Braise

Part of speech: verb

Pronunciation: /bɹeɪz/

Definitions

1. To cook meat or vegetables slowly in a small amount of liquid in a covered pot until tender
2. To gently cook food by simmering it in a small amount of liquid within a covered pot until it becomes tender and flavorful
3. To slowly cook food in a covered pot with a small amount of liquid, resulting in tenderness and rich flavors

Etymology: The verb comes from French "braiser", which means to cook meat in a closed pot with a little liquid and hot coals heaped on the lid. The French noun it grew from, "braise", meant "live coals" or embers, and it passed into French from Old French "brese", which was borrowed from a Germanic source in the Low Countries. So the cooking method is named after the fire rather than the food: the pot was cooked over glowing coals, and the word for those coals became the word for the technique. The Germanic ancestry is clearer in related Scandinavian words. Norwegian and Swedish "braseld" means a sparkling, crackling fire, and dialect verbs such as Swedish "brasa" meant to roast or flame up. Icelandic "brasa" meant to harden something by fire. These words all point back to a sense of crackling heat and glowing coal, a meaning that stayed close to the original idea of fire.

Synonyms: simmer, stew

Antonyms: boil