Jekyll2026-09-08T01:01:17+00:00https://bamr87.github.io/zer0-demo-cookbook/feed.xmlThe Sunday BraiseA small cookbook of braises, stews and slow-cooked one-pot food, with scalable quantities and timings you can trust.Nour Haddadnour@sundaybraise.exampleThe pot matters more than the recipe2026-09-08T00:59:24+00:002026-09-08T00:59:24+00:00https://bamr87.github.io/zer0-demo-cookbook/posts/the-pot-matters-more-than-the-recipePeople ask which recipe to start with. The honest answer is that the pot decides more than the recipe does.

Heavy, with a lid that actually seals

A braise wants an even, gentle heat and its own steam kept inside. Cast iron with an enamelled interior does both: the mass evens out the oven cycling, and the weight of the lid keeps the humidity in. A thin pan with a loose lid gives you scorched patches and a dry surface in the same dish.

Narrow enough that the liquid comes up

The single most common failure is a pot too wide for the amount of food. Liquid should reach roughly two thirds up the meat. In a pot that is too wide it barely covers the base, evaporates in the first hour, and the braise becomes a roast.

If your only pot is wide, use less meat rather than more liquid. Diluting a braise to fill a pot is how you get pale, watery stew.

What you can ignore

Brand, colour, and whether the handles are brass. A £40 pot with a heavy base and a tight lid outperforms a beautiful thin one every time.

]]>Nour HaddadStart with the pot, not the recipe2026-09-08T00:59:24+00:002026-09-08T00:59:24+00:00https://bamr87.github.io/zer0-demo-cookbook/posts/welcomeEvery recipe here fits the same shape: brown something, soften aromatics, add liquid, then leave it alone for a long time. Learn the shape and the recipes become variations rather than instructions.

The scaling works. Drag the servings control on any recipe and the quantities move with it, including the awkward ones — a third of an onion is still a third of an onion, and the site says so rather than rounding it away.

Times are measured, not copied. When a recipe says the shin needs three hours, it is because it needed three hours in a domestic oven at 150°C, in a pot with the lid on.

]]>Nour HaddadWhat braising actually does2026-09-08T00:59:24+00:002026-09-08T00:59:24+00:00https://bamr87.github.io/zer0-demo-cookbook/posts/what-braising-actually-doesBraising is not “slow roasting with liquid”. It is a specific transformation, and knowing which one tells you when a dish is done.

The change you are waiting for

Tough cuts are tough because of collagen. Below about 70°C collagen just sits there. Above it, given enough time in the presence of water, it converts to gelatine — which is why a shin that was rubbery at two hours is silky at three, and why the sauce thickens without any flour.

That conversion is slow and temperature-sensitive. Hotter is not faster in any useful sense: at 200°C the outside of the meat dries and tightens long before the middle has had its three hours, and you end up with strings in a thin sauce.

What that means in practice

Keep the oven at 150°C and the liquid at a bare tremble, never a boil. Keep the lid on: the point is a humid environment, not reduction. Reduce at the end, with the lid off and the meat lifted out, when you can taste what you are reducing.

And stop testing with a timer. The dish is ready when a spoon goes through the meat with no resistance — three hours is a prediction, not a rule.

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