Pot Roast Cooked in Foil a la Alton Brown
Based on: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/pot-roast-recipe/index.html
Date: 2009-02-06
Chris Shenton

The premise of the foil is that you want the meat surrounded by liquid,
but want no more then absolutely necessary so it doesn't taste diluted.

Alton's recipe for 2# Blade Cut Chuck uses 1C Tomato Juice and 1/3C
Balsamic Vinegar for the liquid; he also uses green olives and raisins
but I didn't find those flavors to my liking. It cooked 3-3.5 hours.

I had a home made peat-smoked porter so I picked some things I thought
would go with that flavor.  His tomatoes and olives provide umami,
which my mushrooms and Worchester sauce should too.

1 1/2	C	Smoked Porter Beer
1	ounce	Dried Shitake Mushrooms (8 whole, with stems)

1.4	Lb	Chuck cross-rib Roast, boneless
1 1/2	tsp	Kosher Salt
1 1/2	tsp	Cumin

		Vegetable Oil
1		Carrot, chopped
1	medium	Onion, chopped
5	cloves	Garlic, minced

1	Tbs	Worchester Sauce

Hydrate Mushrooms in Beer for at least hours.
Discard woody stems, cut mushrooms into quarters or slices.

Preheat oven to 200F, convection for even heating if available.
Preheat heavy skillet very hot.
Meanwhile, season meat with Salt and Cumin.
Brown in hot pan on all sides; remove.
Let pan cool to prevent Oil bursting into flame then film pan with Oil.
saute Carrot, Onion, Garlic until Onion softened, stirring constantly.
Add Beer from the Mushroom soaking, Worchester Sauce, mushrooms;
bring to boil, reduce by half.

Create a pouch with heavy aluminum foil.
Put half the chunky reduced liquid on the foil,
top with the Roast, cover with remaining liquid.
Seal foil pouch.
Wrap Roast with another layer of foil.
Insert a probe thermometer into center of Roast.

Cook until fork tender, internal temperature of 145F for pink, or 160 for gray;
probably at least 3 hours.

Rest wrapped 30 minutes.
Snip corner of foil puch and drain liquid into measuring cup,
allowing some chunks; puree with stick blender.
Slice thinly or pull meat apart, serve with sauce.


2009-02-06 After cooking for 2 then 3 hours this was nothing like fork
tender, but it was tasty.