The Pot Roast Thread

[Jenise]

In the What's Cooking? thread, Jo Ann got us all salivating over the idea of pot roast yesterday so tonight a couple of us are making one for dinner.

Bob and I got to talking about our own histories with this storied American Sunday meal on the way to the store this morning. For him, it was a favorite meal at his grandmother's house: potatoes, carrots and onions were roasted alongside the meat. Pretty much like at our house. But for me, not a favorite at all: my fussy childhood self basically detested well done beef of any kind, and I hated onions even more. My favorite part was the potatoes. Bob asked if ours had gravy, and I'm sure it did but I can't remember that part: didn't like gravy either!

Now of course, it all sounds entirely wonderful.

The cut my mother always used was the 7-bone roast and it would be about three inches thick to ensure enough to feed our family of six. I couldn't find a 7-bone this morning but I only went to one store--I so rarely see chuck blades around here that I figured it was futile to even try to find one. But for yucks just now, I decided to call a few stores and see if I'd have lucked into something had I looked. That was a uniform 'no', but Fred Meyer (Kroger chain) did say he'd had some over the weekend and has a standing order for it every Thursday that doesn't always come in. Most importantly, he explained why it's getting harder to find: processors don't like them because they're heavier to ship with the bone in, and any cut bone-in has a shorter shelf life because the bone is where the bacteria lives. Add to that the fact that fewer households these days appreciate or even know what to do with these fatty, long-cooked granny cuts, as we here would know, and the 7-Bone is all but doomed unless you happen to live in an area with a strong regional preference for it. Get 'em while you can.

Speaking of blade cuts, anyone else a fan of the thinner cut of the 7-bone, usually called Chuck Blade Steak? I love that cut! Chewy, but oustanding flavor and an interesting twist for a summer barbecue--used to be so cheap at under $2 a pound on sale that one could do a huge pile of beef for a crowd for virtually nothing. The steaks tear apart along the gristle and bone lines into 4 or 5 personal sized portions that take well to a strong marinade (a combination of worcestershire sauce, mustard, sherry and garlic is quite worthy) and eating out of hand, like spare ribs. Yowza!

Not sure yet if I'll go for a nostalgic version that speaks to both of our childhoods, or give it the Chez J treatment, but we'll see. Might just open a nice syrah to talk about on the wine side, too.

Mmmmmm...

Pot roast! I'm fortunate in that I can still get a 7 bone roast at my local butcher. That's my favorite as well.

And here are my "secret ingredients" for additional Mmmness:

1 Tbsp tomato paste (Amore preferred)
1 Tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
1 anchovy (oil packed) you won't taste any fish, promise

And 275º for about 3 and a half to 4 hours. Killer.

Gene picked up a bone-in 7 bone chuck roast this morning at a little mom and pop store. The store had a good supply of them and they are beautiful. I will cook mine tomorrow night because I already had dinner prep going when I saw Jenise's post.

Shoot, I got too busy today to think about a braised dish for tonight's dinner. Will make one next week as our best friends will be visiting from CA and they love my 7-bone pot roast. Jenise, thanks for sharing all of your day's research on the roast. I will make some calls before next week to be sure I can secure one!
P.S. Mine is the one like Bob's with carrots, potatoes and onions and gravy (the best part). I was partial to a recipe for awhile that I found on epicurious that included fresh ginger. You couldn't really tell what the "secret" ingredient was but it sure made it special.

[Jenise]

Carrie, that ginger does sound interesting!

And to you, Karen, Fred and anyone else who suddenly gets the jones: no rush.

My pot roast is in the oven. I decided that it's really too lean (need that 7-bone) to go nostalgic and do it the old-fashioned way, so I'm going to initially braise this little guy for tonight and call my new friend at Fred Meyer on Thursday in hopes that they got the 7 bones in. Hopefully, I can get to him before he cuts that thinner than I'd like it (the Fred Meyer stores up here tend to cut all meats thinner than what I'd consider typical in an attempt, I'm guessing, to make people feel like their money goes further at Freddie's).

