Braised Roast Beef — Linda Malcolm

(Inspired by “Meat and Potatoes,” p. 2, Cornfields to Codfish)

I do not have a recipe for Braised Roast Beef, nor do I make it. It’s one of those meals that I associate with seventeen people sitting in Mom and Dad’s kitchen/dining room. In this big open room, the oval oak kitchen table, with a wide claw-footed pedestal, can seat nine.

Great-Grandma Whittier’s oak dining room table slid up next to the kitchen table can seat eight. The four legs on Great-Grandma’s table have casters that no longer easily roll. However, this table has a beautiful gleaming dark oak shine; the wood was refinished about ten years ago by an Amish woodworker who lives near Mom and Dad. Usually it’s a square table in the dining room against the far west wall under the windows, where it soaks up the late afternoon sun.

For family dinners, we gently lift and shuffle the table into place next to the oval table. From underneath Mom and Dad’s bed, we slide out two leaves individually wrapped in blankets. We pull the tabletop apart, and, being careful to match pegs to holes, we insert the leaves. Then, with smooth pressure, we push together the sides of the table and make the cracks as small as possible. This slow and steady maneuver results in the creation of a rectangular table.

I know this much detail about the tables because I help set the table, but I do not braise the beef. Here’s the recipe in the form of an email dialogue between Mom and me.

Me: Hi, Mom. A few people have suggested I include a recipe section in my book. Could you send me instructions on making your roast beef? And what breed are the beef cattle – Angus, right?

Mom: Oh! What a cool idea! Angus cattle. I use garlic powder and pepper on the beef. Also, bay leaves with it is good, too. I like to cook it the day before I am going to use it; that way it slices really well. You can cover it with gravy and reheat it 45 minutes to an hour. It is really tender with or without gravy, as long as it has some liquid.

Me: About the beef . . . What cut? How big? How much water do you put in? Do you cover it? How long do you cook it? 350?

Mom: I like the arm roast, usually 3 lbs. Thaw and bake at 350 degrees for three hours. Leave it open to brown, and then cover it about halfway through. It should reach temperature of 165. I would say about 3 cups of water.

A couple notes . . .

Notice that Mom thaws the roast before baking it. If you, like Mom and Dad, raise your own beef and keep those beautiful white packages of various cuts in your ginormous deep freeze, you, too, would start by thawing the roast. For the rest of us, buy the roast at the store and continue on with the directions after “Thaw.”