Looks delicious. But now I’m craving barley. 
1 Like
I didn’t have any lying around, and these days, we are only going to the grocery maybe monthly to avoid the germies. The pearl couscous gave it a similar mouthfeel. Tasty!
3 Likes
Back when people hated fat and chuck roast was cheap I would use it for chili rather than ground beef. I’d cut away any fat and gristly parts, sear those in oil to draw out the flavor, then pull that out and brown the diced lean.
I tried something like this recently and it didn’t work as well as my memory of it, but that could just be quality of meat.
Pork butt roast? I’d go with posole of one kind or another. And as above I’d cut away the fat and proceed. (Bone-in? That makes things difficult; you might roast it for an hour, pull/cut out the bone and then make the posole. But in my experience it’s harder to cut away fat from warm meat, so maybe let it cool first?) Anyway I’m not an expert, just thinking aloud.
Oh but get the stock out of that bone somehow. You might even simmer the whole roast rather than roast it, and use the stock for the posole.
I’m making a sauerbraten tonight. I’ve been looking at recipes with and without ginger snaps, and recipes with and without sour cream.
Any thoughts?
I did a search for MS roast, figuring someone had already mentioned it. It really is one of the best things to do with a nice chuck roast. That, or @LindaWhit’s lemon pot roast 
2 Likes
When 7 blades are on sale I’ll stock up and make ‘soup meat’ which turns into meals for: enchiladas, burritos, tacos, etc as well as vegetable soup with a chunk of beef to be served with a crusty roll and Durkee’s dressing on the side. Pork Butt gets made into chile verde and the likes.
Thanks, @linguafood ! Didn’t know this thread was here!
Here’s my Mom’s pot roast recipe from a 1968 Panhellenic Cookbook called “MEATS”:
Mom’s Lemon Pot Roast
3 lbs chuck roast
1 cup dry red wine
1/4 cup lemon juice, or more to taste
1/2 tsp garlic powder (I use up to 1 tsp.) or use 2 cloves of fresh garlic, minced
1/4 cup onion, finely chopped
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp celery salt (I omit - or I’ll add a 1/4 tsp. celery seed)
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/4 tsp thyme, or 2 tsp. fresh minced thyme
1/2 tsp ground ginger, or 1-1/2 tsp. fresh (but I often add more ground ginger)
Brown meat well on all sides in a little bit of olive oil in a large Dutch oven. Add 1 cup of wine OR 1/2 cup water and 1/2 cup dry red wine and simmer, covered, for 1 hour.
Meanwhile, blend remaining ingredients in tightly covered clean jar by shaking all ingredients together. Add to beef. Simmer another 1-1/2 hours, occasionally basting roast or turning it over in the braising liquid.
Remove meat to platter. Mix together 2 heaping tablespoons flour with a little water in a jar. Whisk into liquid in pot and simmer until thickened to make a gravy. Carve roast into slices (it may just fall apart into chunks!), put on a platter and add 1 thinly sliced lemon to all as garnish.
I always have it with boiled potatoes and carrots. Also - it’s easy to cut into slices/chunks, and store in the freezer in its gravy. Defrosts and re-heats nicely in the microwave. All I have to do it boil some new potatoes and carrots and I have a quick weekday dinner.
4 Likes
The cookies are optional but I would add them for spicing and thickening (consider using Spekulatius instead tho). This recipe looks solid. I’ve never seen it with sour cream and personally wouldn’t – I think it looks unappetizing with red wine. But others would disagree. Have the sour cream on the side.
1 Like
My favorite pork shoulder (that isn’t pulled pork) is fairly low roasting until it is sliceable-tender but not completely falling apart like shredded/pulled pork. Warning, this is not a fast recipe.
(see edit at bottom about application to a beef roast, like for sandwiches)
Basis is for a 5-6 pound shoulder.
- Trim most of the fat cap off, in as complete/large pieces as you can, so that you can get salt penetration on all sides (save fat).
- Salt all over at 1%-1.25% by trimmed weight. Subtract 1 pound from calc if bone-in, because that’s fairly typical for a blade bone from a 5-6 pound roast. Stick in fridge for an hour or 2 for salt to dissolve and start to penetrate.
- Mix together 2 Tbs each minced/grated garlic and fresh rosemary (I blitz this in spice grinder because I don’t like to bite into rosemary pieces, and you get better coverage), 3-4 anchovy slices, 1 tsp black pepper, and 3-4 Tbs oil of choice (olive, avoc, etc.). Paste this all over the meat with a fork or something, then replace fat cap pieces as well as you can (like a fat toupée for your bald roast) and stick in the fridge a couple more hours, or overnight if you want to start the cooking process the next day.
- 30-50 mins ahead of the end of your fridge time, preheat oven to 450°F (my oven is slow to really get to temp, vs when it claims to be at temp). You can pull the meat out of the fridge at the same time, but it won’t make much difference.
