From hearty soups to festive pot roasts, home cooks can employ these three toasty cooking techniques to make winter a season of warmth.

Braising entails cooking in a small amount of liquid with a low, moist heat in order to transform food — usually large cuts of meat — into meltingly tender, caramelized and flavorful dishes. This is an ideal technique for hearty dishes like pot roasts. Begin by pan searing meat or vegetables at a high temperature and then slow cook in liquid (try wine, broth, coconut milk or beer) inside a covered pot until ingredients become tender. The results are deeply satisfying: layers of flavor are created when browned bits from the seared meat enrich the cooking liquid, allowing the thick sauce to become a heavy blend of meat juices, sweet vegetables and/or fragrant aromatics. Tip: Meat isn’t always the star of braising. Try braising bell peppers; the process draws out their strong flavor over time.

Slow cooking is an advantage for the busy cook since much of the time is hands off as the dish, set to low for a full day of cooking, requires very little preparation or attention. By day’s end, a home-cooked meal sits ready and waiting. Using this method, food is cooked slowly over a long period of time (typically between 4–8 hours) in a round, covered pot on the stovetop, in the oven or in a countertop electric slow cooker. The food simmers on low heat and cooks evenly while retaining moisture. Through this hours-long cooking method, flavors are gradually, yet deeply, infused. Tip: Place whole unpeeled garlic cloves into the pot at the start of the slow cooking, to impart a mildly nutty taste.

Simmering refers to cooking in liquid at a temperature slightly below the boiling point, around 180–190 degrees F. It’s more gentle but trickier than boiling because it requires close attention to the temperature so the surface of the liquid only bubbles slightly, with a bubble coming up every few seconds, never quite reaching a boil. This method cooks food gently and slowly. Fragile foods, such as fish, are poached at or slightly below simmer to prevent the delicate protein from breaking apart. Simmering works on all cuts of meat and helps the protein remain moist and fork-tender. Cook the meat low and slow with an assortment of vegetables and seasonings. Stocks can be simmered so the fat and proteins released by the meat or bones float to the top, where they can then be skimmed off. Tough, fibrous root vegetables like potatoes and turnips are best when simmered, so they cook evenly throughout. Tip: For an unexpected flavor, add red wine or balsamic vinegar to the cooking liquid and then continue to simmer, which will subdue the vinegar’s “bite.’”