Across the Kitchen Table:

The Nice Thing About Pot Roast

Simple Suppers to Ease the Winter Doldrums

The Curious History of Sugar

Another advantage of pot roast is ease of preparation. Once the meat is started in its bath of broth or wine, you can ignore it. Go bowling, clean the house, go back to work, take a nap: your pot roast will be fine without you. You may want to add vegetables to the pot toward the end of the cooking period, or cook them separately, but that’s about it. You can make pot roast one night and reheat it the next, and the juices provide built-in gravy. What could be easier?
To learn more about pot roast, I searched through cookbooks and called two butchers at markets known for their excellent meat. As I suspected, pot roast has one main theme (beef braised in liquid until it is tender) and many delightful variations.

What cut of meat is best?
I called Noel LaFortune at Roy’s Market in Peterborough, New Hampshire. For pot roast, he recommends chuck or bottom round to customers, depending on the preferred outcome. Bottom round is leaner and easier to slice when it is cooked, but it is not as tender as chuck. A chuck roast, whether boneless or bone-in, tends to fall apart into chunks when it is cooked, and it’s tender and full of flavor because of the marbling in the meat.

Allen Parker at Paul’s Choice in Keene, New Hampshire, echoed Mr. LaFortune in regard to chuck and bottom round, and added that some of his customers ask for shoulder roast, which is even leaner than bottom round. I asked Mr. Parker about his own favorite cut for pot roast, and he nominated a blade roast, cut from the shoulder. "It makes a great pot roast, tender and delicious," he said. He cuts out the line of gristle that runs through the center, seasons and ties the meat, and cooks it in a roasting bag.

The Complete Meat Cookbook

Do you have to brown the meat first?
The easy answer is "No." Some cooks prefer to dredge the meat in flour and brown it before adding stock or other liquid. Others simply throw the meat into the cooking pot, add liquid, and let it cook. Both methods bring success. I like to brown the meat first for two reasons: One, because my mother always did, and Two, because it smells so good. But it’s optional, and omitting the step can reduce your hands-on cooking time to just a few minutes.

The recipes that follow show how plain, unvarnished pot roast can make a hearty, delicious meal that is easy on the cook.

Your Basic Pot Roast

1/2 cup flour, seasoned with salt and pepper
1 - 3 pound boneless chuck roast (or slightly larger)
2 tablespoons peanut oil
1 cup beef bouillon
1 cup dry red wine
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
2 teaspoons dried mixed herbs (I like herbes de Provence, or a mixture of rosemary and thyme and whatever else looks good)
1 shallot, peeled and chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped

Sprinkle flour over roast and pat it in firmly with your hands. Heat oil to hot in a heavy, ovenproof pot and brown the roast on all sides. Remove from heat. Add remaining ingredients, cover pot securely, and place in a 350°F oven. Roast for about 3 hours or until fork tender, turning the meat once if you think of it. Remove from oven and place meat on a platter. Spoon some of the juice over the meat and pour the rest into a pitcher or gravy boat. Serve with side dishes of your choice, such as egg noodles, carrots, mashed potatoes, beets, and so on. Makes about 6 servings.

Mom’s "Forgotten" Roast

1 - 3 or 4-pound boneless chuck roast
1 envelope dried onion soup mix
1 can cream of mushroom or cream of celery soup

Put the roast in a glass baking dish or other ovenproof pan. Sprinkle the dried onion soup mix over the surface of the meat and spoon the canned soup (undiluted) on top. Cover securely with aluminum foil. Bake at 300°F for 5 to 6 hours. The drippings and sauce can be served over noodles or potatoes. Makes about 6 servings.

Pennsylvania Dutch Soured Beef Pot Roast

Dredge the meat in the flour, pressing flour into the meat with your hands. Heat the shortening or oil in a heavy pot and brown the meat on all sides. When the meat is browned, add the onions and carrots and sauté until softened. Add the broth, vinegar, and remaining ingredients. Stir well to scrape any browned bits off the bottom of the pot. The liquid should come last least 1/4 way up the sides of the meat. Bring to a fast simmer, then lower heat so the liquid barely bubbles. Cover tightly and cook for at least 2 hours and up to 4 hours, until the meat is fork tender. Add stock or broth if needed to prevent meat from drying out. Transfer meat to a serving platter and skim fat from the top of the gravy. Makes 4 to 6 servings.

