Roast report

[serenissima]

I tried out the slow cooker last Thursday.

Ingredients:

• 3.75 lb beef rump roast, sliced into 1.5 inch slabs
• three potatoes
• one large onion
• a handful of "baby" carrots
• two Roma tomatoes
• a cup of mushroom-flavored water, saved from reconstituting the dried mushrooms the previous day
• about a tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce, mixed with a similar amount of water

Process:
At 1 PM, placed beef, potatoes, and carrots into cooker. Forgot to pre-season the beef. Added onion, Worcestershire sauce and mushroom water on top. Set to cook on "High."
At ~5:15 PM, opened lid briefly to stir mixture and add tomatoes.
At ~6:20 PM, removed a serving for supper, accompanied by pasta. Set cooker to "Low."
At ~8:30 PM, turned off cooker.

Results:
The pieces of beef at the top were dry and hard. There was plenty of liquid in the cooker, but it didn't cover all the solid food. The beef that was submerged was softer. I think there was too much food. It was difficult to stir, and I don't think it's supposed to need stirring. In the future, I'll not use a roast that big, or if I do, I won't put vegetables with it.

Also, there wasn't enough seasoning. I thought the mushroom water would be strongly flavored enough, but I should have used a bouillon cube as advised. That's not a big problem, though, since we can easily add salt and pepper after the fact.

My most important food critic, aristeros, likes it well enough. So I consider it a qualified success.

Comments

[sternbunny.livejournal.com]

The way I do mine is to start out with a 2-3 pound roast, trimmed, but not cut into slabs. Put potatoes and carrots to line the bottom of the crock pot. Season the roast with patting ground pepper, garlic powder and seasoned salt into the meat. Place into cooker, sprinkle on some Worchester sauce. Then put a can of cream of chicken or cream of mushroom soup over the top of the roast. Lid and let cook on low for hours. (I forget exactly how long. I usually check on it after 4 or 5 hours and if it falls apart when I poke it with a fork, it's done. :) ) The moisture from everything cooking mixes with the soup and keeps the top of the meat moist. And it makes a darn fine gravy. I also endorse the Renald's Wrap crock pot liners as they keep me from having to do too much cleanup afterwards. *grin*

Beth

[copperwolf.livejournal.com]

I'll probably try that one of these days. The crock is glazed ceramic; it doesn't look that difficult to clean if I do it right away (that's the hard part, isn't it).