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Beef Pot Roast
4 POUNDS BEEF, ROLLED 1/4 CUP FLOUR 2 TEASPOONS SALT 18 TEASPOON PEPPER 3 TABLESPOONS FAT BEEF BONES I CARROT, SLICED I ONION, SLICED PARSLEY AND/OR CELERY A cut of beef from round, rump, chuck or shoulder makes a good pot roast.
Mix flour with salt and pepper. Wipe meat with damp cloth, then dredge with flour and seasonings. Heat fat in a heavy pan and sear ends and sides of roast.
Put bones in bottom of a heavy kettle and set roast on them. Add vegetables and 1 cup hot water. Cover tightly and let it simmer away a couple hours, turning occasionally. The roast soon begins to yield up its own juices, which give their full flavor to the cooking job.
A straightforward braise written for a camp kettle over coals, and it works unchanged on a stovetop or in an oven. The technique is sound; only the timing and a couple of the quantities need translating.
- The pepper measureThe pepper quantity as printed has lost its fraction and reads as a whole number. An eighth of a teaspoon is the sensible reading for four pounds of beef dredged in a quarter cup of flour.
- Fat for searingThe three tablespoons of fat would most likely have been lard, beef drippings or bacon grease. Any neutral oil with a high smoke point does the same work; the point is a hard, dry surface on the meat, so get the pan properly hot and do not crowd it.
- Bones as a rackThe beef bones are there to lift the roast clear of the liquid so it braises rather than boils, and to add gelatin to the sauce. Ask a butcher for marrow or knuckle bones. A trivet or a bed of thick-cut onion slices does the lifting job if bones are unavailable, though you lose the body they give.
- Two hours is optimisticA four-pound chuck or rump roast needs roughly three to four hours at a bare simmer before the connective tissue turns to gelatin and the meat pulls apart under a fork. Judge by texture, not the clock; "tender" and "done" are different points in a pot roast.
- Heat level"Simmer away" means the barest movement in the liquid, around 200F. In an oven, 300F to 325F with the lid on holds that steadily and needs less watching than a burner.
- Cut choiceOf the four cuts named, chuck and shoulder give the juiciest result because of their fat and collagen. Round is lean and can go dry and stringy even when cooked correctly.
- Liquid and lidOne cup of water is deliberately little; the meat and vegetables release plenty more. A tight lid is what makes it work, so if yours fits loosely, lay foil or parchment under it.
- YieldFour pounds of rolled boneless beef serves eight or so. The carrot, onion and herbs are aromatics and will be spent by the end; add fresh vegetables in the last 45 minutes if you want them on the plate.
Pot roast is the American name for a braise done in a covered vessel, and its logic is economic: the cuts named here are the working muscles of the animal, cheap because they are tough, and long moist heat is the only thing that redeems them. A heavy covered kettle needs almost no attention and forgives an uneven heat source in a way that dry roasting does not. The instruction to lay the roast on bones rather than in the liquid is the mark of a cook who understood the difference between braising and stewing, and the closing line about the meat yielding up its own juices is the honest description of what happens: a pot roast makes its own sauce, which is why so little water goes in at the start.