Recipe Notes: Pot Roast

5 May 2018

Recipe from Cook's Illustrated, November 2010

Every once in a while I need to cook a big hunk of beef. I haven't had pot roast in a while (I remember fondly my mother's pot roast) and I looked forward to the fall-apart tender, juicy, beefy beef served with flavorful gravy and vegetables. I started using the recipe for "Classic Pot Roast with Root Vegetables" but I got a late start. As I realized it would be closer to bed time than dinner time before it was finished,  I switched to "Make-Ahead Classic Pot Roast". The recipes are essentially the same, but the latter omits the vegetables and leaves several steps to day 2.

A 3.1-pound boneless chuck roast (the recipe specified at least 3.5 pounds, but the store had none this large) was split at the natural seam, trimmed of hard fat, salted, and left to rest at room temperature for an hour. Butter was melted in a Dutch oven. Sliced onions were cooked in the hot butter then carrots and celery were added. Finally, the braising liquid was completed with garlic, beef broth, red wine, tomato paste, bay, and thyme. The beef was rolled, tied, and placed into the Dutch oven. This was covered and placed into a 300° oven until the beef was tender. From the start of the process it took over 5 hours to finish cooking the roast. The roasts were placed into a large bowl. The bay and thyme were removed and fat was skimmed from the braising liquid. Beef broth was added so the total amount of liquid was three cups. This was added to the bowl with the cooked vegetables, covered, and refrigerated overnight.

Preparing the roasts to serve the next day took 1 hour. The roasts were sliced, placed in an 8x8-inch baking dish, covered with foil, and heated for about 45 minutes in a 325° oven. The liquid and cooked vegetables were processed in a blender until smooth. The mixture was simmered on the stove. Chopped fresh thyme and vinegar were added to complete the gravy.

I got what I wanted, tender beef with lots of flavorful gravy. It made for a wonderful dinner and many wonderful dinners and lunches was we worked our way through the leftovers. The gravy had a strong onion flavor, which is okay, but perhaps a little too strong. I may have added too much onion at the outset. The meat was a tad dry, perhaps an outcome of the two-step cooking process. Alas, we had to miss out on the root vegetables braised with the meat this time.