Crockpot pot roast - MUST I sear?

QSis

QSis

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I'm going to make Sass's pot roast http://www.netcookingtalk.com/forums/showpost.php?p=180846&postcount=7 tomorrow and load the crockpot before work.

To me, one of the great strengths of using the slow cooker is just to toss everything in it and walk away. One pot to clean (actually, I'm using a slow cooker liner, so I won't even have to do that!).

But a lot of recipes, including this one, say to sear the meat before slow cooking.

I hate to dirty a Dutch oven and take the time to do this.

Do I REALLY have to sear the beef? What's the give-up if I skip that step?

Lee
 
Have to, no. I have cooked plenty without and they tasted fine. I often just heat up the cast iron fry pan good and hot and sear it. The CI is not all that difficult to clean and it does get the mallard reaction going.

Just my 2cents
 
You do not HAVE to sear the meat when making a crock pot roast, but I like to do it. After it's seared I deglaze the pan with red wine and a steel whisk to get all teh goodies off the bottom and sides of the searing pan. If going in the crock pot I pour the juice and pan scrapings in the pot with the meat and veggies. I don't mind the extra pan and extra time, but then, I make my own work schedule every day, and another 15-20 minutes is meaningless for me. My Mom never pan seared a roast and they tasted just fine as I can recall. It's personal preference.
 
I have a slow cooker/rice cooker/steamer/deep fryer combo with a heat dial. It goes from 150 - 375F (it is at least 20 years old and I am not sure they even make them any more. I bought it at Lechter's which closed down many years ago). So I can sear and then turn it down and slow cook. I always sear to carmelize the outside I like the flavor. BUT you don't have to.
 
Great tips everyone.
Yeah Lee, I did sear it because I followed the recipe when I made it.
Can't wait to see yours.
 
Sometimes I am tempted to get a little butane torch and sear it that way.

;)
 
I only use my crock pot for the long cooking time. I prep everything on the stovetop first, then dump it into the cooker to finish.
 
QSis said:
I'm going to make Sass's pot roast http://www.netcookingtalk.com/forums/showpost.php?p=180846&postcount=7 tomorrow and load the crockpot before work.

To me, one of the great strengths of using the slow cooker is just to toss everything in it and walk away. One pot to clean (actually, I'm using a slow cooker liner, so I won't even have to do that!).

But a lot of recipes, including this one, say to sear the meat before slow cooking.

I hate to dirty a Dutch oven and take the time to do this.

Do I REALLY have to sear the beef? What's the give-up if I skip that step?

Lee
Click to expand...

It's an interesting question. As I understand it, searing is sealing in the juices. Prep by browning might be what the recipe (for a slow cooker) is after, so the meat isn't gray, mushy, chewy or limp. So, I looked up the def for searing:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Searing

My main focus is getting rid of the fat - trimming the meat of all visible fat. The fat increases/raises the heat in the CP, & it tends to cook more quickly. Trimming the fat prior to putting the meat in the pot, also cuts down on on a greasy fatty sauce. That's my take. When I cook chicken in the CP, I usually use skinless for the same reason. Hope that helps.
 
That's it exactly High Cheese. I've done it both ways and the flavor is much better if you brown the meat first. I also like to do the deglazing bit with red wine.
 
ah yes,,, to seal sear or not to sear seal . . .
orcas don't have this issue, they just eat the seal.

curiously tho, "common observation" will indeed "support" the theory that searing seals in the juices. avast ye' buggers!! calm down! there's more to it than that.

pretty much any cook will have observed how proteins "shrink" when the heat hits them. eggs, fish, beef, chicken, rattle snake, dinosaur, dodo meat . . .

so, there's a pre-cook volume with a pre-cook volume of fluid (ie "juices".)
hits the heat, the surface area shrinks, internal juice volume does not shrink.

whadda' got? - a "balloon" that is stretched a bit tighter. think about it, one can make the pressure inside a balloon increase by pumping in more air, or - without pumping in more air, stretch the neck down and reduce the surface area....
this is your balloon on sear, this is your brain on think....

so now you've got a searing protein where the outside has shrunk, inside hasn't, internal fluid pressure increases, and you poke it with a sharp stick. what happens?

oh yeah, juices run out. so the cook sez: heh, if I sear it it must keep the juices in because if I poke it, the juices run out.

the obvious question: if it wasn't seared and I poke it, what happens?
try it sometime. you might be surprised at the result.

don't go there with the Alton Brown thing. nice guy, love his show, but for anyone involved in a scientific design of experiments, that episode does not even rub the aril, much less cut the mustard.

btw, the Flat Earth Society is still accepting members.

and that's the source of resting the meat. the heat of cooking shrinks the shell, drives the internal moisture toward the center, resting allow the protein to relax and the moisture/liquid/juices to "redistribute"

as Step Two in the experiment, sear a chunk, not sear a chunk, roast, allow both to rest, then stick'em with a sharp stick.
 
Thanks for the explanation, ChowderMan. I failed to mention that when I was growing up, I thought all meat was supposed to be dry...that's why everyone made a pail of gravy.
 
I didn't make this recipe in a crock pot/slow cooker.
I made it in a crock covered with foil- the one I got from my Mom (because I don't have the lid for it) and roasted it like you would a typical Sunday roast.
I did sear it first, again.. because that's what the recipe instructions said to do.
Covering it was the key, otherwise, knowing my cooking skills, it would have come out like a piece of umm leather?
Reminds me, I am going to try it again.
 
