(Shared recipe submitted by Fred Fenlon.)
Fred writes: "In going through my recipe files I found this, The 'Venerable Pot Roast'. It's sort of a 'how to'. I wrote it several years ago. I re-worked it and added to it a bit. I thought I would pass it along as you and your readers might find a use for this very old favorite."
Not only is the Pot Roast venerable it is very versatile. First, it is as American as apple pie and hot dogs. Its origins in the USA are New England, where the frugal Yankees named it, "Yankee Pot Roast". Yes, frugal but not cheap. The New England Yankees learned they could take less costly and less desirable cuts of beef (chuck, bottom round) and make them into great family 'Sunday dinners'. And there would always be enough left over for a second pot roast dinner or beef hash during the week, a true frugality---two great meals for the price of one!
Take some red wine; add some herbs and spices or Herbs de Province and the humble pot roast becomes very French. After searing the roast in a hot sauté pan or the pot itself, deglaze with the red wine and the herbs. Cook the meat in the traditional slow moist way and your pot roast becomes, 'Boeuf à lá Mode' or 'Boeuf en Daube' ('Daube' in French comes from 'daubier' meaning braising pot).
Let's pick out the type of beef before we talk about slow moist cooking in a covered pot, called braising.
Remember the most desirable cuts like sirloin and tenderloin are by far:
The less costly cuts are:
There is another simple axiom to learn and that is the actual location of the meat/muscle on the animal, that is, the actual muscle movement that will definitely decide the flavor and tenderness of the meat. The meat/muscle that is involved in the most movement is the least tender. Thus, the chuck that comes from the fore quarter, i.e., the neck area is the least tender. Conversely, the tenderloin that lies behind the steer's rib cage hardly ever moves, therefore it is the most tender, and certainly is the most expensive, yet flavor wise, it needs help.
Therefore, what we need is a less expensive cut; not the most tender and a cut with good flavor. It could be chuck from the neck area, but that doesn't serve or cut well (great stew meat!); a top round roast, but that's too expensive and should be used for traditional roast beef. The eye of the round is very close to our needs but is still too expensive. By process of elimination we arrive at the bottom round roast. It is ideal. There are often great sales on bottom round for less than $2.00 per pound (at the time this was written). You can buy two or three as they freeze well.
The cooking method that is used is slow moist heat called braising. We define braising as a method of cooking in which the meat is browned in hot oil or fat and then cooked in moist heat in a covered vessel (Dutch oven) at temperature just barely above the boiling point.
Boeuf à lá Mode: To make that special dinner party, make Boeuf à lá Mode. In step 2 above, reduce the beef stock or water to one cup and add one cup of hardy red burgundy wine. Then in step 5 add 1/2 cup of the red wine.
New England Pot Roast Dinner: This is an easy method of creating a great family Sunday dinner. In step 4, while the Pot Roast is cooking in the oven, peel enough whole potatoes, carrots and onions for your family. Parboil them, all in one large pot, about 15 or 20 minutes. Then, just before the last half hour of cooking of the pot roast in the oven add the parboiled vegetables and continue to cook until the Pot Roast is at about 170°.Remove vegetables in a serving platter and keep in a warm oven. Now proceed as in steps 4 and 5 above. (Note: The reason you do not place raw vegetables in the pot roast pot is that they will absorb most of the liquid in the pot so that little would be left for the gravy.)
About Fred: I have really enjoyed reading Fred's recipes. They are well written and his instructions very thorough. Fred's email address is FredFJ@comcast.net.
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