Alternatives to browning meat for stew or chili

[BrainGlutton]

Sunset’s Easy Basics for Good Cooking has a recipe for “Springtime Lamb Stew” with an unusual beginning (came out pretty good when I made it):

To make this good-looking party stew, we’ve used an innovative French technique that calls for some new rules. As a first step, instead of browning the meat in oil, you “sweat” out the meat’s natural juices. Next you boil the juices away, then you neatly brown the meat in the rendered drippings. This technique turns out tender braised meat accompanied by a silken sauce.

<snip>

Place meat [3 lbs. lamb in 1-2-inch chunks] in a 5 or 6-quart Dutch oven. Stir in soy sauce [2 tablespoons]. Cover and bring to a boil over medium heat; reduce heat and let simmer in its accumulated juices for 30 minutes. Remove lid and turn heat to high to boil juices down completely (about 10 minutes). When meat starts to sizzle in its own fat, stir frequently until meat is richly browned.

Then you add the other ingredients, including wine and chicken broth; the vegetables are laid across the top for cooking. Whipping cream and mustard are added to the “sauce” (not, N.B., denominated as “broth” nor “gravy”) at the end after removing other ingredients with a slotted spoon. Notice they didn’t call this Irish stew, and whether it is is debatable. (The “French technique” probably has a name, but the cookbook does not mention it.)

Makes me wonder how this technique (at least as far as the treatment of the meat goes) would work for beef/pork/whatever in a chili. I always start out by sauteeing the onion and garlic (and sometimes the peppers) in olive oil or bacon grease, then add the meat and brown it, and only then any liquid ingredients (water, beef stock, beer, tomato sauce, whatever). I’ve never read a chili recipe which prescribes a different approach.

Well, except for Cincinatti chili – which is made with finely ground beef, boiled, not browned. But Cincinatti chili is meant and served as a spaghetti sauce, so I guess you would want meat with a different texture.

Any other ideas?

[BrainGlutton]

@BrainGlutton

(The “French technique” probably has a name, but the cookbook does not mention it.)

Does anybody know it? (I presume it’s something other and even more French than just the word “braising.”)

[Manduck]

I’ve used that technique by accident a few times. Put to much meat in the pan and it starts to boil instead of browning. “oh well”, I think, “I’ll just wait for the liquid to boil off and then it will brown”. I never thought of it as an advanced technique, just a mistake. And I’m not even French.