Hi All
Well I used the camp oven again tonight. I haven't had much experience cooking beef in anything as I rarely eat beef of any kind. The wife bought a brisket today so and she wanted me to try and cook it in the camp oven.
Pre heating with 17 beads on top and 13 beads under







first put in after heating







the end results
I hope the photos come out ok heres hoping

en
Chris

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Hi All
Sorry forgat to let you know it turned outr reasonable a little tough I think I left in the co a little too long internal temp was 72 I think I could have taken it out at about 66 degoh well all eaten now there is always next time.
en
Chris

Rolled beef is a hard one to cook in my opinion

The amount of bleed that you have on the plate looks alright. Just add gravy.

If you want to do beef then do a corned dog. You wont be sorry. Ohh bake it.

Chris,
I agree with Steven rolled roast are hard to cook,because the meat is of a unknown quality. I use the seasoned ones in a cryovaced bag and they are great and remain moist. Just the thing to take camping.
Muzz

Hi stevenm and muzz
Thank you for your comments steven when you say bake it does that mean to use less beads?
en
Chris

Well done Chris..
You're given the CO a seroius workout of late.
As Muzz suggested it may be the cut of meat used.
We often use a small marinated topside roast that has been cryo packed.
A real treat and easy to store in a fridge or esky when travelling.

Aart

Good job Chris!

Personally I save rolled brisket for pot roasts because they don't dry out as much.
There are a million different ways to do a pot roast, this is my favourite.

Pour a little bit of oil into a pre-heated camp oven and brown the outside of the meat. 
Remove meat and place aside temporarily. 

Saute some onions, carrots, celery [and whatever else you fancy - swede, mushroom, leek etc].
Remove vegetables from camp oven and empty of excess fat.
You may be able to move everything to one side and blot up the fat with paper towel.

Return meat and vege to camp oven with some stock... about 1 cup is usually enough.
I prefer salt reduced vegetable stock but most people would probably use beef stock.

Add whatever seasonings you like - salt, pepper, thyme, rosemary, bay leaves  etc
Half a teaspoon of dried mixed herbs is my preference - any more and I find it over powering.

Allow to simmer very gently for about 3 hours or more, depending on the size of your brisket.

Once cooked, take out the meat and vegetables and make a gravy with the juices in the oven.
You can either reduce the amount of liquid by boiling away or simply remove the excess. 
Mix about 1 tablespoon of flour with a small amount of liquid to make a paste, then add that to the liquid in the oven and mix well. 
Simmer, stirring, until gravy thickens.

Depending on how many I am feeding, I often serve this with mashed potato.

Happy Trails!
LG    [smiley=chef.gif]

Hi LG
Thank you for that advice i have printed ur post if that is ok and I will give that a go once again thank you for ur help I will let all know how I go when done.

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Chris

Hi LG
When you say return meat and vegges to pot with stock should I put the meat on a trivet or just sit it inv the stock with the vegges.
en
Chris

Hi Chris
You simply return the meat, vegetables and stock to the camp oven and simmer away.   :)

No rack (or trivet) is needed for pot roasting, as you are essentially 'simmering/steaming in stock'.  Since it is so moist, as long as the heat is kept low, it is unlikely to stick to the bottom of the camp oven. 

When cooking drier items such as roasting meat & vege, a rack (or trivet) acts as a heat diffuser and helps prevent food from sticking.  When baking, the rack helps the hot dry air to circulate all around the cake/bread the same as it would in a home oven.

To me a trivet is the little stand you put hot items on to stop them scorching the benchtop/grass, or to stop the moist underside of a camp oven lid from picking up 'yuck' when you take it off the camp oven to stir food etc.  Blame my English heritage and/or Nanna's teapot!  hehehe    ;)

Hi LG
Thank you again for your assistance I have another question when you say low heat when simmering what would you recommend. I was going to make it about 180 deg would that be too hot or not hot enough thank you in advance for your help.
en
Chris

Hi All
Well have just finished a brisket as a pot roast I tried the way LG posted it only took 1.5 hours to cook I think I might have had the temp a little too high I cooked about 150 degrees next a little lower.Anyway we haven't tried it yet but it is looking promising.
en
Chris

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How did it go Chris? It looks mighty good!!  :)

Tim

Hi Chris
Sorry I wasn't online earlier to answer your question.  Glad you gave it a shot anyway.  Well Done!
Your photo shows a nicely cooked bit of meat.  I look forward to your comments after you've taken a taste.

Braising/simmering is cooking in a small amount of hot liquid that is just below boiling level.
Boiling point is about 100 degrees Celsius, so I guess simmering would be around 90ish. 
I've never actually measured the temperature - it's the bubbles that guide me

You would normally bring the liquid to a boil (large bubbles quickly rolling over themselves etc) then lower the heat (remove some heatbeads) until you only get the occasional bubble, or lots of tiny bubbles moving slowly, depends on how thick the liquid is.
 
The beauty of pot roasting is, like casseroles, the process is very forgiving of our mistakes.
If your heat is a little too low it will just mean the meal will take a little bit longer to cook, but the meat will be even more tender - falling off the bone etc. 

Stews and casseroles are cooked about the same temperature. The only difference being that more liquid is used for a stew/casserole, covering the meat and vegies, while only a small amount of liquid is used for braising/pot roasting.

I have slowly simmered casseroles and stews for up to 10 hours in larger pots... especially large quantities of tough meat like mutton and old buck kangaroos.

Hope this helped   :)

LG

Hi LG and timmo.
The meat came out tender and for me to be able to actually eat beef is a good thing normally when I cook beef it always comes out tough and ends up in the bin. I would have liked the beef a little more tender than this roast but I am happy with the results atleast it did not go into the bin.Thinking as LG suggests the temp has a lot to do with the amount of tenderness The next time I'l cook with temps about 120 degrees instead of 160 degs. However LG I had to put a little more liquid in the co about 3/4 s through the cook once again I think the temp which I had had a lot to do with putting more liquid in as it boiled away.They say we live and learn and I am learning a lot from each and everyone here on this forum thank you.

en
Chris

This has been a great post because I have never cooked a 'pot' roast in my life.

It looks great and is now on my list of things to do.


Derek  [smiley=chef.gif]

Well done Chris
It looks good plated up.

Aart

Hi All
Thank you Derek and TBF the roast is all gone now as I ate it for lunch today yes Derek LG has helped so much but as I said the next time I will make the temps lower.
en
Chris

Hi Chris
Adding a little more liquid during a long slow cook isn't unusual -
my only suggestion there is to add HOT liquid so

1) you don't lower the temperature of the cooking pot, which increases cooking time and
2) you don't crack your cast iron pot by adding cold fluid to almost dry, very hot metal

Glad it worked out for you and you went to bed with a full tummy   :)



Derek -
During all these years I suspect you probably have cooked what I call a 'pot roast', but maybe you called it something else. 
The only difference between braising and pot roasting is - braised items have bones.
So (braised lamb shanks) and (pot roasted lamb shin beef) would be the exact same bit of meat (with or without the bone), cooked in exactly the same way - a small amount of liquid  :-)

hi LG
Thank you I will keep that in mind about the water.
en
Chris