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Pot Roast of Beef-Gravy
Nearly any of the tougher meats may be used. The rump or lower part of the round is preferable. Wipe meat, sear in hot frying pan, or in the kettle for roasting. Lard outer surface if meat is lean, or few slices of salt pork may be cooked with meat. After meat is seared, add 1/2 cup boiling water to 2 pounds meat, and cover tightly. Cook slowly until meat is very tender and well browned, adding only enough water to prevent burning. Season when nearly done. Serve with brown gravy made with liquid left in the pan. Instead of water, strained tomatoes may be used with pot roast. For seasoning, in addition to salt and pepper a bit of bay leaf, parsley, a few cloves, or slices of carrot may be cooked with the roast.
A braise stripped to its essentials: sear, a little liquid, tight lid, long slow heat. The instructions assume a cook who already knows what tender means, so the numbers below fill in what the original leaves out.
- The hinge: very little liquidA cup of water per 2 lb of meat is not a mistake. This is a braise, not a boil — the meat should steam and continue browning in its own fat, and the concentrated pan liquid becomes the gravy. Adding more water dilutes it and gives you gray meat.
- Cut"Lower part of the round" is bottom round or rump roast; chuck works at least as well and is more forgiving because of its greater connective tissue. Any of these will generally want something on the order of 3 to 4 hours at a bare simmer for a 3-4 lb piece, judged by tenderness rather than the clock.
- "Kettle for roasting"A heavy lidded pot — a Dutch oven is the direct descendant. Cast iron or enameled cast iron holds low heat steadily; thin stainless will scorch the bottom before the meat gives up.
- Stovetop or ovenThe original leaves this open; a low burner is the likeliest reading. A 300F oven does the same job with less watching and no risk of a hot spot burning the base — the book gives no temperature of its own.
- To lardLarding means threading strips of pork fat through the meat with a needle, not smearing fat on the surface. The salt pork alternative given here is the practical version: lay two or three slices on top and let them render down.
- Season when nearly doneSound advice for salt pork cooks, since the pork salts the liquid as it renders. If you skip the pork, salt the meat before searing instead — you will get better crust and better seasoned meat.
- DonenessIgnore internal temperature charts written for steaks. A pot roast is done somewhere around 195-205F internal, when a fork twists out with no resistance. Under that it will be cooked through and still tough.
- The gravyStrain the pan liquid, skim the fat, and either reduce it or thicken with a roux of the skimmed fat and an equal weight of flour. The tomato variation may need little or no thickening.
- YieldFigure 1/3 to 1/2 lb of raw meat per person; a 3 lb roast serves six to eight. It reheats better than it cooks, so a larger piece is rarely wasted.
Pot roasting is the American kitchen's answer to a problem every household faced before refrigeration and grain finishing made tender beef ordinary: most of the animal was tough, and dry oven heat only made it tougher. Searing then sealing the meat with a splash of liquid — the method the French call braiser and German cooks knew as Schmorbraten — turns collagen to gelatin and rewards cheap cuts. That this appears in a book issued by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company is telling: the company distributed free cookbooks and health pamphlets to policyholders through the early twentieth century as part of a broad welfare-and-hygiene campaign, and the recipes lean hard toward economy, plain seasoning and the profitable use of what a working household could actually afford. The suggestion to use "strained tomatoes" instead of water marks the period as well — canned tomatoes were becoming more widely available, and they quietly entered older meat recipes as a substitute for stock.