I had a bit of trouble trying to figure out what to write for my first post. What is fresh in my mind is the dinner I made last night. I’ve never known anyone that didn’t like pot roast. Except for those that don’t eat meat. I think a good pot roast, cooked the right way, will make just about anyone love it.
***This recipe is a combination of my Mother’s and my Mother-in-Law’s pot roast recipe.
The secret is picking the perfect piece of meat, if you can find it. Sometimes it takes me weeks to find just the right roast. I’m partial to rump roasts because that’s what my Mom always used, but use what you’re used to or comfortable with.
1. The first thing to look for is a roast with a nice chunk of fat on the bottom. I kid you not!! The fat is essential and you would be hard pressed to find any kind of roast without a chunk of fat on the bottom. After the roast is cooked the fat can be removed.
2. The second thing to look for is graining. The roast needs to have graining going throughout it. You can tell by looking at the sides of the roast. If there’s just a few lines of graining, that’s not good enough. Look at one of the sides. If you put all the lines of graining together and they look like they’d take up a little less than 1/2 of that side, then that’s a good roast to get.
TIP #1: The graining is what makes the roast tender. Too little graining and the roast will be chewy. Too much graining? I’ve never seen a roast with too much graining. If the graining takes up the whole side of the roast, then that’s waaaaay too much.
3. The other stuff you’ll need is a cast iron pot with a lid, a long meat fork, a whisk, a slotted spoon, olive oil, water, vinegar, powdered beef bullion, spices and cornstarch. See pictures below.
TIP #2: Cast iron pot – think cauldron (or dutch oven). Don’t cook the roast in stainless steel, it just won’t come out right.
SPICE LIST:
1 tablespoon garlic powder (DON’T USE GARLIC SALT!!)
1 tablespoon onion powder (DON’T USE ONION SALT!!)
6 whole black pepper corns
1 teaspoon parsley flakes
1 teaspoon basil leaves
1 teaspoon oregano
4 small to medium bay leaves or 3 large bay leaves
ADDITIONAL INGREDIENTS:
1/4 cup white vinegar (DON’T USE APPLE CIDER VINEGAR!!)
powdered beef bullion & water
TIP #3: Use teaspoons of bullion and cups of water depending on how much gravy you want.
Example: 3 teaspoons of powdered beef bullion and 3 cups of water to get approximately 3 cups of gravy
TIP #4: Don’t use bullion cubes- they take too long to dissolve.
TIP #5: Before browning meat, measure out all spices and powdered beef bullion into a small bowl. After roast is browned, just dump everything into the pot. Saves a lot of time!!
4.
a. Put about 2 or 3 tablespoons of olive oil in the bottom of your pot. Roll the oil around until the whole bottom of the pot is coated. Turn your heat on high.
b. Place the roast fat side down in the oil. The oil will probably pop and spit, so be careful. Let the roast sit for a minute or two to brown on the fat side. Use your long meat fork to turn the roast to the next side. If the roast won’t stay on any of the sides that need to brown, just use the long meat fork to keep it steady for a minute or two.
c. Once all sides are browned, keep the roast FAT SIDE UP and turn the heat down to a simmer.
d. See TIP #5 above. Take all pre-measured spices and dump them into the pot on top of the roast. Measure out how much water you’ll need for the gravy and pour over the top of the roast and spices.
e. Add the 1/4 cup vinegar into the pot and cover.
COOKING TIME:
Cooking time varies depending on the size of the roast. I’ve always been told to cook a roast about 1/2 hour per pound. So if you have a 3 pound roast you would cook it for 1 1/2 hours. If you have a roast that’s between pounds like 3 1/4, 3 1/2 or 3 3/4 pounds I round up or down depending. If the roast is 3 1/4 pounds I keep the cook time to 1 1/2 hours. If the roast is 3 1/2 or more up to 4 pounds I round up to 2 hours cook time. Accordingly, if the roast is 5 pounds then the cook time would be 2 1/2 hours.
TIP #6: Add an hour to the cook time!! It just makes the meat that much more tender and it won’t dry out.
GRAVY:
Once your roast is done cooking, remove it from the pot and let it rest for about 10 to 15 minutes before slicing. I don’t know why I do this. My Dad was always the roast (and turkey) slicer and he always said it has to “rest” before it’s cut. If anyone knows the reason for “resting” please post a note.
While your roast is “resting” you are now ready to make . . . GRAVY!!
TIP #7: Take your slotted spoon and scoop through the gravy to take out the whole black peppercorns and the bay leaves. You don’t EVER want to bite into a peppercorn!!
Turn the heat up to a medium setting. Simmer will take too long to make gravy and high just doesn’t work at all.
Take a tall drinking glass and fill it a little more than 2/3 full of water. Add about 3 HEAPING tablespoons of cornstarch and mix it into the water. Cornstarch mixes with water very readily, so you probably won’t have to worry about cornstarch clumps. Add about 1/3 of the cornstarch and water to the gravy. Use your whisk and just stir like you would with a spoon. It will take a few minutes to see a slight thickening of the gravy. Add another 1/3 of the cornstarch and water and keep stirring with the whisk. Wait another few minutes and you should definitely see the gravy become much thicker.
At this point if the gravy is the consistency that you like, don’t add the rest of the cornstarch and water. You’re done!!
If you like really thick gravy, like we do, add the last 1/3 of the cornstarch and water and whisk away.
By the time you’re done with your gravy the roast will be ready to cut.
I hope you enjoyed this recipe as my first post. If you try it, let me know your results.
