There are certain tastes and scents that immediately transport me to a very particular time and place. I love that about food. Taste memories can supply exquisite detail of a moment in time that conventional memory can’t capture.
For me, the smell and taste of my mother’s pot roast is such a memory. However, it took me years to remember the dish. When I did, my kids were small and I was feeling a bit ragged. The air outside was growing cooler and blustery and I was longing for a feeling of home that was eluding me in my own home after a day spent wrangling toddlers.
Then it hit me. I found myself craving a taste I remember as a child. I’m marching off the bus in the rain wearing my red slicker with silver snaps and walking to my home clutching a clear ladybug umbrella. Inside our home, the bright yellow kitchen is practically singing with the scents of fall embodied in my Mother’s Bavarian Pot Roast.
The aroma is a musky warmth, which permeates the house. It instantly brings back memories of little moments from childhood lost over time. The desire to share family traditions with my kids inspired the book, Cooking Up The Past: Celebrating Generations of Family Recipes, which captures my Mother’s recipes from her own childhood, then mine. These taste memories preserve family history as only a family meal is able.
Just like a mother of toddlers, all this dish needs is some time alone. I can easily assemble everything into a slow cooker on a busy morning. It requires only a quick stir of ingredients and spices all of which are poured over an inexpensive chuck roast. Low heat and time do the rest.
After 4 hours on the stovetop or all day in a slow cooker, the house smells like a home. By evening, dinner is ready with succulent beef luxuriating in a brew marked with tomatoes, cinnamon, ginger and tender vegetables.
The kids are older now, unbelievably on the verge of adolescence. They enter the house at the end of the day and are greeted by the heady scent of my childhood. I realize their memory of the minutiae of our everyday lives will soon be eclipsed by memories of more significant events like hopefully college, travel and probably (gulp) a first love.
But I hope the taste and scent will survive in the deeper recesses of their memory as they did for me. Perhaps just a brief craving for a taste of childhood will be enough to remember this otherwise ordinary day. Its only significance is our enjoyment of a good meal that we shared together.
Recipe adapted from Cooking Up The Past: Celebrating generations of family recipes
- 3-4 lb boneless grass-fed beef chuck roast
- 2 Tablespoons canola or grapeseed oil
- 1 bottle of beer (Stella Artois works nicely. I wouldn't use a "lite" beer. Alcohol burns away in first 30 minutes so no worries when serving this to kids.)
- 2 cups water
- 2 Tablespoons sugar
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground ginger
- 2 teaspoons salt
- ½ teaspoon pepper
- 1 Tablespoon vinegar (cider or white)
- ⅔ cup onions, chopped
- 1/ ½ cups chopped or diced tomatoes (or one 14½ oz. can) I use Pomi and avoid canned tomatoes
- 1 bay leaf
- 2-3 carrots, chopped ½-inch thick
- 2 Tablespoons softened butter
- 2 Tablespoons flour
- Season roast with salt and pepper.
- Heat oil in a large stock pot over high heat.
- When hot, add the roast and sear brown on all sides.
- Whisk together beer, water, sugar, cinnamon, ginger, salt, pepper.
- Stir in onions and tomatoes until combined.
- Add bay leaf.
- Pour over chuck roast in the pot and bring to a boil.
- Once boiling, cover and simmer on low for about 4 hours until tender and falling apart.
- After about 3-1/2 hours, add carrots and/or any other vegetables, such as parsnips. Frozen peas also work well, just add 10 minutes prior to serving.
- Once vegetables are tender and beef is falling apart, remove beef and set aside to rest for about 5 minutes before slicing.
- Serve over buttered egg noodles or rice.
- Place seasoned and browned chuck roast into crockpot, pour over combined ingredients
- Cover and simmer for 8 hours on low or until meat is tender
- I often serve with the thin sauce for expediency but for a slightly thicker sauce, I use a simple beurre manie (fancy term, couldn't be easier.) This will help the sauce cling to an egg noodle.
- In a small bowl,blend together soft butter and flour by pinching together with fingers (very clean little fingers can do this well under supervision)
- Once combined, add a ladle of hot broth to the bowl and whisk to combine.
- Add combined liquid to pot of sauce and bring to a boil, stirring to combine.
- Continue to simmer until sauce starts to thicken to desired consistency. This will not be as thick as gravy.