Dutch Oven Roast Beef with Balsamic Glaze

So, I made this roast yesterday, and it tasted great, but what I was trying to accomplish didn't quite turn out.  I guess as long as it was good, right? I was shooting for a low heat, long roast, trying to get to that point where the meat just falls apart.  I didn't quite get there, but, as I said, it still tasted good.

The honey and balsamic glaze added a sweet tang to the meat, too.  It was really delicious.  I served it up with that bread that I baked the day before.  All in all, it made for a yummy feast.

Slow Dutch Oven Roast

12" deep dutch oven
8-10 coals below
10-12 coals above

• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 3-4 cloves garlic, minced
• Kosher salt
• Coarse ground pepper
• 3-5 lb beef roast

• 3-4 large potatoes
• 3-4 medium onions
• 1-2 carrots, sliced
• 2-3 stalks celery, sliced

• 1/2 lb bacon

• 1 Tbsp coarse ground pepper
• 1 Tbsp Kosher salt
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 3 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 1/2 cup honey, maybe a little more

• 2-3 Tbsp flour
• ~1/4 cup of water

I started out thawing the roast.  It had been thawing in the fridge for a day or two, and I put it in the sink with some cool water.  A hint I learned:  Next time, I'll take it out of the package and off of the styrofoam tray, then put it in a ziplock before putting it in the water.  The tray insulated the meat and it was still frozen on the bottom for quite a while.

Meanwhile, I lit up some coals and pre-heated the dutch oven with the oil in it.  I tossed in the garlic and let that sautee a little bit.  Meanwhile, I coated the meat with kosher salt and coarse-ground pepper.  I let it sit for a little bit, then put the roast in the dutch oven and browned it on each side. 

While that was browning, I cut up the vegetables.  The potatoes and onions I cut into large quarters.  My idea was to have those on the bottom and to rest the meat on top, that way the juices would run down under the meat.

Once the meat was browned, I lifted it out of the Dutch oven, and put in the onions and potatoes.  I scattered in the celery and the carrots to fill in the gaps.  I laid the meat down on top of the bed of veggies and set on the coals.  I also laid strips of bacon across the top of the roast.

Since I was kinda learning how to do this, I also set a thermometer into it.  I closed up the lid and put the proper coals on.  My idea was to cook it at 200-250 degrees for about 4-5 hours.  It took a while, but it eventually got up to 200.  From then on, it was just a matter of keeping the heat steady with fresh coals.

About an hour before serving time, I made the glaze.  I mixed all of the ingredients together and dabbed it over the meat.  The recipe reflects not so much the actual ingredients I used, but the ones I would recommend.  The one I did ended up too peppery.  You probably won't use all of the glaze at once, but after another fifteen to twenty minutes, you can add more to the roast.

At about the same time, I got my basting syringe and sucked up most of the juices from the bottom of the dutch oven, and put them into my 8" dutch oven.  I set that on top of about 8-10 coals to heat up and begin boiling.  While that was getting boiling, I stirred up the flour and the water.  I stirred it up pretty vigorously.  The idea is to get out all the clumps, so it can pour into the juices and make gravy.  So, add flour or water as needed to make the right consistency.

Once the broth was boiling, I added the flour/water mix, a bit at a time.  I stirred it in and let it boil for 5-10 minutes before adding any more.  I've had problems making gravy where I ended up adding too much flour too fast and it got too thick.

In the end, the meat was done, it tasted great, if only a little too peppery.  I wonder if I simply should have cooked it longer to get to that "fall apart" state.  I cooked it for about four hours, but maybe I should have done 6 or even 8.  Anyone's advice?  I'll be trying it again, obviously...





Mark has discovered a love of Dutch Oven Cooking. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.

Dutch Oven Bread is Starting to Work

OK, now, I think I'm finally getting the hang of breadmaking.  It's only been, what, three years?  I may be slow, but I get there.

I used Jodi's sweet sandwich loaf recipe for dutch oven bread again, and I did a couple of things differently.  One thing I did was to sift the flour.  I'd seen Emeril talking about making pasta and he said to sift the flour to "aerate" it.  That sounded intriguing, so I did it.  The crumb did turn out very light this time, and that might be why.

