Pot Roast

originally posted by: CriticalStinker
a reply to: chr0naut

And the gravy! Always go for a thick non-packet real stock gravy with a splash of red wine in it and reduced 'till it's perfect.

I've been using bone broths for my gravy. I have been making batches and freezing it in small containers for easy portioning when I cook.

the beauty is it even puts the fat on top which I can skim before thawing.... I use the fat to start some garlic or other aromatics before adding in the broth and thickening agents.

We take the marrow bones from our half of beef and make bone broth out of it. It has to be boiled a minimum of twelve hours, but makes really good soup stock. We freeze ours in three cup containers, we have two in the freezer from doing the last of our bones three weeks ago, we made ministroni soup out of half and got six cups left for whatever. How long can it be frozen for, we usually use it up within a few months, but I have big pots, I was thinking it might be good to do lots of bones at a time but I don't know how long it will stay in the freezer.

The fat off the top of the broth is great for frying the onions for the French onion soup. Look up what the cost of organic bone grease is. It is super expensive, but is full of flavor and nutrition. The cowboys years ago used to use bone grease to coat their jerkey from what I read, it kept them healthy and their meat from getting bad.

originally posted by: putnam6

originally posted by: Liquesence
a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Hmm, when I mash taters I definitely use heavy cream and butter, but never thought of horseradish. Fresh garlic and cheese also go well in them.

Serve the 'sauce' over the mashed taters (with butter, S&P), wife give me all the carrots (she hate's 'em) and the beef all around...Pure NIRVANA!!

Maybe I'm Dumb, but that sounds fantastic. All Apologies.

Mom usually makes enough that we have leftovers that we put with cheese and onions in a ramekin add some bacon bits baked for a little and have baked stuffed potatoes with out the skin so good.

Nothing special in her mash potatoes except a little mayo butter salt and pepper, she does whip the hell out of them LOL
but the hold up well we have even added onions and done potatoes pancakes the morning after.

That would go well as a twice baked potato or fried potato cakes!!

My grandmother used to whip to the hell out of hers with an electric mixer, but I find it easier to hand mix. Whipping cream helps.

a reply to: rickymouse

My instant pot has been speeding things up nicely. I still do 6 hours with it till the bones are almost fall apart.

Sometimes I'll smoke the bones ahead of time, but I usually use large beef bones as they're 99 cents a pound

Pot roast with a nice brown mushroom gravy!

Potatoes, your choice...I love au gratin.

A simple green salad, maybe with a nice balsamic dressing to balance the richness of the entree.

And a good red wine...and don’t forget the sourdough bread to “clean the plate”!

a reply to: rickymouse

I don't know. Is there a limit to how long you should simmer a pot of bone broth for?

We go for soft bone, but generally, since one of us is almost always around, we'll put the pot on a let it simmer for a good couple of days at least letting it rest at night when no one is up with it.

Poultry bones don't take as long as beef/pork do.

It's been a while since I've done a pot roast. I can never get the right ratio of liquid to meat and veggies in mine.

originally posted by: ketsuko
It's been a while since I've done a pot roast. I can never get the right ratio of liquid to meat and veggies in mine.

Do you have a big crock pot? Maybe it's the size and lack of displacing from the meat. If so, you could always throw in more potatoes.

a reply to: CriticalStinker

We do have a big one, and ours always turns into soup.

originally posted by: ketsuko
a reply to: CriticalStinker

We do have a big one, and ours always turns into soup.

Sometimes if I'm forced to use a big pot or something to cook something where I'm trying to keep liquid down but still cover something I'll put jars or something in there to displace the liquid without changing the flavor. More potatoes work too.

a reply to: DBCowboy

Not a big fan of cream cheese, personally.

I have to hold the wife back sometimes; just mention cream cheese and she's all over it! She just LOVES the stuff. Me, not so much. Too sweet, or something. It's not really sweet, and it's not really cheesy...I just don't like it (at all really).

originally posted by: ketsuko
a reply to: rickymouse

I don't know. Is there a limit to how long you should simmer a pot of bone broth for?

We go for soft bone, but generally, since one of us is almost always around, we'll put the pot on a let it simmer for a good couple of days at least letting it rest at night when no one is up with it.

Poultry bones don't take as long as beef/pork do.

