Gary wrote:
....
> My teasing here of pot roasts truly comes from my ignorance. I've
> never had a good one so I've never been tempted to waste my time
> and food to make one.
>
> That said..... over time I've seen many pot roast pics here and
> they all look so good. BTW, your's looked very good too.
>
> Anyway, I've spotted the main problem with all the ones I've
> had.....neither Mom or 'The wife' ever thickened the liquid after
> cooking. I know there's a good bit of beef flavor there. All I
> got was a spoonful of the water on the plate. The meat was
> shreddable and bland, those large cuts of potatoes and carrots
> were...blah. No butter offered for the vegetables. Never a meal
> to look forward to.

oh geeze, if you've not roasted the onions, potatoes
and carrots enough to get some brown on them then that
would be very blah indeed. to me the main reason for
a pot roast is the roasting of the veggies along with
it. the beef flavor in the juice/gravy is very important
too. we usually add some mushrooms to go with it and
give it a bit more substance. do you like mushrooms?

oh, and garlic, we like our garlic in there to cook
along with it and that also gets a bit carmelized.


> I suspect that flavorful water, thickened a bit and turned into a
> gravy would make all the difference.

quite a bit if you're not roasting the veggies enough.


> I do absolutely love my homemade beef stew and isn't that about
> the same thing just smaller pieces of everything? And I do
> thicken a bit with flour before or cornstarch at the end.

not at all IMO. the key word of pot roast is ROAST...


> oh well

haha, yep, like most things here, it's just a matter
of tastes...


songbird