How to Make an American Pot Roast

My mother would flirt with the butcher. His name was Wally, a middle aged balding German man who knew his meat and worked at the Jewel Tea in Rolling Meadows, IL. Once a year in the fall Wally would make sausage. A German tradition to preserve the pig kill. The best of the lot was the whitewurst (weisswurst). I haven't tasted this in 48 years but I remember the taste. Delicate, made with veal, pork and cream.

My dad like his Dad (Skidmores) enjoyed pot roast on Sunday. An English meal that if cooked badly might be called boiled beef but Mom was of German stock and the pot roast was a wonder. Anytime you can feed a family of 11 out of a single pot it is a work of magic. The secret to pot roast was Wally the butcher. The best cut was filled with gelatin, cartillage and gristle that would slowly transmorgify in the simmering pot into a spectacular glue of fall away flesh and snotty connective tissue. I'd take the roasted root vegetables (carrots, potatoes, turnips, parsnips, onions) and mash them with my fork to make a gelatinous paste that would make a thick gravy to bathe the luxurious meat. Now that I am grown I serve this supper with a side of sweet English peas, buttered.

I do not need to add salt to this meal because I weep over my plate and my tears season the beef.

Ask the butcher for a seven bone cut. If he doesn't understand walk away and find another man. Dry the meat on paper towels then dust it with a mix of flour and corn starch. Brown it in the bottom of a caste iron casserole or enameled double broiler. I like using clarified butter but you can use cooking oil. Add the aromatics: Chopped onion, minced garlic, one stem of minced celery, bay leaf, chicken stock, a cup of white wine and a couple of vine ripened tomatoes or 2 T. tomate paste. I always use chicken stock when cooking beef because an old German chef, a woman called Wally told me to. She was always very drunk when I would see her and I expect she was a fugitive Nazi living on St. Croix but I believed her. Simmer on the stove top (mother's way) for three hours or put into a low oven (300 degrees) for 4 hours. During the last hour of cooking add the root vegetables. Thicken the pan gravy with a slurry of potato or corn starch and water. Season the plate with freshly ground black pepper and your tears of joy.