Pot Roast Halfway Successful

While I was in Dallas for a recent surgery, we had some friends come over to take care of our pets.  Feed them, clean out litter boxes, etc.  They did a wonderful job and went above and beyond.  So we had them over for a dinner party (during the midafternoon). 

For this dinner I decided to serve Pot Roast since it is relatively easy to make and you can cook it and forget about it. 

I looked up several recipes in preparation for my dinner, but did not find one I was willing to bet on, so I decided to wing it.  Here is what I know about pot roast.  If you sear the meat first, you caremalize the sugars in the fatty parts of the meat.  This adds flavor later.  A good pot roast is cooked slowly over a long period of time.  The base can add flavor, whether you use beef broth, tomato sauce, V8 juice, whatever.  And you can cook your vegetables in with the pot roast itself.  Knowing these facts I set to work,

First, I had two roasts, both 2 lbs. in size.  I decided to cook on e on the stove and one in the oven.  I seared both pieces on the stovetop at a setting of 4.5, took the meat out, and deglazed with red wine.  I then cut one onion in each pot and let that cook into the red wine.  I placed the meat back on top of the onions, poured in 3 cups of water each and brought to a simmer.  After simmering, I lowered the temperature on the range to 1.5, just high enough to keep the pot simmering.

I set the oven temperature to 250 degrees and put the second roast in there.  It required that I turn it up to 275 before it started to simmer.  After cooking for 2.5 hours, I added potatoes and carrots to both pots, and continued to cook for another hour.

One roast was dry, the other done to perfection.  Can you guess which was which?  Here's some more info:  The pot on the stove was my stainless steel.  The pot in the oven was my Calphalon non-stick.  They were both the same piece of meat, but one had been frozen (the one in the Belgique). 

I had my guest make gravy for me (thanks, Nick) as I was never that good at it.  I watched closely, asked questions and he was very helpful.  He added two tablespoons of Corn Starch to a bowl with enough water to make a slurry.  He then added this mixture to the remaining fluid from both pots (combined into one) and cooked until gravy was formed.  Voila!

We all had a good time eating the food.  I found that regardless how dry the meat, it is nothign that can't be fixed with the judicious application of massive amounts of gravy!!!!