid is heated, and the items to be cooked are placed in an enclosed space with that substance. Though boiling and steaming for example can fall under this umbrella, they are not dry heat cooking methods so they'll be excluded from this article. I'm also going to exclude smoking from this article, because it differs significantly from other classic dry heat cooking methods. (It should get it's own article)

Basic types of dry heat cookery

Indirect Dry Heat Methods:

• Deep Fat Frying: Items are placed in a container of fat heated to somewhere in the neighborhood of 300 and 400 degrees.
• Roasting: Items are usually placed uncovered in an oven with no water based liquid added to aid cooking. This is usually done between 325 and 425 degrees.

Direct Dry Heat Methods:

• Sauteing: Items are cooked over high heat in a pan on the stove top, with a small amount of fat added
• Sweating: Items are cooked over low-medium heat in a pan on the stove top, with a small amount of fat added
• Pan Frying: Items are cooked over medium heat in a pan on the stove top, larger amount of fat added. Also called shallow frying.
• Pan Broiling: Items, usually steaks, are cooked over high heat in a pan on the stove top with no fat added
• Grilling: Items are placed on a metal rack above a moderately intense to extremely intense heat source.
• Broiling: Basically it's upside down grilling. Items are placed on a pan or rack, under moderately intense to extremely intense heat source. The heat commercial salamander (broiler) can reach upwards of 2000F!

How to determine if dry heat cookery is appropriate for your cut of meat

Though most modern farm raised meat animals live a fairly sedentary life, and are therefore more tender (though less flavorful) than their barnyard counterparts, there are still some parts of some animals that are not appropriate for dry heat cooking (except for smoking). This is primarily due to the presence of the connective tissue collagen (yes, that collagen) which when slowly cooked for a long period of time breaks down into soft, rich gelatin. This is why the beef in beef stew is so tender and has such a soft velvety mouth feel. If you were to take that same package of stew meat and attempt to cook it on the grill, it would be almost inedibly tough. Ideally, you'll want to grill the cut with the smallest amount of collagen, while having the highest amount of intramuscular fat available. For hoofed animals, a good guideline is to pick meat as far away from the hooves as you can. The most tender (but not the most flavorful) part of most pigs and cows is of course, the tenderloin.

Practical Usage

Deep Fat Frying or Deep Frying

If you've got a deep fryer, this is almost a no brainer. If you don't have a deep fryer, a dutch oven or heavy commercial pot paired with a fry thermometer will do.

If done correctly, deep fried food is not greasy or heavy, and can be moderately healthy. Greasy deep fried food can be attributed in it's entirety to the person working the basket.

When food is dropped into a deep fryer, the hot oil should boil the liquid on the surface of the food creating a small layer of steam around the surface of the food. If the oil was not allowed to come up to temperature, or too much food was dropped in at one time, the oil temperature surrounding the food drops to the point where it can't maintain the steam layer, and the oil soaks right in.

Choosing the appropriate temperature is an important step. One's immediate tendency might be to crank up the heat for things that are frozen or unusually large. This is the opposite of what you should do. If the outside is heavily browned and the center is still raw, you've got a problem on your hands. Use a higher temperature for smaller quickly cooked things so the outside can crisp up by the time the inside is done, and use a lower temperature for frozen or large things, where the internal temperature is going to need a lot longer to come up.

Always remove excess surface fat from your deep fried items by draining them on a rack or paper towel immediately after they've come out of the fryer. Season immediately.

This is also one of the most dangerous cooking methods dropping any significant amount of water (or ice) into a container of hot oil is usually enough to get the oil to atomize. Atomized oil is extremely combustible and if it comes in contact with the flame or element from your stove, your entire kitchen (and you) could be engulfed in flames in a matter of seconds. If you have *any* flare ups while deep frying, quickly grab a kitchen towel large enough to cover the pan, run it under the faucet, wring it out, and cover the pot with it. If some oil bubbles over the side (shame on you for overfilling) and ignites, dump salt or baking soda (NOT FLOUR!) on it, and it will go out instantly.

