Foiling Chuck

So, I think I mentioned the making of this particular recipe, Chuck Roast in Foil yesterday. And make it, I did. (This is the recipe pic from Cook's Country, not MY finished product!!!)  

The most tedious and time-consuming part (all of about 3 minutes, tops) was making the rub.  Cook's Country devised their own rub to replace mass-produced onion soup mix that's typically used in roasts around the country, in more normal kitchens.  This cuts WAY back on sodium levels and doesn't contain a plethora of unpronounceable additives and preservatives. Go them!!!  

Then there's the meat. Sorry for the pic, I cannot get the color of this pic to accurately portray the actual color of the meat, but that IS the color of my cutting board, so something is at least moderately correct. It was a healthy, not-rotting, piece taken out of the freezer Saturday to thaw. This hunk was about half the amount used in the recipe.  We had no need for a 4-lb roast. However, I did split it apart there in the middle and trim out some excess material.  I should have broken away all the chunks and eliminated all that hard stuff, but it stayed behind to help keep everything from drying out, then I trimmed it off later.

The veggies and bay leaves and soy sauce sprinklings (I did not measure and I used Tamari instead of regular soy sauce. It just tastes a bit better, to me.

The entire thing-before entering the stove. I must admit, I failed at this part. You are SUPPOSED to have an air-tight, foil-sealed package. First, I did not have wide enough foil. Second, I did not wrap it correctly. Third, I should have added another one to two layers of foil.  It leaked, thus eliminating the Au Jus portion of the recipe. More on that in a moment.....

Fin. And fine!!! 

As you can see, there's not a lot of Au Jus to be found in this pan.  THAT is because your dearly beloved cooking non-expert decided it wasn't necessary to reread the part that said "Heat oven to 300 F".  Instead, apparently, she thought 400 F was close enough.  WHILE the results (in flavor and probably texture) were SUPERB, I'm going to go out on a very wobbly, very tiny limb here and surmise that following the directions EXACTLY would've resulted in a roast that more closely resembled that shown in the first picture and a roast that was more swimming in Au Jus rather than just lightly coated with it.  

Oh, and since this cut of meat was much smaller than the recipe and the temp was considerably higher....

Cooking time was reduced to around 3 hours. I did lower the temp to 350 once I realized my faux pas, however, that just prolonged the inevitable, since the damage was already done at the 2-hour mark. 

Furthermore, I don't know what people have got against onions, but I leave them in, for eating purposes, because I LOVE ONIONS. I did remove the bay leaves. I did not take a picture of this all plated up....presentation was not a factor yesterday. By the time this was finished, we probably would've just sat at the table and ate it right out of the pan, we were that hungry and totally tantalized by the smell of it all!   

So, there you have it, one way to foil chuck. 

Admittedly, since we don't consume a wealth of red meat, this meal was not conducive to feeling energetic and ready to take on the world after eating it. I'm just glad I didn't make mashed taters and rolls or biscuits to go along with it or I would probably still be in bed.