Pot Roast Recipe?

[Shel_B]

Recently I made Rick Bayliss' recipe for Mexican Pork Pot Roast http://www.rickbayless.com/recipe/view?recipeID=22 - many yummies! Soon after, a friend brought by some store bought pot roast - not many yummies - it was awful.

Now I want to make a pot roast, and would love a good recipe - something that may be a little out of the ordinary would be ideal, although any tried and true recipe would be welcome. Any ideas?

shel

[Marlene]

I make pot roast often. I sort of follow a Molly Steven's recipe from Fine cooking that came out in a issue a couple of years ago.

Brown the roast first. Remove and add 1/2 lb of chopped bacon, and saute until the bacon has released it's fat. Remove the bacon and reserve with the roast. Add 1 and 1/2 cups of chopped carrots and onions and saute until softened. deglaze with a little brandy then add a quarter cup of tomato paste and cook for 3 or 4 minutes. Make a satchet of thyme, a smashed garlic clove, bay leaf, peppercorns and parsley. Put the roast and the bacon back in the dutch oven and add 2 cups beef stock and 1 1/2 cups of red wine. Add the satchet and cover the pot. Braise in the oven at 250 for about 4 hours.

Degrease the liquid. I usually thicken the liquid with butter and flour but you can just reduce the sauce to taste if you like.

Edited August 14, 2008 by Marlene (log)

[dockhl]

Marlene~

that sounds really good. What is your preferred cut of meat?

[Marlene]

I always use a chuck roast, or blade as that cut is called here in Canada. You could use a brisket as well. I also am pretty stuck on the low braising temp. The liquid should be just barely bubbling. I tend to find Molly's temps too high.

[onrushpam]

I love this recipe. I think I tried it because someone else on EG recommended it.

Stracoto with Porcini Mushrooms

I whiz the sauce/gravy with my immersion blender.

[Kim Shook]

I adore pot roast and have tried lots and lots of different recipes. Italian Pot Roast is still our favorite after years and years! It is from "Simple Fare" by Ronald Johnson. I usually double the liquid ingredients and serve it with egg noodles so that we can make soup with the leftovers. I'm not sure if I make it more for the pot roast or for the soup !

[Shel_B]

Thanks for the suggestions and pointers. Much appreciated!

shel

[deltadoc]

Use Google to search for "Delta Doc's Garlic Beef". Literally hundreds of people have tried this recipe, which was published in the Blues-L Cookbook a few years ago. I developed by imitating the famous Mazlak's Garlic Beef that world famous Stan used to serve at Mazlak's in NE Minneapolis.

He's gone now, and so is his famous dish. What they sell now, doesn't bear any resemblance to Stan's lunchtime special. In the early 1970's some co-workers were going to take me there. They said "Be prepared to stand in line around the block". I thought they were joking with me!

When we got there the line was 2 blocks long!

Exciting dish. The recipe as published mispelled Kikkoman's Regular Soy Sauce (don't use the low salt edition, doesn't work!). Also, you don't really have to use stale beer. I open a fresh bottle and drink a couple swallows and empty the rest into the crock pot.

Serve with hard rolls, potato salad or coleslaw on the side, and pepper rings. I like pumpernickel best, but rye is also traditional according to Stan's manner of presentation.

doc

[Octaveman]

I'll try it this weekend. Sounds delicious. Thanks for the recipe.

[Shel_B]

Use Google to search for "Delta Doc's Garlic Beef". 

[...]

Exciting dish. 

←

Hi, Doc ...

I dl'd the recipe - very simple. I like that. Thanks for the tip!

shel

[Octaveman]

Made Doc's recipe last night. Very rich sauce but for my tastes just a wee bit heavy on the soy flavor. Don't get me wrong, it was delicious but the next time I make it I will either try a mellow'er brand of soy or cut it in half. I used chuck as the meat since that's what I had on hand. Spread the meat over split rolls and poured the gravy over it. Very good. Thanks for the recipe, Doc. I will be making again.

