i bought a crock pot, to help with my previously mentioned health condition. i figured since meat and vegetables are "safe", a crock pot would be the perfect thing for me. so i bought it last week, and cooked chicken and vegetables twice in it already. i brought it to work for lunch and everything, and it tasted so good. but all week i've been wanting to make a roast. in fact, when i pictured myself buying a crock pot, i pictured myself making delicious roast and having a real sunday dinner with friends or something. well, tonight i made my first roast---
let me preface this by saying that i was a vegetarian for 10 years. from the time i was 13 until i was 23. it all started when i had a really gross dream about bacon fat. i was eating tons of sausage and bacon, and drinking the fat (in the dream), and then i woke up and ran to the bathroom and barfed (in real life). then i decided i never wanted to eat meat again. so i didn't, until ten years later when i was in Hawaii at a restaurant called "Cheeseburger in Paradise", and the guy next to me was eating a tasty cheeseburger (in paradise), so i decided i wanted one too. i've been a meat-eater ever since that moment. i haven't however, been a meat-cooker. that part still grosses me out.
so i don't know why, when i was having those daydreams of myself cooking roast, it never occurred to me that there would be things like fat, juices, and grease involved. but there were. i thought i had picked a really lean looking roast (with some "marbling" like my sister told me to look for). i seared it just like they say to. i put in potatoes and carrots, and a little bit of broth, and salt and pepper, and then let it crock all day. by the time lee got off work, i was pretty excited to show off my home-cooking.
i do want to point out, that lee was happy with the roast. he even said it was as good as his mom's (maybe he said that when i was crying, but it still counts). i however, was not happy with it at all. there was so much grease! my plate was all slippery from it. and it seemed like the vegetables had been cooked in pure fat or something. they were heavy and tasted fatty. needless to say, i felt sick all night, and was so disappointed. it was so bad, that when i went to put the leftovers in tupperware, i was gagging, and considered just throwing it away.
luckily, lee will eat it. he better enjoy it while it lasts though, because my red-meat-cooking days are over.
*p.s. that picture is what i imagined my roast would look like. it didn't.
6 comments:
You talk about fat and grease as it they are bad things. They give the beef flavor. Try adding the vegies later and put them on the top of the roast so they don't soak in the substances you seem to detest so much. You can also buy meat that is more lean but it will be tougher unless you leave it in longer - which is fine. A very lean roast will leave almost no fat or grease. You can also try pork, ham, turkey and chicken in the crock pot and end up with less or none of those substances. Keep on cooking.
Next time try my Stonehenge method:
Cut potatoes into columns.
Place some around the perimiter.
Carve notches into the lintel pieces (top) so they fasten to the columns.
A hunk of greasy meat in the middle.
Crock it hard.
Once the greasy pool of death is ready, begin lowering sacrificial carrots, celery and onions into the center. Listen for their screams, that means you have timed the ceremony well and the crock gods are smiling.
Crock it soft.
Excavate remains and eat.
perimeter = perimeter
i like the sound of the stonehenge method, but it sounds a little advanced for me. i know you've been crocking for a while. i should have asked your advice in the first place.
its ok if your first roast makes you cry. thats normal when you first start cooking meat.
The roast in your 'dream picture' looks like it was cooked in the oven, not in a crock pot. Try the oven next time if all the 'juices' were bothering you.
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