Before the Heat: Twelve Ways Cooks Prepare Meat and Seafood

Dry aging hangs whole cuts of beef in a controlled environment for several weeks, where moisture loss concentrates flavor and enzymes tenderize the meat. A typical fifteen to twenty-eight day period can cost a third or more of the weight, one reason the beef is costly.

Filleting removes the bones to give a boneless cut. For fish the knife runs parallel to the backbone to yield two fillets, and for meat the word often names a whole muscle such as beef tenderloin.

Spatchcocking cuts out the backbone of a small bird so it presses flat, which lets heat reach every part evenly and shortens the cooking time compared with roasting the bird whole.

Shucking opens a bivalve such as an oyster by working a short, thick-bladed knife into the hinge to sever the adductor muscle. Heavy gloves are common because the blade can slip.

Larding threads thin strips of chilled pork fat through the inside of a lean cut with a larding needle. It began in medieval Europe as a way to add fat to lean wild game.

Barding wraps fat such as bacon or pork fat around the outside of a lean cut so it bastes the meat as it melts. It differs from larding, which works inside the cut, and is often removed late so the meat can brown.

Marination soaks food in a seasoned liquid for seconds to days. Acid or enzymes from ingredients such as pineapple or yogurt soften the surface, though too long in a strong acid can damage it.

Stuffing fills a cavity in poultry, seafood or vegetables with a mixture often based on bread and herbs. The earliest documented recipes appear in the Roman cookbook attributed to Apicius.

Breading coats food in crumbs or seasoned flour, often over an egg or buttermilk layer so it sticks. It gives fried foods such as tonkatsu and schnitzel a crisp exterior.

Jugging stews a whole animal, usually game or fish, in a tightly covered vessel. Jugged hare, cooked with red wine in a jug set in a water bath, appears in Hannah Glasse's 1747 cookbook.

Rendering melts raw animal fat into a shelf-stable cooking fat such as lard, tallow or schmaltz, leaving a solid protein byproduct behind once the fat is strained away.

Degreasing removes fat from pan drippings, stocks and sauces with a ladle or a degreasing cup, or by chilling the liquid so the fat solidifies and can be lifted off.