[pedie]

Thank you, Delta Doc! We had the pot roast last night. First we enjoyed the aroma all day long, as it cooked. We did not find the soy sauce flavor overwhleming. I used a Dos Equis beer and a beef boullion condensed soup and I did use less of the garlic cloves. I reduced the juice a bit and then served the meat au jus on large onion rolls. Delicious! It is a keeper.

[JAZ]

Use Google to search for "Delta Doc's Garlic Beef". . .

Exciting dish.  The recipe as published mispelled Kikkoman's Regular Soy Sauce (don't use the low salt edition, doesn't work!).  Also, you don't really have to use stale beer.  I open a fresh bottle and drink a couple swallows and empty the rest into the crock pot.

←

Here's the recipe I found online. I assume that this is it?

It sounds good, but I have a couple of questions:

Why soak the garlic overnight? I thought that garlic in oil was subject to botulism.

For the garlic, what does "quartered and halved" mean, and why not just smash the cloves?

Finally, it seems to me that a chuck roast would be better with this cooking method than a sirloin tip roast. Is there a reason for that choice?

[deltadoc]

Use Google to search for "Delta Doc's Garlic Beef". . .

Exciting dish.  The recipe as published mispelled Kikkoman's Regular Soy Sauce (don't use the low salt edition, doesn't work!).  Also, you don't really have to use stale beer.  I open a fresh bottle and drink a couple swallows and empty the rest into the crock pot.

←

Here's the recipe I found online. I assume that this is it?

It sounds good, but I have a couple of questions:

Why soak the garlic overnight? I thought that garlic in oil was subject to botulism. why not just smash them?

Finally, it seems to me that a chuck roast would be better with this cooking method than a sirloin tip roast. Is there a reason for that choice?

←

To flavor the olive oil and merge flavors of the soy sauce, garlic, EVOO overnight. I don't think that botulism could form to any degree overnight. Made this for 20+ years, as well as literally hundreds of co-workers who told their friends, and their friends told their friends, etc. just like the Clairol commercial, without anyone ever getting sick

For the garlic, what does "quartered and halved" mean, and why not just smash the cloves? Cloves come in all kind of sizes. If some of the cloves, lets say, are as big as your thumb, and others are the size of the tip of your little finger, what you're trying to do is make all the pieces about the same size. Therefore, you either halve a smaller clove, or quarter a bigger clove. The idea of not smashing them is for the garlic pieces to cook slowly over the 8-10 hours in the crock pot, and similar size pieces will cook evenly. You really want fairly nice uniform garlic chunks to start with! Smashing them would just cause them to release all their flavor very quickly, and not much methinks would be left at the end.

I like to use sirloin tip roast, as it doesn't have much fat, and it does well with slow moist cooking. A grisly piece of chuck would be just fine, as part of the sauce's essence comes from the breakdown of collagen, tendons, gristle, whatever that slowly melts away and becomes part of the sauce.

doc

Edited August 22, 2008 by deltadoc (log)

[JAZ]

Okay -- it just seemed to me that if you're cooking all those ingredients together for 8 hours, you'll get all the merging of flavors that you need.

And so, for the garlic, you want pieces about 1/2 inch on a side? Or should they be smaller?

[Octaveman]

I don't think it matters a whole lot...just eyeball it to make pieces about the same size. 1/2" pieces is fine. The crockpot I have is small so the meat wouldn't fit. I braised it in the oven for almost 3.5 hours. The chuck was juicy, tender and falling all over the place.

[deltadoc]

I don't think it matters a whole lot...just eyeball it to make pieces about the same size.  1/2" pieces is fine.  The crockpot I have is small so the meat wouldn't fit.  I braised it in the oven for almost 3.5 hours.  The chuck was juicy, tender and falling all over the place.

