Ted shuffled out of his cave and grunted these great (and sometimes not
so great) words of knowledge:

For future reference.

When cooking tough cuts of meat I put the meat on a rack in a pan, put
about 1/4" of water in the bottom of the pan, cover tightly with
aluminum foil and cook at 200 - 225 degrees for about 4 hours or until
the internal temperature is to about 145 - 150 (for med rare - medium).
Let the roast sit, loosely covered for about 15 - 20 minutes before
slicing (lets the meat finish cooking and lets everything settle out).

The low temp plus the slow cooking break down the tough connecting
fibers in the meat. I have done tough cuts like this and they have
always come out tender.

> As per instructions, I made a dry spicy rub which I coated the blade roast
> with and let sit in the fridge overnight. Seared the roast for a couple of
> minutes on each side, then removed from heat. Fried up some onions and
> celery, added a little bit of red wine, brown sugar and garlic. Put them in
> a roasting pan below the roast. Cooking at 300 degrees, this was supposed
> to be ready in 3 hours.
>
> It's now been 4 hours - the roast is tough, tough, tough. Now if I kept it
> in for another 3 hours or even perhaps turn the oven off and leave overnight
> will it become more tender?
>
> Elaine (whose supper plans are now meat pies).
>
>