Pot Roast
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare and braise
Trim off the rough parts of the brisket of beef.
Place the brisket in a kettle over a good fire.
Add 1 pint of water and cover the kettle.
Cook slowly for 15 minutes per pound.
Add salt when the meat is halfway done.
Finish and serve
After the water evaporates, do not add more; there should be enough fat to finish cooking the meat.
Serve with gravy made from the fat in the pot.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Brisket of beef
- Tough connective tissue breaks down into gelatin during slow cooking, making the meat tender and moist.
- Water
- Provides liquid that steams and gently braises the meat in the covered kettle.
The step that matters
Do not add more water after the water evaporates. Slow cooking turns the brisket's collagen into gelatin and the meat's own fat finishes the cooking. Adding liquid late would dilute the pot and undo the rich, concentrated fat used for the gravy.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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