Review: Paula Deen Pot Roast

[thistlechaser]

Okay, so this pot roast is officially called Mississippi Pot Roast, but it should be named Paula Deen Pot Roast. Who in their right mind (other than obviously clueless me) puts a whole stick of butter into a pot roast?! Why did I not question that BEFORE making it?

Ugh.

On the plus side, at least it came out tasting somewhere in the fine-good-interesting range -- flavor varied bite by bite, so it's hard to pin it down closer than that. I'll finish it (over the next many meals), but I won't be making it again as-is (and likely not a variation of it).

The so-called "gravy" was about 50% grease/melted butter. I skimmed off as much as I could and stuck the rest in the fridge. Tomorrow hopefully I can remove the rest and maybe make real gravy out of it (I've seen it done tons of times, never did it myself).

I keep forgetting I'm really not much of a beef fan (other than in burger form). Don't ask me how I keep forgetting that, but every time I cook beef I remember.

I need to use my crock pot more. Cleanup is so easy!

Interestingly, the onions basically disappeared. A whole big onion's worth of them!

Comments

[ani-mama.livejournal.com]

XD Oh my gosh, one whole stick of butter? That sounds...interesting.

There are lots of simple crockpot recipes out there. don't give up!

My go-to beef roast recipe in the crock pot is: 1 beef roast, 1 packet dry onion soup mix, 1 bottle dark beer(I like Guiness stout,cheaper dark beer should be fine too), 1 onion.

Quarter the onion, place on the bottom of the crock pot, roast goes on top, sprinkle soup mix, then pour beer over everything. Cook for 8 hours or until beef starts falling apart easily. Make gravy using 1 brown gravy powder packet, replace the water called for in the mix with the broth from the pot. Shred the beef and serve with gravy. Super easy, not greasy, and not weird.

[kelen.livejournal.com]

That sounds so good! Going to have to try it. :)

[ani-mama.livejournal.com]

And so easy!

If you have any meat left over(not likely in my house with ravenous boys), you can strain the leftover broth, chop up the meat, and make vegetable beef soup the next day.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Interesting is one word for it!

Yours sounds MUCH better, I'm going to try that next time.

[ashmedai.livejournal.com]

Ugh, that really is a lot of fat, and artificial ingredients too. For me, the whole point of using a crock pot isn't only convenience, but using LESS fat, not more.

Not sure if I recommended this before, but check out what_a_crock, which is an LJ community all about crock pot cooking. There are some good recipes that are posted, and you can ask any question about recipes, recommendations, and crock pot cooking in general. It's a very active community, I like it a lot.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Yes, agreed. Less is not only better, but in this case more didn't even add anything to it!

Thanks, I like that community as well. Somehow it fell off my friends list, reading it now. :D

Edit: Oops, nope, it's still on my friends list, just hasn't had a post in more than a month.

[voidmagus.livejournal.com]

Most sauces contain a considerable amount of fat. Traditional gravy is pan drippings (fat), caramelized protein, and flour. I know quite a few sauces that depend on butter as the fat source...that said, cooking a pot roast is generally a cut of meat with plenty of fat on its own -- I wouldn't add butter to the sauce unless it needed creaminess. Though typically, the roast ends up juicy enough that I wouldn't add gravy unless necessary (or, mashed potatoes).

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the butter was totally unnecessary. There was so much fat in the meat that no extra grease was needed -- just the opposite! Less was needed!

[doxxxicle.livejournal.com]

Um, so it asked for a whole stick of butter, which you thought was crazy and then you went ahead and used a whole stick of butter anyway? Colour me confused.

lokyst and I have been doing a lot of (experimental) cooking over the last year or so and we have come to the conclusion that recipes (except in baking) are merely *guidelines*. We often adjust the recipes for portion size and for sheer "what they hell were they thinking, 5 tablespoons of olive oil?!"

If you generally liked the flavour, don't be afraid to try it again and reduce the butter.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Semi-backwards. A lot of things I cooked were failing because I wouldn't follow the recipe exactly, so lately I've just blindly been following them. It was only when I stopped to think about it (after it had cooked) that I realized how crazy using a whole stick was!

I think you're right, I have to go back to using them as just guidelines and not blindly trusting them.

[isiscolo.livejournal.com]

There is a reason that Mississippi has one of the highest obesity rates in the nation....

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Yep... I did wonder if using 'Paula Deen' and 'Mississippi' was redundant.

[spike7451.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure what a stick of butter is as we don't use that term here but I gather it was quite a lot.

I agree about the ease of cleanup especially as my slow cooker's insert can be used on the stove top to brown things first and can also go in the oven.

The site that ashmedai mentions is quite good I use it too.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Hmm. Borrowing a picture from the recipe page:



It's probably... 10-12 times the butter one would use on a couple of pieces of toast.

[spike7451.livejournal.com]

That is a LOT of butter!

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Yep. And add to that all the melted fat off a very fatty cut of meat...