Biggles' Pot Roast

I don't know if you noticed, but in the comments for my post on the No-Starches Beef Stew, Biggles and I got off-topic and began discussing Pot Roast. I complained that I have never been able to do a decent one--and Biggles generously shared his expertise on the topic. I wanted to make sure that everyone read his comments so I am reprinting them here.

The next time you're at the market, talk to the butcher and ask him/her to recommend something that they have in stock there. Bottom round roast, brisket & rump roast. Whatever one of those they have is fine. Oh yeah and the top round is fine too.
Heat dutch oven with peanut oil to just smoking. Put salt & peppered & flour DUSTED meat in to oil and brown. Pull meat. Cut heat. Dump used oil.
Install roughly cut onion, celery and a lot of carrots in to hot pot. I love braised carrots, that's why I add a lot of carrots. Put two nice bay leaves in. Not old crumbly pieces of nothin'.
Smoosh as much garlic as you can stand and put over all.
Put meat in and cover with the 1 part natural low sodium beef broth, 1 part good dark red wine (not chianti or merlot) and 1 part water.
This should cover meat, even a tad more.
Bring to a boil ON the stove. When boiling put in to a 325 degree oven for 5 hours.
Check at 4 hours or so and see if the liquid has reduced a half or so. If it is still really too liquidy, take the lid off and simmer for another 30 minutes, then check. Keep going until you get what you think is pot roast.

Note: I don't add potatoes to the frey. If you want, steam them afterwards. Or rice or your vegies to pour over.

Here is a nice entry on Meathenge where I did pretty much this:
http://www.cyberbilly.com/meathenge/archives/000234.html


I know this sounds simplistic, but think about it. What is pot roast all about? Two things. The meat & the gravy. Let the meat make the gravy. This coupled with the garlic, wine & bay leaves ... oh baby. You're set. I hope this helps.

I am making a pot roast today according to Biggles' recipe. Just this minute put the thing in the oven--I'll let you know how it went!

Update: At 2 1/2 hours, the pot roast was smelling SOOO wonderful, that I just had to look. And, whaddaya know?, it was already done! (Again, I was using the heavy, camping dutch oven.) I could see the meat was beginning to seperate along the fibers, but I wanted the liquid to reduce some, so I took the lid off and let it go for another 1/2 hour. By the end of that time, the exposed parts of the roast had crispy-ed up some and it looked like perfection! I haven't even served it yet, but of course I've tasted it and it IS perfection--thank you, Biggles!

I was speaking to my Father-in-law, who cooks outside and using this kind of dutch oven frequently. He says that it's almost like using a pressure cooker. I'm going to have to remember to start checking at HALF the cooking time called for in the recipe.

Update 2: Served the pot roast with Boursin-topped mashed potatoes and with peas. The pot roast was quite a hit--Mother-in-law even asked specific questions about how I cooked it! I will never try to cook a pot roast any other way. It was easy and it tasted delicious. What more could you ask?