Table of Contents

Find out what I'm doing and why I'm doing it on my 9/12/9 blog. A listing of Julia's recipes, inlcuding the page number where they can be found in her cookbook, The Way to Cook, the post date and their 'thumb' is found on the 9/16/9 post. A listing of my recipes and where they can be found is on the 9/26/9 blog. Thanks for tuning in. Bon Appetit.

Pot Roast Wars: Julia vs Kay

Second Wednesdays this month was Julia's Pot Roast. As usual her recipe was majorly fussy requiring a whopping 5 pounds of bottom round, trussing, an herb bouquet and an entire bottle of 'a good red jug'. I didn't mind that last part, but the rest seemed like a lot of extra work.

The first hitch came when I asked the butcher for 5 pounds of bottom round, which was more than anyone had ever ordered before, so he had to go cut it especially for me. I foolishly didn't specify that it needed 1/8 inch of fat, so it came with only the lean. I didn't want to complain, and originally I thought that maybe it would be okay, but eventually I was back at the butcher seeing if I could buy some fat. I couldn't, but they dug some out of I know not where and gave it to me for free. So now there was a reason for the trussing, to tie on the fat.

Then the meat needs to be dried and painted with oil. Then it needs to be broiled so that it is nicely browned all over. Then the onion and carrots have to be chopped and sauted and added to the meat along with that jug of red and an equal amount of beef broth, a cup and a half of tomatoes the herb bouquet which included interestingly, peppercorn, allspice berries, cloves, thyme, garlic, parsley and bay leaf. Finally the entire pot is brought to a boil on the top of the stove and then put in the oven to braise for 2.5 to 3.5 hours with a sheet of aluminum foil over the roast plus a lid on the pan. Begin the braise at 400 degrees and then after 15 minutes reduce the temperature to 325. And even now you are not allowed to sit back on your laurels, now you need to turn that monster every half hour so that a different part of him is exposed and out of the liquid.

And for all of this extra effort do you actually get a superior product? I didn't think so. The end result seemed to me to be a bit dry. That could have been at least in part remedied if there had been plenty of gravy, but there was only 3 cups of gravy, which is a meager amount to serve with 5 pounds of meat.

But Kay's Pot Roast, which I have adapted from a recipe given to me by my good friend Joy McManus, begins with a 2-3 pound chuck roast and does its braising in the slow cooker, so once it is in and the lid is on, you can go on your merry way for the next ten hours. First roughly chop 1 onion and throw it in the cooker and plop the roast on top of it. Then cut up a 14 oz. can of cajun style stewed tomatoes (another type would work just find, but I think these add a little pizzaz) and spread them around the outside of the meat. Next add 2 peeled carrots and 1 peeled and chopped potato. Of course, I wanted to include the 'good red jug', but I only needed 2 cups of it and a half cup of beef broth. Then the secret ingredient, 2 packets of onion soup mix, one sprinkled on the meat and one on the broth. I get Lipton's but I am sure others would work fine too. (Each box includes two packets, so use the whole box.)

At the end of the 10 hours remove the meat from the pan and keep warm. Separate the vegetables from the broth and degrease using one of those pitchers with the spout that comes out of the bottom. Pour the remaining liquid (without the fat) and all the vegetables into a blender and puree for several minutes until totally liquified. Then pour it through a large mesh sieve (to catch any surviving chunks of vegetable) and you have 4 to 6 cups of nutritious and delicious gravy without having to make gravy! And the winner of the Pot Roast Wars-definitely Kay.

The Bottom Line:
Julia's Pot Roast-Thumbs Down
Kay's Pot Roast-Thumbs Up

For The Boys-There Is Nothing Like A Meatloaf

One of my guests actually said it was the best meatloaf he had ever eaten. Of course, he is in line to be my son-in-law, so his motives could be called into question. But even if his accolades were suspect, everybody else was grabbing extra slices off the platter too, so maybe it was the best.

At least it was the best I have ever made. Not that there was anything too different from any meatloaf recipe out there, but as is often the case with Julia, she takes a normal everyday recipe and makes it the best that it can be.

Her meatloaf calls for 2 pounds of lean hamburger and one pound of ground pork to be combined with 2 cups of diced onions, 2 pureed cloves of garlic, 2 eggs, 1/2 c. beef bouillon and 1 cup of bread crumbs. It also calls for 3/4 c. shredded Cheddar cheese, but The Main Eater refuses all sustenance that has been contaminated with cheese, so ours was cheese-free. I can only imagine how great it would have been if it had been included.

There are only two items that set hers apart from all the other meatloaves you have ever been subjected to. First, the onions were sauteed before being added to the mixture which mellowed them nicely. Plus I diced them in my food processor, which mulched them more than diced them, and enabled them to be totally incorporated into the fabric of the loaf. The second difference was the spices. I have always been satisfied with salt and pepper, but she also includes 2 t. each of thyme and paprika and 1 t. each oregano and allspice. The end result was a finer texture and more flavor.

Thank you Julia.

The Bottom Line
Beef and Pork Meatloaf-Thumbs Up