Cranberry Pot Roast

Heat oil in a heavy pot and brown the roast on all sides. Add cinnamon, ginger, pepper, and salt. Add 3/4 cup water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover tightly, and simmer for about 2 hours, turning meat once or twice and adding water if needed. When meat is tender, add cranberry sauce to pot and stir to blend. Simmer for 15 minutes, then remove meat to a serving platter. Skim the fat from the surface of the liquid. Stir the cornstarch mixture into the liquid and cook, stirring constantly, until it thickens and boils. Cut the meat into slices or chunks and serve the gravy on the side. Makes 6 to 8 servings.

Simple Suppers to Fight the Winter Doldrums

Even if you love to cook (and don’t we all, under the right circumstances, i.e., unlimited time and an appreciative audience?), sometimes you just slide into the doldrums, buying the same groceries week after week, going through the same pasta/pizza/chicken/fish/burgers rotation — anything that you can make in an hour or (preferably) less.

To break out of the doldrums without having to devote half your life to making supper, consider the following suggestions and recipes. Consider it a celebration of spring to try something new. You won’t miraculously have more time, but you can regain your zest for cooking.

Dinner in Minutes : Memorable Meals for...

2. Go for big flavor. Spice up an old favorite, adopt an ethnic specialty, experiment. Wake up your family’s taste buds.

3. Save time by planning ahead and cooking extra one night to enjoy easy leftovers the next. For instance, grill a couple of extra chicken breasts one night and toss the leftovers with salad greens and Caesar dressing the next night.

4. Make sure to stock up on "mix and match" ingredients so you can vary a recipe by giving it an Asian treatment (ginger, soy sauce, snow peas, and so on), a Mexican twist, or another interesting direction.

5. Always keep fresh parsley, lemons, limes, nuts, plain yogurt, and a few chunks of good cheese on hand to spruce up a plain meal.

6. Use the search function on www.digitalhearth.com. You can go to the Links Directory and click on "Quick and Easy" under Recipes, or simply type in "Quick and Easy Recipes" in the general search box. Two excellent sites are http://quickand easy.allrecipes.com and http://busycooks.about.com.

7. County Extension agents can be counted on for good, sensible advice about cooking. I somehow wandered to a site operated by the University of Nebraska Cooperative Extension and found a gold mine of good ideas and easy recipes. See for yourself at http://lancaster.unl.edu/food/ciqf.htm, home of the Mix and Match Meals idea.

Here are a few personal favorites for quick, tasty main and side dishes to perk up the supper doldrums.

Pasta Provençal

Cook pasta in salted boiling water. Meanwhile, heat olive oil in a large saucepan. Saute eggplant for 1 minute; stir in zucchini, squash, onion, and pepper and cook for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. When pasta is cooked, drain and add to the vegetables along with the tomatoes, olives, capers, basil, and salt and pepper. Toss all together and serve hot. Pass the Parmesan. Makes 4 to 6 servings.

Southwestern Bean and Rice Chili

Combine all ingredients except sour cream in a heavy 6-quart pan. Stir together and cook over high heat until mixture comes to a boil (about 10 minutes). Reduce heat to low, cover, and cook until rice is tender. Stir frequently so mixture doesn’t stick. To serve, ladle into bowls and top each serving with a dollop of sour cream. Makes 6 servings.

Sesame Spinach with Garlic and Ginger

In a small dry skillet, toast sesame seeds over moderate heat, shaking pan, until golden. In a heavy saucepan, heat oil until hot and cook garlic and ginger root, stirring, for 30 seconds, until fragrant. Add spinach by the handful and cook, stirring, until just wilted. Serve spinach sprinkled with sesame seeds. Makes 2 or 3 servings.

Shrimp and Broccoli in Mustard Sauce

Put salted water on to boil for the pasta while you chop the garlic, peel the shrimp, and cut up the broccoli. When the fettuccine goes into the boiling water, heat the oil in a large skillet and sauté the garlic for about 30 seconds. Add the shrimp and stir until it turns pink, about 4 minutes. Add the broccoli and continue cooking until it is bright green, about 3 minutes longer. Stir in broth and wine and bring to a boil, cooking until broccoli is crisp-tender. Drain the pasta when it is ready and use a slotted spoon to spoon the shrimp and broccoli over the pasta. Add mustard to the liquid in the skillet and cook for a few minutes, until slightly thickened. Spoon sauce over the pasta, toss gently, and serve. Makes 6 servings.

