All Day Crockpot Delight
Ingredients: 2 to 3 pounds stew beef or lean chuck, cut in cubes 1/2 cup flour 1/4 cup butter 1 medium onion, sliced 1 teaspoon salt 1/8 teaspoon pepper 1 clove garlic, minced 12 ounces beer 1/4 cup flour Preparation: Coat beef cubes with the 1/2 cup flour. Brown in skillet in the butter. Drain off excess fat. In slow cooker, combine browned meat with onion, salt, pepper, garlic and beer. Cover and cook on low 6 to 9 hours, or until meat is tender. Turn control to high. Dissolve remaining 1/4 cup flour in small amount of cold water. Stir into meat mixture, cook on high 30-40 minutes longer. Serve with rice and salad.
We are big fans of our slow cooker. It is so old it is almond coloured with cute little mushrooms painted as decor.
A question for you. From the article the text says “Slow-cooker cooking is a rite of fall.” Do we no longer capitalize Spring and Fall to denote seasons? Shouldn’t this be “ a rite of Fall”? Or am I an anachronism....
I like the convenience, but crock pots tend to dry out whatever meat is being cooked.
Tasty variation: marinate the beef, cubed, in Merlot or , Sauvignon overnight. Then, follow the recipe above exactly, only instead of beer, add 12 oz. of Merlot/Cabernet. Essentially, a poor-man’s beef Bourginon.
Although I still have my old Presto Harvest Gold pot ... the original, I don’t like the way crock pot recipes come out.
They are all overcooked and too much liquid.
Well whaddya know...news of the crockpot has come to Richmond.
It is not safe to use the slow cooker to thaw or cook frozen meats.
I used to cook frozen roast in there regularly. Done to perfection in 10 hours.
Just don’t include carrots, at least not until toward the end; or everything will be carrot flavored.
I got a little ‘personal’ crock pot when I was in college and I still use it today. One of the first things I learned to make was putting a pork tenderloin with bar-b-q sauce, onion, and some sprite and letting it slow cook all day. Got home from long day of classes and that tenderloin had turned into basically pulled pork. Makes for great sandwiches.
I skip the meat and use my crock pot to cook pinto beans and minestrone soup
I suggest that instead of passing out EBT cards and food stamps, the government should merely give out pinto beans, rice, and perhaps cheese. Deadbeats would be healthier, and less people would sign up for the benefits.
The bachelor’s best friend.
Pot Roast: Add a chuck roast and a can of Campbell’s French onion soup. Carrots and potatoes if you have them. Cook overnight or all day while you are at work. Excellent for football Saturdays.
Barbecue Pork: Add a pork roast and very little chicken broth or water and cook all day. Chop up the meat, remove any bones and add sauce. Put onto sandwich buns. Eat.
Chili: Add ground beef, browned if you want to, diced tomatoes, chili powder, hot pepper, an onion, beans, frozen corn and salt. Cook 6 to 12 hours. Good with cheese and chips.
Why is it unsafe to use frozen meat? I almost always do. I do most crock pot cooking overnight for 10 hours typically. I figure any bacteria would be dead after that.
Nice!
The recipe calls for an eye round roast. Stores in my area usually cut these in half into approx. 2.5 pound pieces, so this is the size I usually make. You can serve this as a hot roast with potatoes or other side dishes, or let it cool and slice it thinly for sandwiches. This cut of beef sells for about $4.49/lb, so it's a good inexpensive dinner.
The eye round can be a bit chewy, so there are two steps that are required to naturally tenderize the roast. The first step involved an overnight seasoning in the refrigerator, so this dish will require preparation 1 day in advance.
Step 1: Salt the roast and let it sit for 18 - 24 hours in the refrigerator. I use a "heaping" tablespoon of kosher salt. You might even go to 1.5 tbs. I rub the salt all over the roast until it feels grainy from the salt. Some of the salt will begin to dissolve, so don't stop when it feels grainy -- keep going until the measured salt is used up. Wrap the roast in plastic and let it sit in the fridge overnight.
The salt will do the following:
Overnight, the salt will draw the moisture out from the center of the roast towards the salt. The salt will then dissolve into the moisture, which then absorbs back into the roast. The salt will begin breaking down the meat and tenderizing.
Step 2: The next day, brown the sides of the roast in a skillet. The browning does not help the tenderizing, but will add some flavor to the roast.
Step 3. Insert a remote thermometer in the roast before placing it in the crock pot. You will need to monitor the internal temperature of the roast as it cooks.
Step 4: Cook the roast in the crock pot on LOW power until the internal temperature reaches about 112 degrees F. Then shut off the crock pot until the roast reaches 122 degrees F from residual heat.
This is the second step in naturally tenderizing this cut. The roast will naturally tenderize until its internal temperature reaches 122 degrees F, and will then just cook after that. To maximize tenderizing, try to keep the roast under 122 degrees F for as long as possible.
Step 5: Once the roast reaches 122 degrees F, turn the crock pot back onto LOW and let it resume cooking until the internal temperature reaches 132 degrees F. Shut the crock pot off again after 132 degrees F.
Step 6. Keep the roast in the crock pot until its internal temperature reaches 140 degrees F (for a medium rare roast). I often go to 142 degrees, or when the residual heat no longer raises the internal temperature. Once the roast reaches 140-142 degrees F, remove it from the crock pot and let it sit for 15 minutes (I cover it with a foil tent to capture the remaining heat).
Step 7: Thinly slice the roast and serve.
Cooking time for a 2.5 lb eye round roast is about 3 hours. Note that the ends are usually tapered, so the roast will be more well done on one end than on the other.
The original recipe uses the main oven set at 200 degrees F. They only shut off the oven once the internal temperature of the roast reaches 130 degrees F. By using the crock pot, I'm not tying up the oven and I can use the on/off of the crock pot to slow down the early cooking. The remote thermometer lets me keep the lid on the crock pot at all times (the small cord on the probe doesn't interfere with the lid).
-PJ
Wow That sounds so good:)
I use our crockpot mostly for our meat. If we end up with tough venison, I will slow cook it for hours until it is shreds and then add seasonings. It is great in Mexican food.
Another thing I do is throw in pork (we raise our own)..any kind, even pork chops..and cover it with a homemade BBQ sauce and let it slow cook. I end up with great ribs, chops or roasts that way. Some times I will pour huckleberry or raspberry jam in the BBQ sauce. A favorite it adding cranberry sauce to the BBQ sauce. Tangy and sweet.
Crockpots rule.
We use ours a lot.
What i don’t see anymore are pressure cookers.
My granny used to always use one to cook her potatos.
I miss that whistling sound...