Need Help Cooking Beef

[sneezles]

I use a recipe from Bon Appetit that is for a wonderful Pot Roast. It marinades for 1-2 days in a marinade of red wine, garlic, orange peel, cloves, fennel, ginger, thyme just to name a few of the ingredients. It is a complicated recipe but well worth the effort. Can post if you are interested.

[Karen M]

I recommend a crock pot recipe. A Round Roast is very lean and slow cooking will keep it tender.

[Gail]

What an interesting assortment of ingredients, Sneezles. I'm interested in seeing the recipe. If it's not easily available I'll look it up myself on the web site if you can give me the name.

[KathrynY]

I agree a Crock Pot recipe would work well. Try the Crock Pot thread currently open at: http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/Forum1/HTML/005659.html. (http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/Forum1/HTML/005659.html). There are a number of tasty looking roast recipes there! I'm sure they could be adapted to cooking in a Dutch oven on top of the stove over low heat for several hours if you don't have a crock pot.

[This message has been edited by KathrynY (edited 03-23-2001).]

[sneezles]

Gail,
It's from the cookbook series that Bon Appetit did in 1978 and it's called Classic Pot Roast.
If you don't find it on the website let me know and I can probably post it tomorrow. Right now we have to go open the beer joint!
Ahhh, life in the country! http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/wink.gif

[This message has been edited by sneezles (edited 03-23-2001).]

[WeekendCook]

This recipe is really good:

Barbecue Beef (for crock pot)

4# boneless chuck roast
1-1/2 cups catsup
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon liquid smoke flavoring
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

Place beef in crock pot. Combine remaining ingredients and pour over beef. Cover with lid and cook on low for 8 to 10 hours. Remove roast from crock pot and shred with a fork. (I always make a 2nd batch of sauce to serve with the beef.)

[Jewel]

I'm wondering why everyone else who puts a really lean cut in the crock pot comes out with tenderness, when I come out with a rubber ball?

Last week my hubby wanted 'ol fashioned pot roast with potatoes and carrots. All I had in the freezer was a 4 lb Sirloin Roast...it was really lean! I marinated it for nearly 24 hours and cooked from 8am to nearly 7pm on low, and it was still tough! It was tasty enough, but when you're used to crock pot beef coming out in fork tender chunks, it was really disappointing. I was afraid to suggest a crock pot meal to RobinF for that reason!

If I'd cooked it longer would it have gotten more tender? In my opinion, 11 hours should have done the trick! Sheesh! http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/biggrin.gif

[funnybone]

I started the crockpot thread so I am not an expert at it (having only used mine once). However, would it help to pan-sear the meat first? I see this done on TV for oven roasted methods as well.

[funnybone]

oops, double post

[This message has been edited by funnybone (edited 03-23-2001).]

[robinf]

Someone gave me a 3 pound boneless beef bottom round roast and I have no idea what to do with it. I personally don't eat meat but have no aversion to cooking it for others. However, my repertoire of beef recipes is very limited. Does anyone have any suggestins/recipes for this cut of meat? Thanks!

[luv2cook]

we always pan sear first to keep the juices in...

[heeter]

Sneezles - I just tried to find the Classic Pot Roast on epicurious and can't find it - Would you please post? Thanks!!!!!

[WeekendCook]

Jewel, I have a cookbook called America's Best Slow Cooker Recipes by Donna-Marie Pye -- it's excellent! Here are some tips she has in the book:

For best results, cook the the roast on low. For pot roast, she recommends a cross-rib or blade beef roast because they are tender and juicy and slice well. She also recommends browning the roast first on all sides in a large Dutch oven or skillet. She recommends a sirloin tip roast for shredded beef. Hope that helps.

[Grace]

You can always cut that roast up into large chunks for stew, too - that's what I typically do - cooks faster and there's no carving or anything. I also buy them and cut them up and package them into smaller packages so I can make two or three stews out of one roast. Fewer leftovers that way.

[Gail]

Thanks Sneezles (and thank you, heeter, for saving me the trouble of running a search!)
Tell me, have you made this successfully with any other cuts of beef or do you use exactly what's suggested? I'm not much of a pot roast person usually-- having grown up with the ultimate in blah. While few pot roast recipes seem to pique my interest, the unusual ingredients in the marinade intrigue me. (Plus the Cuban side of me is big on marinating...)

This may actually coax me into making a pot roast... http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/smile.gif

[sneezles]

Gail,
I have only used the round roast for this recipe because it is such a lean cut and needs a long time braising to become tender. My MIL makes a horrible round roast and I search for years to find one that made the meat tender. Regular pot roast I use chuck roast because I just serve it to my DH and sons but it would probably be good with this marinade.

[sneezles]

Here is the recipe and remember it is a complicated one that takes 4 days! However it is an amazing pot roast! And you can skip the pig's feet, it taste great without them!


Classic Pot Roast

Marinade
4 cups dry red wine
1/4 cup wine vinegar
3 tbs olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 garlic gloves, crushed
2 bay leaves
1 3-inch strip orange peel
6 whole cloves
1/2 tsp fennel seed, crushed
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp dried savory
1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper

1 6- to 7-pound beef bottom or top round roast

2 large onion, minced
2 large carrots, minced
1 celery stalk, minced
2 fresh (not pickled) pig’s feet (optional)
3 cups beef stock
2 tbs tomato paste
Salt and freshly fround pepper

1 pound carrots, cut into large dice (2 cups diced)
1 pound small baking onions, peeled (about 32)
1 pound rutabaga, peeled and cut into large dice
1 pound green beans, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces

1/4 cup clarified butter

For marinade: Combine first 13 ingredients in nonaluminum pan just large enough to
hold roast. Blend well. (Can also use ziploc bag)

Add meat, turning to coat all sides. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate 1 to 2 days, turning once a day. (Marinating can be omitted: Combine ingredients in large saucepan and boil 10 minutes. Set aside.)

Drain meat, reserving marinade. Pat meat dry. Strain marinade through fine sieve,
pressing on the vegetables with back of spoon to extract liquid; set aside for braising roast
(if you skipped the marinating part then strain the marinade after it has cooled). Heat clarified butter in a 5-6 quart Dutch oven or flameproof baking dish over medium-high heat. Add meat and brown on all sides, turning with spatula to avoid piercing meat. Set meat aside. Drain all but 2 tbs. fat from pan. Return to medium-high heat. Add minced onions, carrots, and celery and cook until golden brown, 9 to 10 minutes. Add pig’s feet, beef stock, tomato paste, slat and pepper and reserved marinade and bring to simmer.

Return meat to pan. Reduce heat to low, cover tightly and simmer gently until meat is
barely tender, 2 to 2 1/2 hours.

Stir in diced carrots, baking onions and rutabaga. Cover and cook 15 minutes. Add
green beans and continue cooking 20 minutes. Remove from heat, uncover and let cool.
Discard pig’s feet. Refrigerate at least 1 day, preferably 2 days.

To serve, degrease braising liquid. Place pan over low heat and gently reheat meat
and liquid for 1 hour. Slice about 2/3 of roast and arrange slices with remaining roast on heated platter. Remove vegetables from sauce using slotted spoon and arrange around meat. Taste sauce and reduce to desired concentration of flavor. Spoon some sauce over meat and serve. Serve remaining sauce separately.

[robinf]

Thank you all for the advice. Since crock pot cooking came up so often I did another search and found the Merlot Pot Roast that got great reviews. I am going to try it. I don't have a crock pot and so will cook in a slow oven.

The 4-day pot roast sounds divine but will have to wait for another time.

Thanks again.

- robin