Roasting

To roast things you generally need an oven, and a pan to roast your things. The temperature and amount of time that something needs to be roasted varies as much as the shape, size, density and water content of things that can be roasted. The general sloppy rule is "When in doubt, cook at 350". Vegetables tossed in oil can usually be roasted at 400-425 depending on the thickness, and the vegetable. Large roasts are often cooked at a very high temperature (over 400 degrees) for 15 or 20 minutes to create a nice crust, and then the temperature is lowered to 325-375 t cook all the way through. In this case, I *highly* recommend using a remote thermometer with a temperature alarm in the meat. Time/Weight ratios are a rough approximation at best. Don't trust them.

Sauteing

To saute something, you need need a pan, a few tablespoons of fat, and a hot burner. You generally heat the pan, before it's blazingly hot add your oil, and when the oil appears to be significantly less viscous than what's in the bottle, and starts to 'ripple' slightly, add the items you need to cook. The purpose of sauteing something is to expose the surface area of your food item to the extremely hot, oiled surface of the pan triggering browning (caramelization or the maillard rection depending on the food.) If there is any water based liquid present in the pan, it will dissipate the heat, and the food will steam instead of brown. This is generally not a desirable substitute to browning. The amount of time things are cooked for varies greatly.

Sweating

Sweating is exactly like sauteing, except you're trying to heat the food through without browning it. If you've ever seen an instruction in a recipe to cook onions until they were translucent, or cook garlic until it was fragrant but not browned, this is what they wanted you to do.

Pan Frying

To pan fry something you need a high sided skillet or a saute pan, a significant amount of oil (enough to come up 1/2-1/3 of the way up the sides of what you are cooking). Unlike sauteing, there is enough oil in the pan to dissipate the heat significantly more effectively, and therefore cook things more evenly. Unlike deep frying, the heat is still directional, and your pan fried item will need a flip. Generally, pan frying is used to cook thinly cut vegetables and thinly cut or pounded meats which have been dredged in flour, or breaded (anglaised in French cooking). Although you don't have nearly as much heat coming into contact with the food as you do with sauteed food, you're limited by the amount of time the breading can take in the hot oil. A good example of this

Pan Broiling

What you need to pan broil is a nice heavy pan, and a piece of food, usually steak. You'll want to get the pan extremely hot, and carefully place the steak in the center. It's going to stick, don't panic, just wait for it to sear completely on that side and it should release with almost no prying/scraping, and there should be no damage to the meat. Generally, sauteing is more convenient than pan broiling.

Grilling

Many books are written every year about grilling. There are almost as many opinions about the proper way to grill as there are people who cook on the grill. Generally, grilling involves preparing the food by cutting it to an appropriate size/thickness, often marinating or brining ingredients, often tossing or brushing with oil (less common with red meats), igniting your fuel source and heating up the grill, and placing the food over the heat. Some cooks prefer to turn the food 45 or 90 degrees a couple of minutes into the cooking to create crosshatched grill marks. Doneness of grilled protein items should be calculated using internal temperature. Sticking can often be avoided by a) having clean, properly seasoned grills, b) having impeccably clean unseasoned grills, and/or c) using an appropriate amount of oil or pan release on the food/grill.

With outdoor grilling, there are several options for fuel sources. The most common fuel source because of convenience and consistency is propane. Propane grills are quick and easy to light and warm up and can hold a fairly consistent temperature without much effort, but are generally expensive and lack the flavor of charcoal. The second most common fuel is briquette charcoal which is usually chosen over gas and lump charcoal because of it's convenience, price and availability. Briquette charcoal is a mixture of ground hardwood charcoal with waxes and other compounds to aid in lighting, binding, and consistent burning. The waxes and other components of briquette charcoal impart a distinct flavor on food that some people find objectionable (though many people assume they disliking charcoal cooked food in general, when what they dislike is the burnt chemical solvent flavor imparted as a result of the gross misuse of lighter fluid. Sure it's fun to play with it... play with it on your own food.) A fuel source which is gaining popularity amongst both chefs and home cooks is whole lump charcoal, free of waxes, fuels and binders. It's valued for the clean smoky flavor that it imparts as well as the intensity of the heat.

Broiling To broil something, you simply need a pan that can withstand such heat, and some sort of broiling device. You would use a broiler to cook quickly cooked items such as thin cuts of fish, or use it to brown items such as oysters rockerfeller, or the cheese on top of a casserole. This should not be left unattended while under the broiler.