Pot Roast: An Experiment in Cooking

A few weeks back I got a free piece of beef from Camelot Keyholder training (Pavel didn't want to leave it in the fridge and didn't want to take it back with him). So I decided to (along with some of my free potatoes and free vegetable broth) to make a pot roast.

Earlier today I covered small potato pieces with salt, pepper, thyme, and oil to make roasted potatoes in the oven. I kept them in for about an hour and a half at 375. They were tender, perhaps too tender. Keeping them in the oven for half an hour less would have made them equally tasty.

For the pot roast, I did the following:

• Rubbed salt and pepper into the meat
• Stuck some baby carrots into slits in the meat
• Seared all the sides of the meat in a pan on medium heat to seal in the juices
• Put the meat on a cookie tray while using the pan I seared it in to bring vegetable broth, onion, salt, pepper, bay leaves, carrots, and potatoes to a simmer
• Put the meat back into the pan, cover with foil, and put it in the oven
• Keep it in the oven at 375 for 3.5 hours, checking on it approximately every hour
• Potentially uncover the meat and turn down the heat towards the end of the 3.5 hours (I turned the heat down to 250 for the last hour and a half - the important part is to keep the liquid at a simmer)

I started this process at about 8:30pm by rubbing the salt and pepper into the meat. I was originally going to use red wine for the liquid, but decided to use vegetable broth instead, and drink the wine with the pot roast instead. It will be done in about half an hour, after which I will try it, wrap it, and eat it for lunch tomorrow.