Braised Pot Roast of Beef
- Ready In:
- 3hrs 40mins
- Ingredients:
- 11
- Serves:
-
15-20
ingredients
- 10 -12 lbs trimmed whole bottom round beef roast
- vegetable oil
- 6 tablespoons flour
- 4 cups beef stock, about
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 2 carrots, roughly chopped
- 2 large onions, roughly chopped
- 1 large celery rib, roughly chopped
- 4 cloves garlic, unpeeled
- 1 large bouquet garni, tied in cheesecloth (10 parsley stems,4 bay leaves,1 tsp thyme, 6 allspice berries)
- 1 bottle healthy young wine, zinfandel,chianti or of like quality
directions
- Tie roast firmly with string; brush all sides with oil and set on a jelly roll pan; brown slowly on all sides under the broiler; watch closely and do not burn.
- In a heavy saucepan, stir 5 T oil with the flour; continue stirring over moderate heat until roux turns a dark nutty brown,about 10 minutes, do not burn;remove from heat, let cool a bit and stir in beef stock; set aside.
- Preheat the oven to 350°; using 2 tsp (less if using salted bouillon), salt the meat on all sides and set fat side up in a large, covered roaster or roasting pan with 3"-4" high sides.
- Place the vegetables, garlic and herb bouquet around the roast and pour in the wine and stock/roux mixture; add more stock if necessary to come almost halfway up the meat.
- Bring to a simmer on top of the stove; cover (use aluminum foil if necessary) and set in the lower third of the oven; bake 1/2 hour or until sauce is bubbling quietly; baste with the gravy and turn heat down to 325°.
- The gravy should continue bubbling gently throughout the cooking so regulate oven accordingly; baste and check every 1/2 hour for another 2 hours; begin testing for doneness with a meat thermometer; remove pan from oven.
- Allow roast to rest 1/2 hour, basting every 10 minutes and turning it several times; remove roast from pan; sieve contents of roaster into a saucepan and squeeze juices out of the braised vegetables into the saucepan.
- Simmer liquid and skim fat from its surface for 1/2 hour; simmer down until the sauce coats a spoon as it will the meat; taste for seasoning and strength; if necessary thin with more stock or thicken with 2T or more of potato flour or cornstarch stirred into several spoons of stock or wine, simmer for 2-3 minutes.
- (Roast may be carved and served at this point but is better if cooked several hours or a day in advance).
- If not serving immediately, pour the sauce around the meat, cover with foil and refrigerate; the roast may be reheated whole or sliced and sauced.
- To reheat whole, cover the meat closely and place in a 300° oven or simmer it over very low heat on top of the stove, turning it every 15 minutes until internal temperature is 120°, about 30-40 minutes; just before serving, cut and discard the trussing string.
- To reheat sliced and sauced, return the sliced beef and sauce to the roaster or a large baking pan; cover; baste with the sauce every 10 minutes and warm through slowly in a 300° oven.
Questions & Replies
RECIPE SUBMITTED BY
sugarpea
Snohomish, WA
I’m a former interior designer and landscape designer. At the moment I get to enjoy being at home and working only when I want to. I like rollerblading, hiking, backpacking and trips to the ocean. I grew up on a farm in the Midwest and moved to the Northwest when I was thirty, over twenty years ago. I’m afraid they’ll have to bury me here in WA. This is God’s country and I’m never leaving.
I have a smallish collection of cookbooks, preferring to use the library and a copy machine. Among my favorites though, are: Recipes 1-2-3, by Rozanne Gold, a collection of recipes containing no more than 3 ingredients (excepting water, salt and pepper); A Treasury of Great Recipes, by Mary and Vincent Price, recipes collected from friends and chefs of great restaurants around the world; The Mediterranean Diet Cookbook, by Nancy Harmon Jenkins, about a collection of cuisines I’m convinced are the healthiest in the world and The Low-Calorie Gourmet, by Pierre Franey.
Currently my passions are our dogs, the garden, cooking, the natural world and of course, Dh. I can now add Zaar to that list of passions (translate: addiction). We have three dogs, two rescued and one adopted. They are Sugarpea, a Golden Retriever, Chickpea, a Llasa Apso and Sweetpea, a Shih Tzu; small, medium and large. We’re quite a sight out on the trail. One of the things I am most fond of about living here is the ability to vegetable garden year ‘round.