I almost always get a bone-in chuck (I don't know what a "7-bone" is. Roaster pan with wine, then the meat and carrots and onions on top. Roast at 300 for about 3-4 hours, adding the potatoes and moving the meat above the veggies for the past 90 minutes. However, I made one about 2 weeks ago and the local grocery store was selling sirloin tips roasts for about 30 cents/lb. less than chuck, which didn't make sense to me, so I tried it, cutting it into slabs 2-3 inches thick. I was afraid it would be tough, but it was very tender and tasty. I don't make gravy until the next day, when I chop up the meat and veggies, add peas and turn all the leftovers into beef stew.

I don't know what a "7-bone" is...

Howie, I didn't know what it was either but with the magical power of the interwebs was able to find out that it is called a 7-bone roast because the shape of the bone in the roast is actually shaped like a seven, not that it truly has seven bones in it. Hope that helps.

Okay, here are my two favorite Pot Roast recipes. The one with the Ginger and one I made up that uses Porcini.

(From Epicurious)
Gordon's Pot Roast Gourmet | November 1998

Yield: Serves 4 to 6

1 medium onion
3 garlic cloves
3/4 pound carrots
1/2 pound parsnips
1/2 pound turnips
6 ounces mushrooms
a 3-inch piece fresh gingerroot
a 28- to 32-ounce can whole tomatoes
a 3-pound boneless beef chuck roast
2 tablespoons olive oil
3/4 cup Tawny Port
3/4 cup dry red wine
2 cups beef or chicken broth
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon packed brown sugar
3 bay leaves
1 teaspoon dried thyme, crumbled
1 teaspoon dried oregano, crumbled
3 tablespoons cornstarch
3 tablespoons water

Chop onion and mince garlic. Peel carrots and parsnips and diagonally cut into 3/4-inch-thick slices. Peel turnips and cut into 3/4-inch-thick wedges. Cut mushrooms into 1/2-inch-thick slices. Peel gingerroot and mince enough to measure 1/4 cup. Drain tomatoes and chop.

Pat chuck roast dry and season with salt and pepper. In a 5-quart heavy kettle heat oil over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking and brown roast on all sides. Transfer roast to a plate and pour off all but 1 tablespoon fat from kettle. Add onion to kettle and cook over moderate heat, stirring, until golden. Add garlic and cook, stirring, 1 minute. Add Port and red wine and simmer, scraping up any brown bits on bottom of kettle, 5 minutes. Stir in broth, Worcestershire sauce, brown sugar, gingerroot, tomatoes, bay leaves, thyme, and oregano and bring mixture to a boil. Add roast, carrots, parsnips, turnips, and mushrooms and simmer, covered, turning roast over halfway through cooking time, 3 hours total, or until tender. Pot roast may be made up to this point 3 days ahead. Cool roast, uncovered, before chilling, covered, and remove any solidified fat before reheating.

Transfer roast with tongs to a cutting board and let stand 10 minutes. If necessary skim fat from cooking liquid and bring cooking liquid and vegetables to a boil over moderate heat. In a small bowl stir together cornstarch and water until smooth and stir enough into sauce to thicken to desired consistency. Simmer sauce, stirring occasionally, 2 minutes.

Cut roast crosswise into 1/2-inch-thick slices and arrange on a deep platter. Spoon vegetables and sauce over meat.

Read More http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/ ... z28oDF6CV5
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Carrie’s Favorite Pot Roast
(Disregard the "pedestrian" remarks below. I typed this out for a friend of mine who has ZERO experience in cooking or shopping for food.)

One 6-8 pound chuck roast (Preferably a “7 bone”)
2 medium brown onions, sliced
1 shallot, sliced (looks like small purple onion)
4 garlic cloves minced
1 pkg sliced or halved baby bella mushrooms
1 heaping tsp Beef “Better than” Bouillon (little jar on soup aisle)
1 cup red wine
1 ½ cups porcini liquor (porcini mushrooms optional)
1 cup water
1 TBSP olive oil
2 TBSPs corn starch
½ cup water

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
Rinse, dry and generously season roast with kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper. (About 1 tsp of salt and ½ tsp of pepper per side)
Set a dutch oven over medium high heat and add the olive oil when hot. Sear each side of the roast until very brown.
Remove roast and set aside.
Add onions, shallots, garlic and mushrooms. Sautee until a little limp. Add wet ingredients and bouillon and bring to a boil. Add roast to pot, cover with some of the vegetables.
Cover and place in oven. After an hour and a half, flip roast, and add whole peeled carrots if desired.
Roast another hour, then remove lid and roast another half hour until it gets really brown and is falling off of bones.
Move roast and carrots to a platter. Cover with foil to keep warm.
Make a slurry of the corn starch and water. Add to pot and bring to a boil. Whisk or stir until it thickens. Check seasonings. Add additional salt and pepper if necessary.
Serve over beef and mashed potatoes.

