I received an inquisitive email from Shuna of Eggbeater last week. She was interested in preparing the Fatted Calf’s special this week, the Brasato al Midolo. I had to admit I hadn’t purchased / gnawed on one as of yet. It couldn’t be that tough, it’s a simple pot roast and they did most of the work already. After a few more emails it was clear I needed to reserve myself one. Interested to see what went on that lazy Sunday afternoon?
Shuna and I met first thing at the Fatted Calf stall bright and early Saturday morning. We jabbered for a bit, enjoyed the sun and talked about the pot roast meal that was in front of us. As Jlee pointed out, the roasts came with a little recipe to get people started, excellent. I wanted to see what they had to say about cooking the roast. Oh thank the mighty meat fairy, 300 degrees for 5 hours. The stars are aligned!
Shuna and I parted, she for the market and me for home, since I’d completed my rounds.
I begain to prep my roast about 11am Sunday morning, gotta give it time to get the chill off its bone. Heh, that’s funny. Okay, here we go.
Making a lip smacking good pot roast isn’t that tough. Then why do most people say, “oh mine is always so dry” or “the meat is so tough!” Yeah, well you didn’t cook it long enough or slow enough, foo. Unless you have a pressure cooker, an excellent pot roast cannot be made in 2 hours, or 3 hours. It takes about 5 hours to get the beef right and the sauce reduced. So this is why I started dinner that early in the day. FC’s recipe was basic;
Beef Roast – 1
Onions – a few pounds of those really nice tiny little round jobbies
Shallots
Extra Virgin
Hearty red wine – 1 bottle (standard size, not the magnum)
Meat broff – 1 quart
I added:
leftover bacon from breakfast
leftover coffee from breakfast – 1/3 cup
FC’s Glace (meat jello)
Brown the roast in the oil, add the rest of the ingredients and install in to a 300 degree oven with a tight fitting enamel coated cast iron oven. You can brown the onions & shallots if you like.
I checked mine a few hours in and the moisture really hadn’t reduced. While I do enjoy a lot of gravy, I like a substantially rich one. So, I cocked the lid a little and went another hour.
Let’s see, about 4 hours I took the lid off entirely. The size of the roast had greatly shunken and turned quite dark.
Originally I wasn’t going to post this image, but I thought you should see what it looked like when I pulled it at 5 hours. Inside there is solid beef butter budro.
Since the recipe calls to make it one day and save it for the next, that’s just what I did. What you see below is Monday’s Pot Roast supper.
Here is Shuna’s Pot Roast. How’s that for fancy steppin’?
Wasn’t quite sure how to plate this up. So, I brought in a little help. Thank you Sigmund!
There were smacking sounds going on for about 30 minutes Monday night. 10 year old Z couldn’t stop and Mama remarked it was one of the bestest pot roasts we’d done in quite some time. And that’s what an excellent pot roast takes, quite some time. All I had to do was show the meat a fork and it leaped to pieces, good boy!
Thank you Shuna for kicking my behind to try FC’s Brasato al Midolo, it was a fun few days.
Xo Xo
ps – Isn’t Sam the one that does these ‘ps’ thingies? Some of you may be wondering what happened to Sunday’s dinner. Since we didn’t eat the pot roast that night, what did we have?
This beef roast was installed in to a 375 oven and basted with red wine every 15 minutes or so until it was at 130 internal temp. It was okay, nothing to spend any time writing about.
That roast was a winner and worth the price of overeating. Actually, I in awe that I don’t weigh 300 pounds already.
You have kids to chase after, Mamma. That burns a lot of calories.
I am in total agreement about cooking pot roast: if you don’t have a pressure cooker, cook it for at least five hours. Geez, is that so hard?
Love the Sigmund. Haven’t seen him in a long while.
Do you have an H.R. Puffinstuff hiding at your house, too?
Hey Barbara,
Apparently it is. When they find out, pretty much all they have to do is lower the temp and cook it longer, it’s like a light bulb goes off. Pow!
Ya know, I don’t have the Puffinstuff. I do however have to watch how many ‘props’ I keep on hand. We don’t have a large house, in fact it could be considered a large closet.
What’s for lunch?
Biggles
Hello Dr. Biggles, first time commenting here. I just recently found your page and I would just like to say WOW. This is my new favorite page and can honestly say I will be doing many of the recipes if not all of them. I love the passion you show for your food. Very inspiring. I did the mashed potato covered meatloaf and just loved it. I kept eating and eating….The next day seemed to be even better.
Thank-you
Hey Isabelle,
Geez, thank you for the kind words. And if you found that awesome meatloaf recipe you have been digging for goodies.
My suggestion would be to try the pork sirloin roast braised in milk I did last week. It’s one of the best things we’ve had here in a long time.
Seeya,
Biggles
Tell me about the marrow. Did it make a difference? I’ve got a couple of bones in the freezer, and I’m not sure what to do with them. I might just roast them for toast, the way I’d originally planned. But I’m curious about your marrow-stuffed roast.
Hey Cookie,
Sorry for the delay in responding. I’m usually so quick! Been having a horrible day, it’s not going my way, even now.
Not exactly sure, but I would have to side on the way of YES. And it wasn’t so much for the reduce broffs, but for the internal juiciness of the meat. It was extraordinarily moist.
Biggles