overwhelmed with pot roast options
Having spent my teens and 20s as a vegetarian, I missed out on a lot of basic meat knowledge. Now I'm back in omnivore-land, I am armed with a Crock Pot, and I want a pot roast.
My question: researching cuts of beef suitable for slow-cook pot roasting has left me overwhelmed. Chuck? Blade? Rump? Bottom? I'm looking for something fairly healthy/not fatty, or at least easily trimmable, and almost more importantly, it'd be great to know which options are interchangeable in case something's on sale. Like, I've seen recipes that call for chuck roast -- is there something that's very similar if chuck is overpriced at my little market?
Oh, and size is no issue. I also want leftover pot roast. Thanks, Serious Meat-ers!
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5 Comments:
For pot roast, pretty much any cut of meat with a bit of connective tissue and fat will work. Chuck roast is good, as is blade. Most of the fat will rise to the top, which you can take off with a bulb baster. Avoid any of the finer cuts like filet mignon, sirloin, New York strip, etc. There isn't enough fat in them to make the long slow cooking worth it, and low n' slow cooking is what you're after.
Lilith at 2:58PM on 11/09/09
I only use chuck for pot roast, comes out great every time.
SSMom at 5:01PM on 11/09/09
I've used all you've mentioned, as well as a top sirloin (which I'd say was the leanest from my experience).
MoEats at 5:25PM on 11/09/09
Oh, cool, I'd never heard of top sirloin. And using a bulb baster to remove fat is a great idea! I need to buy one for my first T-day turkey in 15 years, anyway. Thanks so much.
Mary Phillips-Sandy at 6:03PM on 11/09/09
Pot roast is always better the next day, or at least after it's been refrigerated and reheated. There was a Good Eats episode that explained why this is true, but who cares, anyway.
Instead of fiddling around with a baster trying to get the fat off, just put it in the fridge and the next day the fat will be hardened at the top and you can just pull it all off.
dbcurrie at 2:16AM on 11/10/09