Otherwise, I did it just like I did before, except at the end, when I cooled it off on my new cooling racks.  That also made a difference.  The bottom crust was very soft and moist as I pulled it out of the dutch oven, and as it cooled in the open air, it firmed up a bit.  When I finally broke it apart to slice up for sandwiches at lunchtime, it was light, but solid.  Nothing doughy at all, like last time.  The top crust turned out a little dark, but it was still pretty soft. 

All of that had to do with heat management.  It's kind of hard to quantify that, but it's coming with practice and experience.  I get to the point where I can feel the heat and know if it's good or too hot or cool.  Use the heat guide as a start, and add or subtract from there.

Tomorrow, I'm making a big roast beef for my Father-in-Law.  That'll be fun.






Mark has discovered a love of Dutch Oven Cooking. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.

How to Dutch Oven Without a Recipe

Cookin' Without a Net

I've rambled on and on here from time to time about food and cooking as art.  Art, in my mind, is basically a vehicle for personal exploration and expression.  So, in order for an activity to qualify as art, it has to come from somewhere inside me and teach me something about myself, and then it has to help me share that discovery with others.

I think I've only achieved that level a few times in my culinary life.  Frankly, I've only done it a few times in song and even fewer in my efforts at visual art.  But nonetheless, it is a challenge for me.  That's one reason I keep trying.

One thing that is for certain: it's very difficult to discover something about yourself, and even more so to express that self-awareness when you're cooking someone else's recipes. 

This morning, as I was catching up on other people's blogs, I came across a posting on "The Back Porch Gourmet" all about cooking without a recipe.  At first, I thought to simply comment on his post, but I ended up thinking too much and so, I posted my own blog entry.

Andy offers some great advice, and I would recommend following it.  Here are my own thoughts as well.

Learn from others first

First of all, being the rebel that I am, I took off on my own way too soon.  Especially in the world of dutch oven cooking.  If I had stuck to cooking other people's recipes for a little longer, I would have learned a lot more a lot quicker.  It might not have been as much fun, though...

Second, watch the right cooking shows.  Find shows that actually teach you techniques and skills, not just celebs that throw a few ingredients together.  Find shows that teach you why these flavors work together and why you need to hold the knife this way. 

And don't waste your time watching competitive cooking.  "Chopped" and "The Iron Chef" and other challenge shows are edited for the drama of the competition, not for learning new skills and getting cool ideas. 

My favorites are PBS's "America's Test Kitchen" and the Food Network's "Good Eats".  Alton Brown is like the Bill Nye of cooking.  He's teaching you about the science and the art of cooking, while being very fun to watch.  Those two are on permanent record on my Tivo!

Start tweaking

Third, learn to hybrid recipes.  When you want to cook a particular dish, look on allrecipes.com or recipezaar.com or your old family cookbooks and check out several differing recipes for the same dish.  Not only will you learn the different approaches, but you'll pull one idea from one and other ideas from another.  In the end, you'll have your own version of a popular dish.

Research helps

...and (Fourth), while I'm talking about recipe websites, another thing I like about allrecipes.com is their ingredient search function.  Sometimes, I'm looking in my pantry and my fridge, wondering what to cook in my black pots that week.  I'll pull up a few ingredients and think, "Can I make something with these?"  I'll jump to their ingredient search function and type in those ingredients.  It pulls up a bunch of recipes using those ingredients.  I read through them, and hybrid them, and come up with something.  This is the process I used, for example, to cook my "Dutch Oven Apple Chicken Curry"

Another way to approach this is with culinary reference books, like "Culinary Artistry".  This book is largely a list of ingredients, arranged alphabetically, and following each one is a list of other ingredients and spices that go well with it.  Pick what you like, use reasonable amounts, and you've got a whole new dish! I used this approach when I cooked up a Salmon and Potatoes mix.

No fear!

Finally, be willing to experiment, and be willing to fail.  Even as recently as last week, I made a pasta sauce for my parents (in the kitchen, not in the dutch ovens), that didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped.  Learn from your mistakes.  Cooking is actually very forgiving.  Many things I've cooked that I've considered to be flops are actually edible, even tasty.  They weren't quite as amazing as I'd wanted, but they were still good.  I've only cooked a few things that I've had to throw away and pronounce inedible.

Share and share alike

Oh!  One other thing!  When you do create something new, share it!  Post it to a recipe site, or make your own blog.  Don't keep it to yourself.  And share more than the recipe.  Tell us what you learned and how you did it.

Let us share in your art!





Mark has discovered a love of Dutch Oven Cooking. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.



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