The Pot Roast Thread

[Jenise]

These recipes all look great and they are particularly interesting to me because in my house Pot Roast meant brisket.
Take about a 4 pound brisket and season well with salt, pepper and paprika. Then lightly coat with flour.
Brown the meat in olive oil in a heavy pot.
Saute at least 6 to 8 large onions in a separate pan until limp. (If you're lazy they can just be thrown in the pot)
Add one envelope of onion soup mix (the kind you make a dip out of.)
Add about a cup of water.
Cook slowly for about 2 hours with the lid on and onions above and below the meat. Add water if necessary. The onions should become a gravy.

Now the important part:

When cooked, let the roast cool and then put in the refrigerator for a day.
Take the meat out and slice it. Put back into the gravy.
Let sit in the gravy for another day in the refrigerator.
Reheat on the stove or in the oven, basting with the gravy, and serve.

This is very simple, unsophisticated, etc, but tender and delicious. Add some favorite vegetables, possibly potato pancakes and a good, substantial wine and you won't regret it.

Tender and delicious is very sophisticated--but I understand what you mean re the Liptons Soup. Btw, I've never used that for anything but a dip, but last week at a Whole Foods Market in Seattle we fell for some brisket they had on the hot food line and it clearly had been seasoned with onion soup mix. And though I tend to be one who shuns such shortcuts, there was nothing not to love about that brisket--they gave me a sample and then I just HAD to have it for my lunch.

Just got back from the market. The guy behind the meat counter said that the big bone on the side is "half" of the bone that is shaped like a "7" and that they cut right through it. "This is the way they come in," he said. So that leads me to think he's not really certain.

In looking at Karen's photo, I'm pretty sure he was wrong. I think mine is basically the same roast as Karen's but without the "7" at all. See photos below. It looks to me like the bone on mine is the same bone on the edge of Karen's roast and that they cut the 7 bone off of the other side completely. Does that make sense? Making it tonight...the Porcinin version. And it's a perfect Autumn day for it. Yum!
FWIW, It is labeled "Angus Beef Chuck Roast - Bone In. USDA Choice." It also has a gold sticker on the side that simply says, "POT ROAST."

7 BONE 2.jpg

7 BONE 3.jpg

It looks like a nice cut of meat Carrie...at least it has the bone, or a part of it. I think that meats for this application taste better when cooked bone-in. If I can possibly get most meats with the bone in, when applicable, I prefer it.

[Jenise]

Just got back from the market. The guy behind the meat counter said that the big bone on the side is "half" of the bone that is shaped like a "7" and that they cut right through it. "This is the way they come in," he said. So that leads me to think he's not really certain.

In looking at Karen's photo, I'm pretty sure he was wrong. I think mine is basically the same roast as Karen's but without the "7" at all. See photos below. It looks to me like the bone on mine is the same bone on the edge of Karen's roast and that they cut the 7 bone off of the other side completely. Does that make sense? Making it tonight...the Porcinin version. And it's a perfect Autumn day for it. Yum!
FWIW, It is labeled "Angus Beef Chuck Roast - Bone In. USDA Choice." It also has a gold sticker on the side that simply says, "POT ROAST."

7 BONE 2.jpg

7 BONE 3.jpg

How weird but yes, you've got it right. That's a 7 bone without the 7 bone!

[Jenise]

IMG_4814.JPG

So last night, pot roast #2. In this one I was chasing the dim memory of what my mother used to make, and 'dim' because it was one of my least favorite meals due to the well-done beef, which as a child I detested, and contaminating flavor of onions which roasted with everything else. The only two meals I dreaded more were meat loaf and my mother's version of 'swiss steak'. I was probably only10 or 12 the last time she made it, as illness caused her to lose interest in cooking around then.

Anyway, what I remember were dry-roasted (not braised) meat and roasted vegetables. So I decided to pan-sear the meat with nothing more than salt and pepper, then pop it covered into a slow 275 oven for two hours of roasting before uncovering, adding in the vegetables and turning up the heat. I removed most of the fat in the pan at that mid-way point, leaving just enough to coat the veggies, and wrapped the beef in foil to keep it moist. It baked close to another hour before serving.

I toyed with making a gravy, I really did--that would have kept it true to Mom's method. And we both ended up wishing I had, if just a drizzle of intense meat-fat flavor and not the ladles-full that would have been my family standard, although the plate wasn't dry because I made a fresh sauce of marinated raw onions and parsley for a refreshing, contrasting topping (not shown). But otherwise, it was great--the exterior of the pot roast had a very crusty crunch to it (which is just what I wanted--it's what I remember being the best part), and though the meat itself was chewier than what most people would call pot roast, and which surprised Bob as he's never had anything like that, he allowed that he would happily eat it that way again.

So, next I'm going to make one of the recipes the rest of you have posted.

BOEUF ‘A LA MODE:

4 lbs Top or bottom round roast
Salt and pepper
¼ C Brandy (warmed)
1 C Dry red wine
1 C Beef stock or bouillon
8 oz Frozen pearl onions (half bag)
6-8 Carrots peeled and sliced
2 T Butter
1 ½ T Cornstarch
2 T Water
Crock Pot

Slice fat off of beef with boning knife. Render it in a large cast iron skillet, and discard. Rub salt and pepper into meat and brown it on all sides in skillet. Move meat to crock pot. Warm and light brandy and pour over meat. Add wine and stock. Cook on low for eight or nine hours. Thaw out onions on a paper towel, and add peeled and sliced carrots to them. At the three or three and half hour point melt butter in skillet and deglaze it. Brown the veggies in it, and add to meat. Turn heat up to high for half an hour to regain lost heat and return heat to low. When all is done, remove and separate meat and veggies. Put meat back in pot and keep veggies warm; after putting liquids in saucepan, and reducing it to two cups. Add cornstarch dissolved in water off heat, and bring back to boil. Add to meat until ready to eat. Remove meat and slice, and remove sauce to gravy boat. Serve with veggies, and roasted or mashed potatoes

Okay, now I'm curious about Jenise's dry, slow-roast method. May have to try that soon. Also very curious about Carl's Top or Bottom Round Roast. Have never had or made either of those. I'm assuming they are leaner than chuck...?

Okay, here are my photos. The roast was very good, nicely flavored and tender. However, the way it was cut was weird. Apparently some of the bones had been sawed through because there were quite a few pieces of bone (an inch or so each) that ended up in the sauce, which I did not strain due to the wild mushrooms in it. Looking forward to getting back to CA where I can get a true 7 Bone!

Seared off.jpg

Sweating the savories.jpg

Finished with the braise.jpg

Ready to eat.jpg

Yum, I could have grabbed that right out of my computer screen to eat.

[Jenise]

So here's what I did with the leftovers of the dry pot roast. The fond in the bottom of the pan, with most of the fat removed, became French Onion soup and provided two delightful lunches later in the week. The leftover meat got torn into large bite-sized hunks and simmered briefly in a gravy made from thickened beef broth with a few cubes of homemade demiglace thrown in for richness, then combined with carrots and mushrooms cooked separately, and scooped into some slightly overbaked free-form pastry 'cups'.

That's what's shown here:

IMG_4841.JPG

So here's what I did with the leftovers of the dry pot roast...The leftover meat got torn into large bite-sized hunks and simmered briefly in a gravy made from thickened beef broth with a few cubes of homemade demiglace thrown in for richness, then combined with carrots and mushrooms cooked separately, and scooped into some slightly overbaked free-form 'cups'.

That looks delicious.