The Curious History of Sugar

6000 B.C.

4000 B.C.

800 B.C.

330 B.C

500 A.D.

755 to 950 A.D.

10th Century

11th to 13th centuries

1319

1493

16th Century

17th Century

18th Century

1800

Today

But refined sugar — the white and brown sugar from sugarcane and sugar beets that we consume in prodigious quantities — is a relative newcomer on the Western culinary scene. Although physiologists believe that the love of sweetness is intrinsic to humans (perhaps because naturally sweet-tasting things are usually safe to eat, while plant poisons are nearly always bitter), cultivation of sugarcane spread very slowly from its origins in the South Pacific. If one were to make a timeline of the history of sugar, it might look like this:

More Information

Food in History

The Structures of Everyday Life : The...

The Wheels of Commerce (Civilization and...

4000 B.C.: Sugarcane cultivation spread to Indonesia, the Philippines, and northern India.

800 B.C.: Sugarcane introduced into China, where the boiled-down, sun-dried juice of the plant was called "stone honey," available only to the wealthy.

330 B.C.: Men with Alexander the Great who traveled to India described "a reed which makes honey without bees."

500 A.D.: Sugarcane culture spread to Persia. Arabs brought it to Egypt about 200 years later, where the skillful Egyptians developed the processes of clarification, crystallization, and refining.

755 to 950 A.D.: Sugarcane culture slowly progressed along the southern coast of the Mediterranean. Sugar traded for its own weight in gold, onyx, and Italian marble.

10th Century: Sugar began trading in Europe as a valuable medicine. Its trade, like that of spices saffron, pepper, and cinnamon, was controlled by Arabs.

11th to 13th centuries: Europeans got better acquainted with sugar because of the Crusades, but still regarded it as an expensive medicine. Royal children’s bitter medicines were made more palatable by the addition of sugar.

probably grown in North Africa. Sugar could be purchased only at apothecary shops, where a teaspoonful cost the modern equivalent of $5. (Mary Poppins, where were you when we needed you?)

1493: On his second voyage to the New World, Columbus brought sugarcane cuttings from the Canary Islands to Hispaniola. Sugar production became profitable by 1509.

16th Century: Sugar production quickly spread to the Caribbean basin, Central America, and tropical South America. As more sugar became available, although not necessarily cheaper (its production required very heavy investment), Europeans discovered that fruit could be preserved in sugar, whole or in the form of jam. At the same time, Italian confectioners perfected the art of spun-sugar sculpture, starting a rage among the wealthy for the most elaborate creations.

17th Century: The human implications of the insatiable European demand for sugar became huge, as sugar plantations in the New world begin to rely more and more on slave labor. When sugar planters ran out of natives, they began importing Africans, starting a triangular trade in which commodities and humans were interchangeable.

18th Century: Sugar was no longer a luxury in Europe, but it cost six or seven times as much as it does now. The navies of France and England fought for control over the Caribbean and its most lucrative product.

1800: England consumed 150,000 tons of sugar annually, almost 15 times more than in 1700. The manufacture of beet sugar began on the European continent, and got a big boost when much of Europe was blockaded during the Napoleonic Wars. Beets grow well in cool temperate areas like Canada, Scandinavia, and Russia.

Today: The world’s sugar supply is about evenly shared between cane and beet sugar. High-fructose corn sweeteners entered the market around 1950 and have evolved into a major ingredient in manufactured foods in the United States.

If food history fascinates you, and you want to learn more about a commodity we so often buy and use without really seeing, go to Ray Burke’s "The Bee, the Reed, the Root" at www.gti.net/mocolib1/kid/food.html, read Reay Tannahill’s classic Food in History, or browse through Fernand Braudel’s The Structures of Everyday Life and The Wheels of Commerce. At www.digitalhearth.com, go to the Link directory, click on Food and Nutrition, and go to "history." That ought to give your sweet tooth something to chew on.

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