My Number One Fan requested that I make a Yankee Pot Roast and it got me to thinking, what exactly constitutes the "Yankee" part of a pot roast? To be sure, a pot roast is generally accepted to be a cut of beef braised for long hours in a savory liquid with a variety of seasonings and varying vegetables. I have posted several such recipes, including Pot Roast with Tomato Red Wine Gravy, Italian Pot Roast (that had artichoke hearts and sun dried tomatoes), and a dish called San Antonio Beef, which as I explained in that post was really more of a Cajun pot roast than something representative of Texas. But, strangely, no where in my repertoire did I have a Yankee Pot Roast recipe. Until now.
You'll note my recipe title is specifically called "Yankee-Style" for a reason, and as I have repeatedly blogged, I believe a recipe should be true to its original ingredients in order to be legitimately called by its original name.
Yankee Pot Roast originated in New England during colonial times, but the idea of braising tough cuts of beef in liquid over long periods of time was nothing new. American colonists just adapted a long line of old world recipes and used what they had on hand. For example, the French had Boeuf Bourguignon, made with red wine and mushrooms; the Germans had Sauerbraten made with beef marinated in vinegar and served alongside Spätzle ; in Spain, it was called Carne a la Cacerola and included sweet wine and olives. But in the New World, the bleak, frigid winters demanded something of comfort and sustenance, and New Englanders would have to raid their root cellars to braise beef in water, or perhaps beef stock, with vegetables like carrots, potatoes, turnips, onions, rutabagas and parsnips. Yankee Pot Roast as the colonialists knew it contained no wine, which was scarce in the New World; it had no celery which would not have made it to the root cellar, and it most certainly had no tomatoes, which were actually thought to be poisonous until the late 19th century.
Today, the generally held notion of a Yankee Pot Roast is a beef cut, mainly chuck, braised in broth or stock and perhaps some wine, with onion, potatoes, carrots and celery. That isn't original to the colonists' version, but that is how the recipe has evolved and would meet most peoples' expectations if they saw this item on a restaurant menu.
Some recipes call for tomatoes, some don't and beyond the basic ingredients, everything else is subject to interpretation, if not outright bastardization. I ran across one recipe called, "Good, Old Fashioned Yankee Pot Roast with Red Wine and Thyme Gravy." But of course, there is nothing old fashioned about that. Another recipe called "Old Fashioned Pot Roast," listed ingredients which began with a packet of dried Lipton Onion Soup. Rubbish!
There's nothing wrong with any of that, and I'm not opposed to making culinary enhancements to an age-old recipe. I just think use of words like "Old Fashioned" is disingenuous, and if you're going to include tomato paste and red wine, as I do, then its isn't legitimately a Yankee Pot Roast. But it'll be a darn good version.
Ingredients
2-3 lb chuck roast
3 cups red wine plus 1/2 cup for de-glazing
4 tbsp soy sauce
4 tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
4 tsp dried English Mustard (like, Coleman's)
4 tsp garlic, minced
1/4 tsp fine sea salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
4 tbsp all-purpose flour
2 tbsp vegetable oil
3 cups beef stock
6-oz can tomato paste (like, Hunt's)
2 tbsp dried thyme
2 tbsp dried rosemary
2 bay leaves
2 large sweet onions, quartered and cut into 2-inch pieces (like, Vidalia or Texas-1015)
5 - 6 stalks celery, cut into 2-inch pieces
6 large carrots, peeled and cut into 2-inch pieces (or a cup of pre-packaged whole baby carrots)
1 lb potatoes of your choice (cut into 2-inch pieces)
For the gravy:
1 tbsp Kitchen Bouquet
4 tbsp all-purpose flour dissolved into 1/2 cup water to make a "slurry"
The Recipe
In a large Ziploc bag, combine the red wine, soy sauce, Worcestershire Sauce, English Mustard and garlic. Add the chuck roast to the zip lock bag, and squeeze out the air to get the roast in full contact with the liquid. Marinate overnight for 8-12 hours.
When ready to prepare the dish, pre-heat the crock pot with hot tap water on high heat for 1/2 hour to an hour. Remove the chuck roast from the marinade and pat dry with paper towels. Reserve 1 cup of the marinade and discard the rest.
Rub the roast with the salt and pepper, then rub in the flour until the roast is well coated.
In a large skillet or stock pot, heat the vegetable oil until shimmering, then brown the roast on all sides, about four minutes each side.
Empty the crock pot of the hot water and place the onions all around the bottom. Remove the roast from the hot oil and place on top of the onions. De-glaze the skillet or stock pot with 1/2 cup of red wine and scrape up all the crusty bits. Pour this on top of the roast.
In a mixing bowl combine the reserved marinade with the beef stock, tomato paste, thyme and rosemary, then pour this into the crock pot. It should cover 2/3 to 3/4 of the roast; add more beef stock or water if necessary. Add the bay leaves to the liquid, then cover and cook five hours. Start on high heat, but once the liquid is at a steady simmer, you can lower the heat to low.
Ensure the potatoes, celery and carrots are at room temperature. Add them to the crock pot after the roast has cooked five hours. Set the thermostat to high and add the vegetable to the crock pot; ensure they are all submerged in the liquid. Cook for three more hours or until the potatoes and carrots are tender.
Remove the roast and vegetables to a platter, but leave some onions behind. Tent the meat and veggies with aluminum foil while you make the gravy
Transfer the liquid to a saucepan over medium high heat. Add the Kitchen Bouquet and half the flour/water slurry. Using a submersion blender, blend the gravy until smooth and bring to a simmer, allowing it to thicken enough to coat the back of a spoon. Use some or all of the remaining slurry to achieve the desired thickness, but be sure to allow the gravy to simmer at least a minute after the slurry has been added.
Slice the roast and serve alongside the vegetables with the gravy on the side.
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