How do you make pot roast?

[babylonsister]

Buy a chuck roast: Mom 'taught' me to use canned mushroom soup and dried onion soup to make a base sauce, add carrots and whateveryouwant, serve over egg noodles, voila! And it's damned good. And so easy!

But I know there are healthier ways to make this, the salt in that has to be appalling.

I'm making one and bought two at the 'big' sale today. Maybe #2 will be my guinea pig. So help a girl out? How do you make pot roast?

Thanks!

[MichiganVote]

1. I like to marinade the meat for a day or two.

[pscot]

2. I roll it in flour

and brown it in bacon grease on medium low. Throw in a sliced onion and a cut up turnip,garlic, thyme, maybe a couple of carrots, add wine, beer, water, about a cup and a half. Cook it covered at 325 til fork tender. To thicken the sauce blend a tbsp. each of butter and flour and stir that into the juice and boil it up for a minute.

[japple]

5. Sounds perfect to me, esp. the turnip. Many folks don't realize what amazing flavor

turnips or parsnips give to soups, stews, and pot roast. That is always my "secret" ingredient.

[The Magistrate]

3. One Way I Like, Ma'am

Flour it and brown it. Put some crushed garlic on it, a couple of cloves. Drizzle honey over the surface. Then put lemon juice over the honey, one lemon if the roast is small, two if it is large. A bit of salt and pepper. Put about a cup of beef broth in. Put in a goodly number of smallish whole onions. Cook it, covered, on a low heat till the meat is thoroughly subdued ( by which time the onions should be heavenly ). There should be a very nice bit of gravy-ish sauce when you are done. Keep an eye on it, and make sure it does not go dry. A little paprika in the flour does not go amiss, either, and if you like ginger, a little goes well with this also.

[pinto]

8. Good to see you Mag. Ginger's a good idea. Some are leery but a bit does well, especially with beef.

It's that mmm, something here works.

[elleng]

4. Don't have recipe handy,

needs marinating 8? hours, chili sauce, vinegar, brown sugar, apple juice; cover w sliced onions + celery, then bake. Sorry not more precise. GOOD, with potato pancakes for Chanukah!

[2theleft]

6. I do the easy crock pot way...

Roll the roast in flour, salt, pepper. Brown in pan with olive oil and garlic. Tranfer roast to crock pot. Add beef broth the pan you browned the meat in, make a kind of watery gravy with the drippings.

While that is simmering, and between stirring, cut red potatos in half, throw those in the crock pot. Chop a large vidalia onion or two into large pieces, throw that in. Chop up a bunch of carrots, or throw in baby carrots. Pour the liquid mixture over the top, maybe add a little more pepper, smoked paprika, whatever other spices you like. Put the lid on. Cook on low for around 8 hours.

[unhappycamper]

15. I also like to use finely diced turnips and parsnips in the CP for sweetness. n/t

[pinto]

7. My take - Season it really well all around. Brown hot and fast, either stove top or broiler.

Put in a heavy pot, add all the veggies, beef stock, some red wine, spices, cover tight. Cook long and slow 'till fork tender. I saute onions while the roast rests out of the oven and use the juices to make gravy. Steamed asparagus usually gets onto the plate, as well. Toasted garlic baguettes.

Then a nap.

[Warpy]

9. First dry the roast

Sprinkle on a little salt and pepper and sear all sides. Add water, red wine and/or stock and allow to braise slowly on the stovetop, in a covered Dutch oven in the oven, or in a pressure cooker for quicker results, especially with tough meat. When done, put in potatoes, carrots, peas, and whatever else you want while the meat rests under foil.

I usually thicken the liquid in the pot with cornstarch. I used to use rye bread without the crusts, the caraway giving it a really special flavor.

Cut meat across the grain, put into a high sided serving dish, pour garden patch veggies and gravy over, and serve.

[babylonsister]

10. I came to the right place-now we need a pot roast cook-off!

Thank you all so much! I just ate Mom's -still good. But I will change it up next time!

[Lucinda]

11. We usually crockpot ours

Little drizzle of olive oil and just garlic, seasalt, and black pepper and cook for about 12 hours on low - turning occasionally.

You can add veggies about 4 hours before finish and use drippings to make gravy (or an au jus if we want to turn it into French Dip sandwiches). If you add the veggies, add beef stock if necessary to increase cooking liquid for veggies.

We usually roast a pan of veggies on the side and let the meat cook on it's own because we take the leftovers and turn them into enchiladas and hash.

[Bolo Boffin]

12. I like Cook's Illustrated's beef stew recipe

I just don't cut up the chuck roast into cubes.

http://www.momcentral.com/blogs/mom-central-food/cooks-illustrated-classic-beef-stew

Also, I don't add all that salt and I use all no-sodium chicken broth (well, the wine and the broth). I can add salt when I'm eating if I have to.

[pengillian101]

21. Yup, the one I made today looks just like that.

The only difference is, I didn't use a big roast - just a round steak - in the crock pot. Turned out great.

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

13. I made a pot roast last night

After pre-heating the oven to 325°F, I started by browning a chuck roast in olive oil in a dutch oven. While it was browning, I diced an onion, a couple of carrots and a stalk of celery and smashed a couple of cloves of garlic. When the meat was browned, I removed it to a place and sautéed the vegetables. After a few minutes, I added the garlic and had that cook for about 30 seconds.

I added the meat, a couple of cups of chicken stock, a tablespoon of tomato paste, a bay leaf, some thyme and some salt and pepper. I brought that to the boil, and then covered it and put it in the oven.

