Take medium to large onion and some celery tops, chop it up and brown in oil in a large cast iron pot/dutch oven. If you burn it slightly don't worry about it. Remove them from the pot when the onions are soft.
3 to 4 pound chuck roast. Salt and pepper both sides and on medium high heat sear both sides. Add oil to the pan if necessary, you don't need a lot. You can take it to the point it's getting really dark and almost burnt. I take this to the next step and sear all the edges too.
Remove the roast from pan, turn the heat to high and pour about 1/2 cup of hot water into the pan. Scrape around the pan a little with wooden spoon, spatula or whatever.
Remove pan from the heat and put the roast back in the pan. Add enough water so it's almost covering the roast.
Add the onion/celery mixture to the sides of the pan. Add some small whole portabella mushrooms, teaspoon of minced garlic, salt, pepper and a teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce.
Cover and cook in the oven for 3 1/2 to 4 hours on 220.
Remove the roast from the pan and set on dish, cover with aluminum foil. You will probably need a really large spatula for this operation because it will be falling apart.
Drain the liquid from the pan through a strainer into a bowl, pick out the mushrooms. Gently mash what is left to get as much liquid as possible into the bowl.
Chop the mushrooms and return them and the liquid to the pan. Bring to a boil.
Slowly whisk two tablespoons of dissolved cornstarch into the liquid. If you are unfamiliar with using cornstarch you need to dissolve it in a little cold water first. Just put it in a little bowl and mix it with the cold water. If the gravy is too thin, add some more cornstarch mixture.
Test the gravy to make sure it's salted enough.
If you are a male, married and do not cook serve to your wife and you can send the check to....
Baby Back Ribs
Take a cookie sheet large enough to fit the rack and put apiece of aluminum foil to cover cookie sheet. Take another piece of aluminum foil double the size of the cookie sheet and put half of it on the cookie sheet. .
Spread your favorite pork rub over the ribs. If does not have brown sugar in it spread that over ribs too, might be like half a cup. Salt and pepper depending on the pork rub.
Place the ribs on the foil and pinch up the aluminum foil to form a boat. Preferably you want to do this the night before but at least one hour before you cook them.
Right before adding to the oven put half a cup of apple cider vinegar and 1/4 cup water in the boat and use the extra flap of aluminum to tightly cover them.
Bake in the oven on 220 for 3 1/2 to 4 hours.
Remove from the oven and drain the liquid from the boat into a frying pan.
Reduce liquid until it's thick and gooey. Spread over the top of the ribs.
Place under the ribs under broiler until the edges get that slight burn, careful here, you are seconds from disaster because the sugar can burn really quickly
Try the chuck roast recipe starting off in the smoker I've done this and finished it off in a heavy aluminum foil pocket. Now it's a quarter to twelve and I'm hungry for dinner already!
No smoker, that's like work anyway. When I was really young I can remember watching my Grandmother sear a roast on Saturday night until is was black but these were big roasts with enough to feed 8 adults and 3 kids. . Then it went on cast iron pot on the stove overnight, not sure what temp but I'm sure it was right around simmer. Then my Granfather had the obligatory complaints about the meat.... A 5 star chef couldn't satisfy him, going to a restaurant was always an adventure.
Chuck Roasts were standard Sunday fare at our house when I was growing up. There were 7-8 of us. Mom use to let the roast simmer on top of the stove starting with about 1/4 inch of water in the pot and let it cook off. That would render some of the fat into the water and brown the meat nicely in it's own juice. Flip and repeat! My SIL does it you way and goes for black searing. Can't beat it either way.
franco b wrote:I mostly lived on shoe leather; at least that was what my father called it.
It's really hard to mess up a chuck roast and they have such great flavor. The local market sometimes has them cut into steak sizes and if it were up to me I'd buy them all the time. The one section is a little tough for steak. My Grandmother has difficulty with tougher meat so they are out of the question for her as steak, lucky for her I'm a good cook. I usually get two Delmonico's and cut off the half moon section on each of them for her or I'll get a big Porterhouse and give her the fillet mignon half.
First time I made these for her she's telling me you have to cook them hours, blah, blah,blah.... I got compliment for these and with her if she tells you she liked something that means she really liked it.
We make 7 bone Chuck Roast, talk about flavorful. I put it in the dutch oven with carrots,potatoes,onions, and garlic cloves 1/2 cup of wine and an envelope of Lipton onion soup mix I cook at 325 for 3-4 hours. It's delicious and it pulls apart. I make gravy with the drippings that is pure gold, and the dog enjoys the bones.
If you cook it all in a Reynolds oven bag cleanup is super easy.
Batchelor day. Hmmm, what's for supper? Got out the Weber Smokey Mountain smoker and loaded it up with a pork butt, venison, and a beef tri-tip.
Tri-tip for dinner! Smoked it for 1 hour and 45 minutes at 230 and pulled it out of the smoker. Perfect at 143*F. 1" slices on the grill for some more flavor - as if it needed it. Baked potato, and a side of beet and sauerkraut salad. A good night.
drool ...