About the porcini liquor… buy a bag of dehydrated porcini mushrooms in produce section.) Put a large cup of water in the microwave and bring to a boil. Remove and pour half of the dried mushrooms in, and stir them. Cover with something. Let steep for about 20 minutes. When you remove the mushrooms, that’s the liquor. It needs to be poured through a coffee filter before using though because the mushrooms are really “silty.”
You can omit this and just use water if you don’t want to bother with this. It’ll probably be just as good.

[Jenise]

So last night's pot roast. Chuck roast braised simply in beef broth and white vermouth plated with mashed potatoes, roasted torpedo onions, a gravy made from defatted braising broth finished with fresh chanterelle mushrooms and a little cream, and a topping of diced torpedo onions marinated all afternoon in red wine vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper.

IMG_4786.JPG

So last night's pot roast. Chuck roast braised simply in beef broth and white vermouth plated with mashed potatoes, roasted torpedo onions, a gravy made from defatted braising broth finished with fresh chanterelle mushrooms and a little cream, and a topping of diced torpedo onions marinated all afternoon in red wine vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper.

IMG_4786.JPG

Wow, major yum. I have never seen torpedo onions. Are they from a farmer's market? I'll have to look for them.

[Jenise]

These are local and very fresh/current crop; I had never seen them before I moved up here. Don't know if they're 'new' or been here but only here for awhile. Love them though! I'll take a picture later of what they look like in skin, and post that for you.

Wow, beautiful picture, Jenise.
Nice to see variations on the theme. I have used all the herbs and vegetables in the Epicurious recipe Carrie posted, but not all in one pot. It's usually the veggies I have on hand, which will always be two or three of those listed -- always a bit of red wine (white if red is not in the house), about a tablespoon of tomato paste, always a bay leaf, some thyme, lots of onions, one clove of garlic and always potatoes, least my family will riot! Pot roast is always comforting, especially when served with a slice of cornbread (more like a sliver for my taste). Yum!

Torpedo onions are not new. But their season is very short. We had them at the Farmer's Market about 3 weeks ago. I love them, especially when picked smaller. I like what Jenise did with hers....roasting them to feature as a vegetable on the plated dish. Very nice. I like to marinate my onions too. The smaller ones are very good in salads and make a pretty presentation. I usually buy a bunch of them in all sizes and hate it when they are gone.
Another onion that I love and don't know what they are called. They are about golf ball size, red and sold in bunches of about 3 to 4. Sometimes they are labeled BBQ onions. I make an X slit on the root end, then marinate in evoo, vinegar, garlic, S & P all day. We grill them along side a steak. They are served with the stem intact. Excellent yummyness.

The pot roast turned out very tasty. The meat was tender and moist. I used traditional ingredinets. This had a can of plum tomatoes, carrots, celery,leeks, onion, garlic, red wine, brandy, fresh rosemary, thyme, and home made chicken stock. I took half the liquid and veggies and ran them through the blender. This thickened the gravey. It was served with Yukon Gold potatoes, mashed with garlic chives. I roased some carrots with fresh thyme and rosemary to serve as a side.

The pot roast turned out very tasty. The meat was tender and moist. I used traditional ingredinets. This had a can of plum tomatoes, carrots, celery,leeks, onion, garlic, red wine, brandy, fresh rosemary, thyme, and home made chicken stock. I took half the liquid and veggies and ran them through the blender. This thickened the gravey. It was served with Yukon Gold potatoes, mashed with garlic chives. I roased some carrots with fresh thyme and rosemary to serve as a side.

Oh my goodness, YES, that looks incredible.
Will post photos of mine next week after I make it. It'll probably be Tues or Wed.

[Jenise]

Another onion that I love and don't know what they are called. They are about golf ball size, red and sold in bunches of about 3 to 4. Sometimes they are labeled BBQ onions. I make an X slit on the root end, then marinate in evoo, vinegar, garlic, S & P all day. We grill them along side a steak. They are served with the stem intact. Excellent yummyness.

We see them up here as spring onions. Basically, they're just the large onions we all enjoy all winter long picked young--we see both red and white varieties. We barbecue them also.

