Pot Roast

Pot roast rates high on the list of beloved comfort foods. Cooked long enough with plenty of vegetables so that all the fight of the chuck or short ribs of which it’s made evaporates, it is the tenderest of meats. While pot roast is not strictly a New England dish, that is where its origins are – in a frugal cuisine that abjures fancy cuts of meat in favor of cooking techniques that make the most of lesser ones. Some people still know it as Yankee pot roast. One of the most exquisite variations is known as Mississippi pot roast: chuck roast seasoned with ranch dressing, butter, and plenty of gravy, plus a few pepperoncini for an occasional pepper ping. This roast is so flaccid that it literally falls to pieces as you fork it up. Pot roast’s tenderness makes it a good candidate for sandwiches, just so long as the bread is hefty enough to survive the beef’s extreme juiciness – a po boy loaf, for instance.