Can't cook a tender pot roast :-!.

Every pot roast I've attempted to make had amazing broth and vegetables but the meat was tough and chewy I don't know what the heck I'm doing wrong I've cooked it 5 hours 6 hours 8 hours. What am I doing wrong?

Grumpy Old Biker
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10 Comments

Grumpy O.
Grumpy O. December 15, 2022
Thanks for all your help Lori but it's official. I quit. I give up. I've been all over the homepage There is no Community yeah there's a hotline but there's absolutely no place to post a recipe so I guess my recipe will just have to stay my recipe. And that's too bad because it's a beauty. Know sorry
 
Lori T.
Lori T. December 15, 2022
Yeah fine. Quit and give up. At least you have one recipe that works for you.
 
Grumpy O.
Grumpy O. December 15, 2022
Don't have a mouse to use and I'm not seeing Community anywhere on the homepage. Story of My Life.
 
Lori T.
Lori T. December 15, 2022
You had to select Community somehow, to get to the Hotline portion. The place to enter the recipe in selected in that same section, in the way you chose the part that says Hotline. You can use whatever means you have been using to select the hotline to select "add a recipe". Finger, mouse, or stylus- doesn't matter.
 
Sam
Sam December 14, 2022
I found this helpful: https://www.seriouseats.com/all-american-beef-stew-recipe
 
Grumpy O.
Grumpy O. December 13, 2022
I've got some really good advice here and I'm going to take very close attention to it starting with buying better meat. But I'd like to post a recipe that I'm very proud of but I don't really know how because I've only been here a few hours.
 
Lori T.
Lori T. December 13, 2022
Go to the top of the page, hover the mouse on "Community". That should drop down a subset, and on the far right of your screen you will see "Add a Recipe". That will take you to the section where you can enter yours into the database to share.
 
Lori T.
Lori T. December 13, 2022
If you are providing plenty of braising liquid, and doing your roasting at a low temperature- the only other thing I can think of is perhaps the cut of beef itself. If you are trying to roast an eye of round, or something from the rump/round- then you can have a challenge on your hands. Those cuts typically lack the marbling of fat to keep things moist, and they are muscles that did a lot of work in life- so yeah- tough, tough, tough. Makes for great broth as you noticed, but not so much good as a "pot" roast. Those cuts do best as more of a traditional style "roast beef", cooked rare and sliced very thin. If you want a fall apart, braised version, then you need something from the chuck or front shoulder of the animal. Even a brisket cut will work. Have a peek at these places -https://www.essentialchefs.com/best-and-worst-cuts-of-beef/
https://www.beefitswhatsfordinner.com/cuts/collection/33342/best-beef-cuts-for-slow-cooking

The "what's for dinner" spot has other collections that will help clarify other types of cuts and how to best cook them.

So maybe the problem isn't you. Maybe it is the beef cut.
 
Grumpy O.
Grumpy O. December 13, 2022
Good advice. Thank you. yeah I've made sure that all my roasts were totally swimming in broth but I couldn't eat them I wouldn't even feed them to a dog if I had one so I'll use your advice and try better cut of meat maybe even a cross rib roast those are not cheap but they make good steaks if they're sliced up. I'll defy my own oath to never try a pot roast and see what happens cuz I don't like getting my butt kicked by 3 lbs of dead cow. Always used a basic chuck roast. No more no way no how.
 
Lori T.
Lori T. December 13, 2022
Ah, your roast should not be swimming in liquid. At most, the liquid you use shouldn't come up more than an inch or so on the side of your roast. You want it to simmer or braise in some liquid, not boil in a bath. Water boils at 212F, which is a bit higher than even a low oven is set. So aside from the cut, if it's gone for a swim in a boiling bath, then what you had was soup makings, not pot roast. If you do invest the funds in a rib roast, please do a dry roast for that- not a braise. Doing that would still net you a dry tough roast in the end. Also maybe get a thermometer, if you don't have one. Cook by temp, not the clock, because over or under cooked beef is also tough to chew. Low and slow work on tougher cuts because it gives time and moisture to break down collagen and connective tissue. A rib roast doesn't have that, so long cooking will just toughen it. That's why well done steaks are dry and chewy as a rule- and why medium is as far as you should take a steak. If your chuck roast is overdone, it will also be stringy and dry, tough and chewy. A pot roast is considered done when it hits 180-200F, where a steak is done at about 140F. A steak at 180 is near inedible, a roast at 140 is too. But a roast, even a pot roast, at 212- boiling temp- is shoe leather as well.
 
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