- Roast 30 minutes to get some browning, then drop oven temp to 250°F and stick a probe in it (see first note). From here it might take another 5-7 hours depending on roast size and oven variability. You’re shooting for an internal temp around 180-185°F which is that “tender but still sliceable” point mentioned above. I’ve gone as high as 190°F and it still seemed fine but was a bit more crumbly when trying to slice.
- Let it rest uncovered about 20-30 minutes before starting to slice. If you want more crust, crank the oven back to 450°F (with or without your fat toupée) or so during the rest period and give it another 15-20 minutes. I’ve done it once, but don’t think it needs it, but folks differ. Discard fat or cook down to crisps if you’d like.
Some notes.
- Depending on how fatty the roast looks inside (like if you move the muscle groups around a bit when seasoning), I’ll either go deep-ish sheet pan with a rack, or use a DO. Sometimes a rather lower-fat piece will get a little dry on the sheet pan, and using a DO means I can put the lid on for the last couple of hours to retain more moisture. You could also dump a couple of cups of hot water in the bottom of a sheet pan and tent with foil the last couple of hours.
- I’ll often defat the pan juices and thicken with a bit of starch for folks to pour over the sliced meat, or extend it with chicken broth and make a full tub of gravy if having taters.
- 275°F during the long baking period shaves about an hour or a bit more off the total time.
- All temps mentioned are using a stand-up type in-oven thermometer because I really can’t trust my oven’s brain very much.
ETA - this same prep above is good for making roast beef sandwiches. I usually use an eye round roast, reducing the called-for seasonings by half, except keep the full tsp pepper, and keep the salt level at 1-1.25%. Rub it in, give it a few hours in the fridge, roast this one at 325° for about and hour to 80 minutes shooting for about 128°F internal. If thin-slicing for sandwiches, let cool then fridge for several hours. If eating right away as thicker slices, just give it about 20 minutes rest and start slicing.
Alterations on the beef roast include adding a tsp each of onion and mustard powders. I should try that with the pork, too.
3 Likes
Thank you!
I almost went to buy some ginger snaps but I don’t need any other groceries right now.
I decided to add the spices and brown sugar from a ginger snap recipe, same proportion but less of the mix (1.5 tsp ground ginger : 1 tsp ground cinnamon : 1/4 tsp ground cloves) , brown sugar and flour. May add dried currants.
That does look like a good recipe, I had looked at it yesterday 
.
I’m making this sauerbraten with no salt, and I haven’t been cooking with bacon because of restrictions at home, but I’ll follow it more closely another time.
I bought my first juniper berries a month ago. I’ve always made sauerbraten without them previously.
1 Like
Is that the temp after it has had time to rest and rise, or the internal temp while it’s still in the oven? This sounds delicious.
1 Like
Aren’t you worried it’s going to be too sweet & sour without any salt to balance the flavors a bit?
That’s the oven/pull-out temp. Note at 250°F vs a hotter oven, you shouldn’t get too much carry over. I’d guess just a couple of degrees - however I’m not sure because I don’t recall ever watching, and actually writing down how much I got.
My basic info for my “couple of degrees” guesstimate is that I’ve checked beef prime rib roasts started at 550°F for 30 minutes and then finished at a steady 300°F, and what I’ve got charted is they nearly always carried from 4-5 degrees from a pull temp 124-125°F, at that time with a loose tent (I stopped tenting a few years ago, but haven’t recorded the carry since then, either). So, factoring lower overall oven temp plus the difference between oven ambient (which should be the meat surface temp) vs. meat center being a lot larger number for the beef (175) vs. the pork (70), the pork carry should be considerably lower.
The only tactile cue I can offer on the pork is if you check it at 180°F and stick a slim knife deep into it, it should go in and come back out without much push/pull force required. Or give it a light twist and see if it’s strongly resisting deformation. If it’s still stiff, then I’d let it go to 185°F.
No. Strict no added salt for health reasons.
I roasted chicken at 400 with lemon, marjoram, paprika last night and it turned out good, without added salt.
Will let you know how this goes.
For a while my FIL was on a salt restricted diet and I cooked several chicken and one pork dish for him that was basically just Mrs. Dash seasoning. If I had to always cook no-added salt, that stuff (or Bragg’s, which I’ve also tried and liked in no-salt applications) would be my go-to.
2 Likes
I’m an absolute salt fiend, so I cannot imagine cooking without it. I will be eternally grateful if I never everrrrr have to limit my salt intake.
3 Likes
Not a fan of the Mrs Dash type stuff, but I am a big fan of vinegar, lemon, wine and I own hundreds of dried herbs and spices.
2 Likes
Hopefully you won’t have to.
Late Middle Age is a bitch (for me)
I am almost at the point of giving up on restaurant food. Lol. Not quite.
Oh, it is for everyone, trust. But they will have to take that salt shaker from my cold, dead hands.
4 Likes