I let that cook for about two hours, turning the meat over every half hour. I took the dutch oven out of the oven, removed the meat to rest, and boiled the liquid to reduce it.

I served it with spaetzle:

1½ cups all-purpose flour
2 eggs
½ cup milk

Bring a large pot of well salted water to a boil over medium heat.

Whisk together the eggs and milk in a large bowl until they are a homogeneous mixture. Whisk in the flour a bit at a time until it is well mixed. Let it sit for about 15 minutes to let the flour absorb the liquid.

I have a spaetzle maker, and I put the batter in it and ran the holder over the boiling water. It boiled for two or three minutes, then I dumped it into a colander.

[msanthrope]

14. Here's how I do it.....

Stud the pot roast with slivers of garlic. season with a little salt, lots of pepper, and thyme. brown all over in a good size frying pan.... use very little canola or peanut oil.

Put crockpot on high. slice an onion and layer it on the bottom. Put the browned roast on top, throw in a sliced potato, a few cloves of garlic, a carrot, a few mushrooms. Deglaze your frying pan with a half cup of good red wine... let it reduce to about a quarter cup. pour it over the meat... and crock pot about 6 hours on high for 3 pound roast.

An hour before being done, make up a tray of vegetables to be roasted in a hot oven. my current favorite is shallots new potatoes and parsnips.

okay is the Meat looking fantastic? take it out and let it rest on a cutting board whilw you're doing the gravy.... see all that delicious stuff left in the bottom of the crock pot? either stick blender it right then and there, or you can pour the liquid into a defatting cup, and return what you want to the crock pot. Blend...and leave the gravy in the crock pot with it turned to warm. after the meat has rested about 20 minutes to half an hour slice it and put it in the crock pot full of gravy. Don't forget to taste the gravy and correct the seasonings... I usually add lots of fresh pepper maybe some paprika.

I serve this with the roasted veggies, a salad, and lots of red wine. Leftovers make great sandwiches. This is also a great recipie for brisket.

[locks]

16. Great thread

I also like brussel sprouts or cut up cabbage in the pot.

[spinbaby]

17. Onion soup and canned cream of mushroom, baby!

I've tried the from-scratch recipes involving shallots, red wine, and who knows what else. Never been as good as with onion soup and cream of mushroom.

[TxDemChem]

18. We usually do ours in the crockpot.

We season the meat on both sides with salt, pepper, seasoning salt and a little garlic powder. Then we lightly flour each side and place it in a hot skillet (medium high temp) with about 1 tablespoon of bacon grease or olive oil to sear both sides. I put a slow cooker liner into my crockpot and cover the bottom with large dices of onion, add 1 cup of beef broth (you can use bouillon), then add half of my potatoes, carrots, celery and bell pepper. I place the roast in the crockpot, then put the remaining veggies on top of it (including more onion). Finally, add more seasonings on top. We let it roast on low for about 6 hours.

Bell peppers can get a little mushy if they are fresh, so I keep a stash of frozen bell pepper chunks for crockpot cooking.

By the way, I love all these great ideas. I think I'm going to try using red wine the next time I make one.

[cbayer]

19. My favorite has Asian flavors.

I brown the roast in a dutch oven.

Then cover with water, soy sauce, star anise, sherry, some brown sugar, ginger, garlic.

Simmer slowly for as long as it takes to start falling apart. Sometimes I have to add more liquid.

I generally add potatoes and carrots for the last 45 minutes or so.

Once done, I thicken some of the cooking liquid for a gravy.

[csziggy]

20. Very simple - like Mom used to make

In a large pot or in the crockpot - some cheap cut of beef, chopped up onion, carrots, celery, garlic. If I feel like it and am in a hurry, I might cut up the roast into 1" chunks. Stew for a while, letting the aromatics and beef flavors blend. Along the way, I'll throw in some herbs and spices, whatever I feel like that day - it's always different and I never measure them; I just open my spice drawer and pick up whatever catches my eye. Often, I put in a good sprinkle of mace - I found that in a medieval recipe and it gives an interesting under flavor to the stew. If in a pot, during the last hour - in a crockpot during the last two hours - I add more cut up carrots, celery, onion and red potatoes. Then I cook it long enough for those added vegetables to get done. Sometimes I throw a bag of frozen cut green beans in about halfway through the stewing process. And if we have leftover vegetables or rice in the fridge, those can go in whenever. If I don't have aromatic vegetables on hand, at the beginning I'll put in a bag of frozen mixed vegetables - the kind with corn, peas, carrots, beans, etal.

I usually don't add any liquid - maybe a splash of stock or water. Most of the time, the meat and vegetables create enough juice for us. I also don't serve with pasta or rice - the potatoes are enough carbohydrates. I do like a piece of crusty bread toasted with butter to sop up the juices.

I almost never add salt during the cooking process and only sometimes add black pepper - my husband salts everything without tasting so I like to keep his levels down. And I am sensitive to pepper so I don't use much of it.

Hey - it's time for stew or pot roast - maybe I'll buy a roast today and make one tomorrow!

[pengillian101]

22. "my husband salts everything without tasting"

Don't ya just hate that? Mine does also.

[csziggy]

23. Yeah - though I understand where he got that

His mother was a mediocre cook and salt was the only flavoring he had. Now if I cook something that may not need salt, I have to warn him. But it's easier to just not put salt into things and let him add it.