←

You've got it!~ Stan's sauce had these chunks of garlic in them that were probably about 1/2" in size, and one of the attractions of the dish was biting into them and they were so tender, tasty, and not biting to the tongue. And falling all over is the effect you want. It's not really stringy, but if there are still whole pieces in there, they should cut up very tender. My crock pot is very old, ceramic insert with a plastic lid. There is a little vent on the lid, but I usually keep it closed. The only other thing I can add is that the smell is so intoxicating as its cooking that its hard not to lift the cover and try tasting it, but this is very bad! It takes a long time for the crock pot to catch up again. So my approach is to start it in the morning when I go to work, and then its all ready when I get home.

I'm glad everybody gave such positive feedback. Glad I could share this with you!

If you don't have your own stock, try Swanson's beef stock. It works pretty good. I shy away from boullion cubes as they tend to oversalt the dish.

doc

[RAHiggins1]

I got this from the Military Recipe Index, I used to make it for 1200, but the recipe is for 100, so divide by 10 for a large roast and 20 for a small one. I found this to be excellent when prepared properly.

[Rover]

My favourite pot roast is John Ash's Grandmother's pot roast which I've been making for at least 10 years:

Starchefs

I've mostly used brisket, but had almost forgotten that tri-tip was a suggestions, too. This is a richly flavoured, delicious dish that never fails to please.

Rover

[Mikels]

No matter which recipe I use, I usually cut the roast, layer it and cover with the liquid. Wait a day and it will be twice as good. I sometimes make a pot roast with prunes. In that case, I find reheating two or even three times, holding it at 200F for an hour each time totally changes the character of the roast - for the better.

[randomwalk]

I just tried the google search for this, but I'm not sure that this recipe's still out there. Anyone have a copy?

Much appreciated!

Margo

Use Google to search for "Delta Doc's Garlic Beef".  Literally hundreds of people have tried this recipe, which was published in the Blues-L Cookbook a few years ago.  I developed by imitating the famous Mazlak's Garlic Beef that world famous Stan used to serve at Mazlak's in NE Minneapolis.

He's gone now, and so is his famous dish.  What they sell now, doesn't bear any resemblance to Stan's lunchtime special.  In the early 1970's some co-workers were going to take me there.  They said "Be prepared to stand in line around the block".  I thought they were joking with me!

When we got there the line was 2 blocks long!

Exciting dish.  The recipe as published mispelled Kikkoman's Regular Soy Sauce (don't use the low salt edition, doesn't work!).  Also, you don't really have to use stale beer.  I open a fresh bottle and drink a couple swallows and empty the rest into the crock pot.

Serve with hard rolls, potato salad or coleslaw on the side, and pepper rings.  I like pumpernickel best, but rye is also traditional according to Stan's manner of presentation.

doc

←

[sheetz]

I just tried the google search for this, but I'm not sure that this recipe's still out there.  Anyone have a copy? 

Much appreciated!

Margo

←

It's still in the cache

http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache:AxbUXp...lient=firefox-a

[deltadoc]

I just tried googling it again. I found it right away. Make sure that Delta and Doc's are separated by a "space", and don't use the quotation marks.

So you would type in: Delta Doc's Garlic Beef

Thanks for all the feedback, glad people are enjoying this!

doc

[RAHiggins1]

After you remove the roast and strain the stock, try crumbling up one or two gingersnap cookies and mixing it in to the pot liquor.

Edited December 8, 2008 by RAHiggins1 (log)

[Bella S.F.]

I just used the link to see Giada De Laurentis' recipe for Stracoto with Porcini Mushrooms that onrushpam recommended. There are only 8 ingredients and there are 274 glowing reviews for the recipe on the Food Network's website. How can you not try something like that?

For anyone who has made it... do you find that 350 degrees is too high? I know that in the Braising with Molly Stevens thread, most people seem to think that you need to cook things at a lower temperature. What temp have you used?