For most of my childhood, I ate my grandmother’s roast. While it was good, it wasn’t fork tender. And she was sort of evil. She shoved red hot pepper slivers down in the roast. If you were the unfortunate person to get the piece with the pepper, you needed three glasses of water or milk to cool your mouth. Bad Maw Maw!
When I got married at the ripe age of 17, I didn’t know how to make roast. I bought the cheapest cut available and tossed it in a crock pot with water and cooked it on high. The result was less than appealing. But hey! I tried!
Cooking a roast can seem like a daunting task, but it really isn’t. I’ll walk you through it, Grasshopper and before long you will become the teacher and I the student.
When you go to choose a roast, you want one that has the least amount of fat on the exterior and rectangular in shape. Sometimes you can’t get that, so no worries. Just do the best you can.
Place your roast on a flat surface like a cutting board and stab holes into it. Yes, get all psycho on your roast. Stab it almost all the way through. Depending on the size of your roast, you should have at least 10 puncture wounds. Poor roast.
Now melt 1/2 stick of unsalted butter. Add 2 teaspoons of Worcestershire sauce. Add 1 teaspoon of soy sauce. Mix thoroughly to combine. Add 1/4 cup of beef broth that I hope you made yourself. You didn’t? Sigh. One day you will young Grasshopper and you will never buy the preserved stuff again! Okay, open a box of beef stock/broth and add 1/4 a cup. Oh and do me a favor. Never, ever, ever buy, nor use, Bouillon cubes. You might as well just throw in a cup of salt.
Now take a 2-3 cloves of garlic and split them in 1/3s or halves- depending on the size. Stuff those randomly in the holes, but try to disperse as evenly as possible. If you like, sliver half of an onion and stuff some in the holes, too.
Now, pour your butter, soy, Worcestershire, broth mix over the top of the roast. Try to let as much as you can drip into the holes.
Here comes the part almost no one does and should. Season the outside of the roast. If you were a good girl or boy, you made your house seasoning. Yay! Take 1-2 tablespoons and rub it all over the roast, top to bottom, side to side. If you didn’t, well never fear. You can do it on the fly. Sprinkle salt liberally but not too much over the entire thing. Now follow with black pepper. Use about 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder and 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon of onion powder to sprinkle over and around the roast.
Heat your oven to 500 degrees. Yes, it’s NASA hot, but essential. Put your roast in a bed and canopy of tinfoil. You want it covered but you want an opening to vent steam.
Slide that bad boy into the oven and let it go for 20 minutes. Turn the heat down to 300 after that and let it go according to size. If it’s a 3-5 pound roast, I let it go for 3-4 hours. If it’s larger, I would let it go all day. You want it lower and slower so it will be fork tender.
This is not a “carving” roast. This is a clunky, soft, fall apart roast that is so good you’ll go back for seconds, thirds and more.
To know if it’s fork tender… use a fork. See if it readily shreds when you press on a piece. See if you can cut it with your fork. If you can, you’re golden. Enjoy!
If you still have leftovers, which is unlikely, after two days, take the meat and place it in a skillet or pot with 1-2 bottles of your favorite BBQ sauce. Heat until warm and serve on buns. Pull apart beef BBQ sandwiches, yum!
Save the drippings because coming up next, we’re making gravy!
From my table to yours,
~Dado
Email Questions or Comments to tastesofthebayou@gmail.com!
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