Today was a beef roast day.
Purchased a Beef Chuck Mock Tender Roast.
Chuck is from the front shoulder area of a cow/bovine. Those muscles are well worked on an animal so it is usually considered to be a "less tender" cut of beef.
I was asking myself "What is mock tender"? Mock is to imitate or pretend so does mock tender mean "pretend tender" which is tough?
It looked like a good cut - single muscle, boneless and inexpensive. Also, it had the word tender in it. Did I fall for a marketing ploy? lol :-)
I trimmed the exterior fat and membrane/silver skin. I hope I didn't over do it.
After I trimmed the roast, it clicked that maybe mock tender means "mock tenderloin"? The trimmed roast does have a tenderloin shape to it.
Sprinkled the roast with a little salt. about 1 teaspoon of kosher salt. It really wasn't too much salt.
A few grinds of black pepper and a light coating of olive oil (about 1 to 2 teaspoons). I hoped the oil would replace the fat that I cut off in terms of browning.
Baked at about 200F for 4 hours. I measured the temperature and it was 140F which the low end of medium. I used the philosophy for tough cuts of meat - low and slow. Low temperatures for a long time (slow). My concern was that I'd end up with beef jerky.
The roast shrank a lot and looks a little jerky like.
I chopped up about 1/2 cup of onion, 1/2 teaspoon shallot and 1 cup of mushrooms.
Sweated the onions and shallot in olive oil and a little butter. Afterwards, I added the mushrooms and a pinch of thyme.
When the mushrooms cooked down, I poured in the beef jus and a 1/4 c water to rinse out the baking dish. I, also, added a couple drops of Kitchen Bouquet
I let the mixture cook down.
With an electric slicer, I sliced the beef thinly and topped it with the onion-mushroom mixture. The beef turned out medium/medium-well. I lucked out. The 4 hours was just the amount of time I spent at work and my drive home.
But there's more!
I had a bottle of Johnny's French Dip Au Jus so I made some per the directs.
The Final Dish:I main craving for today was actually a French Dip Sandwich.
I toasted a ciabatta roll, dipped in the au jus, added a light coating of mustard and mayo. The onion-mushroom "relish" added an additional beefiness to the sandwich. The sliced sweet potato offered a little sweetness to counter the savory sandwich. Also, I was craving sweet potatoes instead of broccoli. lol :-)
Overall, the thinly sliced beef was good and not that tough. The slices near the fat end of the roast had some gristle that can be cut out easily.
The bottled au jus didn't really seem to contribute a lot of beefiness, but the mushroom mixture using the roast juices had a nice beefy flavor. Next time, I'll try to find a way to make more jus from the roast. :-)
