Teach a European how to make pot roast.

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Goons with Spoons > Teach a European how to make pot roast.

The Baker: Dec 4, 2013

I hear it a lot on TV and would really like to try it and not from some Google search but from real Americans who like cooking, who also might be a bit Goony.
What cut of meat?
What do you cook it in?
What do you serve it with?
Top tips?

# ¿ Dec 30, 2014 18:50

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# ¿ May 10, 2024 07:24

The Baker: Dec 4, 2013

Sounds pretty simple. Your using I guess what I would call a pressure cooker, a stand alone piece of equipment, I would be using a Dutch oven in a regular oven, what temperature would you use? I'm guessing about 100 degrees Celsius.
I was surprised to find you use water in the recipe, purely from my own misconceptions. When I hear roast I think dry heat. Also I think the basic method, what you would use every day is much better, I'm not looking for any fine dining here.

# ¿ Dec 30, 2014 22:27

The Baker: Dec 4, 2013

Doom Rooster posted:

Pot roast can be delicious. You are hopefully in for a treat. Yup, it's a wet method instead. Hence the name. You take a roast, but you put it in a pot. Pot. Roast.

I also use a Dutch oven for making mine. What KlavoHunter is referring to is not a pressure cooker though. A slow cooker is a specific appliance, also known by the brand name CrockPot.

1) Brown the outside of a big piece of chuck in the bottom of your dutch oven on the stovetop then turn off heat. (canola oil is my go to oil)
2) cut a bunch of celery and carrots into 1 inch pieces and onions into quarters.
3) put those on the bottom of the Dutch oven, then put the chuck roast on top of that.
4) put in 3 bay leaves, and about a tablespoon of dried thyme.
5) Poor in enough beef broth to come up about 1/3 of the way on the roast.
6) cook in the oven with the lid on at 225 for about 4 hours (or until the meat is very tender, but not actually falling apart/shredding)
7) Taste resulting liquid for seasoning

I usually just serve this with its broth straight over boiled potatoes, but you can also thicken the broth with some butter/flour mixture, or however you want really. If you want, you can also take the lid off about halfway through cooking, making sure to submerge the meat most of the way. This allows it to cook down the liquid a good bit, for a more concentrated broth.

Edit: Yes. The general questions thread would have been ideal for this.

Great I'm going to try this, I like simply boiled potatoes with a good sauce, I always have a good second boil stock in the freezer that I think would be perfect for my first try ( no packet stock for me on my first American dish) I have many other American recipes I want to learn about so I will absolutely use the general question section next time.
Just to make sure, your temps are in Celsius not Fahrenheit?

# ¿ Dec 30, 2014 23:28

The Baker: Dec 4, 2013

guppy posted:

A pressure cooker and a slow cooker aren't the same thing. They're practically opposites.

Sorry for my ignorance, I'm kind of a purist in my own little cooking world, I except we have ovens and stove tops but anything other than that seems like cheating to me, goes as far as using arrow rout or gelatine, If I don't boil my own pigs head I wont be using gelatine, I can use flour but not corn flour, the list goes on with only a few exceptions, I don't know why I have these things but it just doesn't seem like cooking to me otherwise... The only thing I can think of which I use corn flour for as a preferred ingredient is cr�me patisserie.

# ¿ Dec 30, 2014 23:38

The Baker: Dec 4, 2013

Doom Rooster posted:

Yup, definitely F, not C! 110 C would probably be just about right. You want it to be a nice light simmer in the oven, not boiling.

I can definitely appreciate anyone's cooking "quirks" like you mention. I'm typically a fancy pants purist most of the time. For some reason though, pot roast doesn't fall under that for me. That's probably just American nostalgia though. Growing up eating cheap beef, boiled in cheap broth powder, undersalted, served over plain unpeeled boiled potatoes. It was objectively not good food, but man... When it's freezing outside, and you come in from playing out in the snow with your family, and immediately have your mom pour you a big ladle full over steaming potatoes... Unf. That's happiness.

I have made fancy versions of pot roast, with the best ingredients, with extensive technique used to make an objectively better product. It's great! But unnecessary. The crappy low effort version still makes me just as happy.

Yeah I understand the nostalgia my dad would use a jar of bolognaise sauce when I was growing up and it's still today my favourite meal, though he added some stuff himself I can't bring myself to add that, he's passed away now and I cant allow myself to make it his way, it's just got to be a good memory.

My purist traits are not against cheap simple foods, more against fake foods like packet sauce or cubes of stock, though I do have them ready to use and often do day to day, I just try not to, where I'm from food is extremely expensive so I have to use cheap yet real food and actually discovered since moving here dried herbs can be pretty good. Lol I have slapped frozen chicken thighs in the oven with cooking red wine, thyme, garlic salt, stock cubes and any veg I have left in the fridge for a easy coq au vin and it's turned out fantastic.
So now I will boil the bones from my left over meat or keep peeling of vegetables frozen to add to stock, anything I can to add flavour cheap.

# ¿ Dec 31, 2014 00:19

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Goons with Spoons > Teach a European how to make pot roast.