yetanotherBob wrote:
> In article >, Mitch@...
> says...
>> Had shoe leather for dinner. Please school me.
>>
>> I had a 2-pound bottom round roast. I dredged it in flour and braised
>> it in a skillet until it was browned on all sides.
>>
>> I covered the bottom of a baking dish with baby carrots. In another
>> dish I combined cream-of-mushroom soup, dry onion soup mix, and some
>> white wine.
>>
>> I placed the roast on top of the carrots, poured the mixture over the
>> roast, put the lid on, and cooked at 325 F for 90 minutes.
>>
>> Was it overcooked, or did it need to cook longer to tenderize it?
>>
>> I swear I can't have one meal where my kids aren't bitching about the
>> food.

Then I suggest you stop guessing about recipes and actually
follow some. Maybe get them to either help with the food
prep or, at least, suggest things they might like. Don't
make it a combat. Make it a cooperative venture. Lot less
grief that way.

>> The carrots were great, though.
>> Oh, and the potatoes were perfect. Nuked them for 10 minutes like
>> someone suggested, then covered in oil and finished in the 325 oven
>> for 30 minutes. They came out exactly as they do when they cook at
>> 425 for 90 minutes. Good to know.
>>
>
> Time and temp alone may work for braising really tough cuts like
> brisket, but they can be deadly for round, as you seem to have
> demonstrated. You don't need soup or other liquids, or covered roasting
> pans to produce a delicious round roast.

Sorry. No. There's a big difference between the various
round cuts. Top round is ok for roasting. Bottom round is
tough. Gooseneck round is bulletproof, and so on.

Bottom round needs to be moist-cooked. And it needs to be
cooked to the point where internal connective tissues break
down. Browning it (browning it isn't braising) adds the
flavors of Maillard reactions which are very appetizing and
can add a rich brown color to the pan liquids. Braising is
cooking the meat in a little liquid in a closed vessel.

Moist cooking will go through two stages: the first one
leads to toughening the meat as the temperature of the meat
gets higher. By the time it reaches about 180F, it's very
tough. After that, the protein gradually relaxes, collagen
dissolves and the meat becomes more tender. In effect, what
you did was to both overcook and undercook your roast
simultaneously.

Raise the temp to 375 and lose all the soup mix crap. Just
use some beef stock or broth (look for the low sodium stuff)
and a good splash of red wine. Cut into chunks a couple
peeled onions, some peeled big carrots, and a few ribs of
celery. Put them in the bottom of the pan and put the meat
on top. Think 3 hours or more.

Pastorio