Well, okay, this turned out great. To me, not different than any other crockpot pot roast with potatoes, onions, carrots and garlic I've ever made ..... but my roommate RAVED about it. She said she could taste a difference in the sauce, that the coffee and soy sauce melded with all the flavors. She was soaking up sauce with scali bread - I resisted.

I didn't sear the beef, and cooked the whole thing on low for 8 hours. When I got home from work, the meat looked every bit as if it had been seared. I think the top of the meat roasted in the crock?? Glad I DIDN'T sear!

The was not sliceable, but fell apart in chunks. Again, my roommate was ecstatic about that. Moist and delicious, but I like sliceable. Less time in the crock would have been fine.

Those Slow Cooker liners are one WONDERFUL invention, I'll tell you! I will use them from now on! Just had to wipe out some condensation from the crock and I was done cleaning!!!

Thanks for all the help, everyone!

Lee
 

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Adillo303 said:
OK - I was thinking that searing the meat did not seal in the juices. I thought it was a good idea because it started the mallard reaction. I did not want to use an Alton Brown reference, so here is what I come up with.

http://www.chow.com/food-news/55143/can-you-really-seal-the-juices-into-meat/
Click to expand...

Andy, when I made this I bought a very fatty piece of beef.
Searing it does release the juices, does it not?
There wasn't a whole lot of anything left in the crock once I dumped everything else in, but it sure did all come together into a wonderfully tasting dinner.
 
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QSis said:
Well, okay, this turned out great. To me, not different than any other crockpot pot roast with potatoes, onions, carrots and garlic I've ever made ..... but my roommate RAVED about it. She said she could taste a difference in the sauce, that the coffee and soy sauce melded with all the flavors. She was soaking up sauce with scali bread - I resisted.

I didn't sear the beef, and cooked the whole thing on low for 8 hours. When I got home from work, the meat looked every bit as if it had been seared. I think the top of the meat roasted in the crock?? Glad I DIDN'T sear!

The was not sliceable, but fell apart in chunks. Again, my roommate was ecstatic about that. Moist and delicious, but I like sliceable. Less time in the crock would have been fine.

Those Slow Cooker liners are one WONDERFUL invention, I'll tell you! I will use them from now on! Just had to wipe out some condensation from the crock and I was done cleaning!!!

Thanks for all the help, everyone!

Lee
Click to expand...
That looks awesome and comforting Lee. I have a bottom round thawing and am tempted to "pot" it after seeing this yummy meal of yours. But others want roast beef instead. I will decide laster.
 
Sass -

searing neither releases nor seals-in juices.

searing just develops what most humans consider a tasty "crust" on the chunk of meat.

not unlike adding 2-3 threads of saffron to a rice dish. in terms of percentages, really hard to measure. in terms of ethereal 'taste' - major difference.

I studiously avoid references to the mysterious M-reaction because 150% of food writers have not a single clue of the technical details and the "conditions" under which the M-thing actually happens - or what is actually "is"

digressing . . .

something ala a pot roast that will eventually be cooked semi-/fully submerged in a liquid benefits because a lot of the "charred" crust stuff is water soluble, dissolves into "the liquid" - hence the finely attuned taste bud opinion of "best thing I every ate." tasted 'normal' to you because you're quite probably spoiled. people who make an effort to understand and execute the "tasty" methods usually are.

beef/pork of any sort I intend to "wet cook" gets overly seared in my house - because when I'm done searing and wet cook it, that outer crust largely "disappears" on the final product.

don't have a slow cooker; did at one time. but I am extremely fond of low&slow cooking in the oven. I am at this instant 'slo-roasting' a whole chicken at 235'F - not gonna' be done in 45 minutes.... when it _is_ 'done' I'll jack up the oven to 500'F and crispy up the outsides. but - not likely to be dry "inside"

"dry meat" results from a single cause: over-cooking.
so what (did you ask?) is over-cooking? raising the (internal / entire) temperature to the point moisture aka "juice" is driven out.

that's it, there's nothing more to add / explain / mitigate.

that "phenomena" is where braising, stewing, boiling excel - water boils at 212'F (sea level) and those methods simply ensure the whole / internal temps _cannot_ go higher. well, slightly - if a lid is used - minor increase of internal 'pot pressure'

recommendations ala the (ex)USDA stuff to cook pork to 1,200'F internal (ok,,, I exaggerate) is what makes for "dry" meat.

consider the opposite: sous vide. seal a chunk of meat in plastic, put it in a water bath that is exactly precisely no less than and no more than the desired "internal finished temperature." if you want the beef done to 132'F and it's sitting in a water bath of 132'F - you _can't_ 'over' cook it. leave it there long enough and the entire chunk of beef will reach exactly 132'F and not a drop over. so, sous vide is always "tender and juicy"

of course, the physics / thermodynamics still pertain - heat moves from areas of higher heat to areas of lower heat and the rate at which heat moves from "high" to "low" depends on the differential temperature, so sous vide takes a long long long time to execute. when the "inside" is 131'F and the "outside" is 132'F - heat energy no move all too fast.

in terms of "moistness" - true, since there's moisture inside the sealed bag and moisture on the outside of the sealed bag, "loss" of moisture is inhibited. not quite like roasting/baking the chunk of meat in an "open" oven.

for the rest of us not employing those extremist techniques - don't over cook it, use a thermometer, adjust for carry over and allow the meat to rest before slicing it up and letting all the 'juice' run down the cutting board.

or, fix a bit pot of gravy.

oh, and sear the meat well before the wet cooking - adds to the dish flavor profile.
 
Excellent post, Chowder!

Thank you for all the thought you put into it!

Lee
 
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