We see them up here as spring onions. Basically, they're just the large onions we all enjoy all winter long picked young--we see both red and white varieties. We barbecue them also.

Yes, that makes sense. They come out in early spring and only for two weeks or so. I love it when the grower's pick the produce young. There is just something about those babies that taste wonderful and make such a pretty presentation. Folks who are not into food just don't get to see the young produce and are often awed by it.

[Jenise]

Karen, your roast is gorgeous. Interesting how many of you use canned tomatoes in your dish. I'm going to sound blissfully ignorant, or at least a lot like my grandmother , in saying "I've never heard of that". But it's true--outside of what my mother, grandmother and Huntington Beach neighbor-friend Stella, nobody else has ever ever made pot roast for me and none of those versions involved tomatoes. I'd love it, of course; it's just not what I think of when I think of pot roast. Mom and Grammy made it dry, not braised, and Stella braised hers with coffee, a recipe she learned from the not-yet-famous Heloise when both were Army wives on the same Hawaiian Army base decades ago.

Anyway, Freddie's came thru and I now have a real 7-bone for tomorrow night.

Hmmm...just had a memory flash of my mother browning the pot roast in the aluminum pot she inherited from her great granny (and which I still have). I have that memory and the memory of the finished meat coming out of the oven with the roasted potatoes, onions and carrots in the same big glass dish, no liquid of course or the vegetables wouldn't roast. Maybe what I'm NOT remembering is her braising it on the stove top to half-way cooked, then removing it to the dish to roast with the vegetables until done. Could be, that would give it time to get real crusty, as I remember the texture being (hence my description 'dry').

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.

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.

My Mom's version always had Lipton Onion Soup, as did most everything she made. But she used a chuck roast and that dreaded pressure cooker.

I'm having a heck of a time locating a 7-bone roast.
First went into our town's largest market (Harris Teeter) and the meat manager looked at me like I had two heads when I asked about a 7 bone. She said she'd look it up in her book and call me back. (Someone else from her department did end up calling back and saying that they don't have the 7-bone, per se, but do have a bone-in roast that includes the cut that you'd get in the 7-bone (?), so that's what I will go for. We will see! I'll take a photo raw for comparison purposes.)
In the time before I heard back from them, I also called my favorite store, Fresh Market as well as Lowe's Foods (not hardware) and was told by both they don't have it and can't get it. I know I will have more luck when I get back to CA since I get it there pretty regularly.
I will make the one I get from Harris Teeter tomorrow night with horseradish mashed pototoes and roasted carrots (Karen's looked so good, I'm copying.) Will post photos.

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.

My Mom's version always had Lipton Onion Soup, as did most everything she made. But she used a chuck roast and that dreaded pressure cooker.

I do a brisket with a very similar technique, but use a home made BBQ sauce, the meat goes through the steps of sitting for a day, slicing, mix with the sauce, let it sit for another day and so on. It is absolutely divine.

Karen, your roast is gorgeous. Interesting how many of you use canned tomatoes in your dish

Actually it was the first time I used the tomatoes. Usually mine is simply a brown gravy. I've never really found or made a pot roast that was what I would rate as excellent, many were very good but not excellent. This was my adaptation of a recipe from Ina Garten, and it is the best one I have made as far as color, flavor, texture of the meat.

[Jenise]

I'm having a heck of a time locating a 7-bone roast.
First went into our town's largest market (Harris Teeter) and the meat manager looked at me like I had two heads when I asked about a 7 bone. She said she'd look it up in her book and call me back. (Someone else from her department did end up calling back and saying that they don't have the 7-bone, per se, but do have a bone-in roast that includes the cut that you'd get in the 7-bone (?), so that's what I will go for. We will see! I'll take a photo raw for comparison purposes.)
In the time before I heard back from them, I also called my favorite store, Fresh Market as well as Lowe's Foods (not hardware) and was told by both they don't have it and can't get it. I know I will have more luck when I get back to CA since I get it there pretty regularly.
I will make the one I get from Harris Teeter tomorrow night with horseradish mashed pototoes and roasted carrots (Karen's looked so good, I'm copying.) Will post photos.

Bummerooni. How odd that in some cooler climes we've had trouble locating this, and yet you can get it in hot Palm Springs all the time. Rather strange, that!