I never have the patients to boil bones for that long. In the winter, putting them on the stove doesn't cost much extra, because electricity is turned to heat and the boiling water is a humidifier. So it costs a little more than burning oil in the furnace. So boiling them all day makes the furnace run less. But boiling stuff for hours in the summer is kind of house heating, so I don't like to make it too hot in the house for the one month of actual summer we usually get.

a reply to: rickymouse

We're barely going to hit the 70s for the early part of the week this week, so putting a pot of poultry bones on either tomorrow or Tuesday isn't going to cause a lot of heat, and if it does, we'll just open some windows.


It's still that time of year.

originally posted by: ketsuko
a reply to: rickymouse

We're barely going to hit the 70s for the early part of the week this week, so putting a pot of poultry bones on either tomorrow or Tuesday isn't going to cause a lot of heat, and if it does, we'll just open some windows.

It's still that time of year.

I just got a call from the daughter, she picked up a sickness again, along with her son. I got to make a big pot of medicinal chicken soup tomorrow for her.....I just brought over a pot five days ago, she got better and went shopping with her husband and she got sick again.

a reply to: rickymouse

Yeah, that's the downside to it. It's still *that* time of year too. All the ups and downs in the temp put your system through the ringer and those little spring colds get a foothold.

I only saw one word in the OP - "Taters".

a reply to: chr0naut
If you cook pasta, noodles or potatoes as a side, you can use the starchy water to thicken the sauce. What it does is it binds the fat and water together just like flour but it never clumps!

You do it at the end, shortly before serving.

A good way to make sauces is to use the pan you roasted the meat in and use that for roasting some vegetables, kill the roast with wine, liquor, sweet cream (the basis for whipped cream, whatever it is called in English), bone soup or starch water. Then boil up and blend the vegetables, add starchy water and what you will get is a fine sauce, not fatty or gravy that flows but sticks to the plate if you turn it.

The bone soup adds a lot of umami-taste to the sauce, even more if you already have some meat juices from the meat roast.




Oh and my secret is a few cherry tomato that I slightly roast very early together with the vegetables. It adds color and help build the structure of the taste. It gives it a juicy round flavor.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

My husband makes one of the best pot roasts I've ever had.....and this coming from someone who has dined at many 5 star restaurants...

He makes ours in a crock pot or instant pot. Take your pick.... He uses Au Jus, powdered ranch dressing, and Lipton Beefy Onion gravy mix, along with some beef stock and whole banana peppers. But I think the secret ingredient is that he puts an entire stick of butter on top of the roast...then dashes the Au Jus, Ranch, and Gravy on top. Cook that for several hours...then throw in your potatoes, carrots, etc....

I'm telling you...it. is. A-MAZ-ING!

originally posted by: ketsuko
a reply to: rickymouse

Yeah, that's the downside to it. It's still *that* time of year too. All the ups and downs in the temp put your system through the ringer and those little spring colds get a foothold.

I got a call from New Jersy Judiciary today on the phone. I picked up the phone and someone said Hi grandpa. I asked who it was and he said.. "your grandson"

I said you are not my grandson and hung up. It was one of those scam calls where someone tries to get someone to send money to them to get out of trouble.....first one I have had.

First of all, both of my daughters call me rick and all my grandkids call me rick. My daughters asked me long ago why I do not answer to dad. I told them that in a bunch of people there are a lot of dads, but not so many people who go by the name Rick. If they want my attention...call for rick. My grandkids always call me rick, none would ever call me grandpa. Maybe they might explain my relationship to someone, but they all say Rick is my grandfather when doing that.

My daughter saw what I was talking about, she never has to worry about confusing the kids. My daughters grandfather is alive yet, they all call him papa and my ex-wife likes to be called grandma, but my wife is called Pat, even though she is a grandma too....to clarify things.

Those people trying to scam people say hi granpa, then you say who is this and then they say this is your grandson...then the old people say, oh is this mark and they say yes. could you help me, I am in trouble and do not want to call mom or dad. Pretty tricky, never had this done to me before, I now feel entitles. The reason I know about what they do is because an older woman I know fell for that scam around ten years ago and actually wired some money to the person. I thought that scam was gone to the wind already.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk
Love pot roast.
Got to add a bay leaf.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Pot Roast is the king of meals. Period. If you think otherwise it just proves you have serious character flaws which you demonstrate by claiming pot roast is something other than the best.

I will not hold that against anyone but their basic human dignity will forever be in question.