On Wed, 8 Aug 2018 12:40:05 -0400, songbird >
wrote:

>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

I usually add 'shrooms, carrots, celery, some bay leaf, s n'p
and a load of barley. I end up with nicely sliced beef and then
luscious beef barley 'shroom soup. I add onion and some garlic
but I leave them whole so I can fish them out for me, my wife gets an
upset stomach from eating onion and too much garlic. For soup I like
to cook barley until it's half dissolved/creamy. For best flavor I
use an assortment of dehy wild 'shrooms. Dehy 'shrooms yield a more
intense flavor than fresh. I don't roast the veggies, I saute them in
the pot after browning the beef roast. With the barley I don't add
potatoes.