Besides Cook’n and www.dvo.com, we all have our GO-TO destinations for gathering food information and recipes. And when we find ‘em, aren’t we so glad we can add them straight to our Cook’n collection, and then even customize ‘em to suit our needs? Oops, I’m digressing.

Back on topic: One of my favorite websites is www.recipetineats.com. Rich asked for pot roast for Sunday dinner tomorrow, and I was wondering if I could find a way to create a tasty meal out of a rump roast I’ve had kicking around in our freezer for, let’s just say, a LOONNNGGG time.

Sure enough, Nagi, recipe creator and Recipe Tin Eats owner, had my answer: “This is how to transform an economical beef cut (no matter HOW old) into something really special. You tenderize using this special herb-garlic beef marinade to inject extra flavor and juiciness. There are marinades, and then there are MARINADES. This one delivers!”

Here’s Nagi’s recipe in case you, too, have a very OLD cut of beef you’d like to rescue. She says your roast will come out with a deep golden crust and will almost melt in your mouth. (Crossing my fingers here—I’ll report back!)

Sunday dinner report: OK folks, this marinade is a HIT! It delivered just what Nagi promised. I know you savvy Cook’n readers probably don’t have an old roast hanging out in YOUR freezer, so using this recipe as a rescue probably won’t be needed. But it’s so good, you’ll want to use it anyway, all the time!



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I’ll close with a few of Nagi’s tips that will increase our chances for success:

REMOVE THE MARINATED BEEF from of the fridge 1 hour prior to roasting. This step helps to take the chill out of the core somewhat, to encourage even cooking.

MOST IMPORTANT STEP is to rest the cooked roast for a minimum of 20 minutes (ideally 30 minutes), to allow the juices to get sucked back into the beef. If you do not rest, the meat juices will run everywhere the second you cut it = less juicy beef.

SLICE THINLY ACROSS THE GRAIN (no matter what cut of beef you are using). Slicing thinly against the grain allows for the most tender bite. Here’s a diagram for how to slice against the grain – just look for the direction of the meat fibers and cut 90° across them.

START HIGH, THEN GO LOW-ISH. Start your roasting at 450 degrees F to get the crust going, then finish roasting at 350F (until you’ve reached your desired doneness).

    Alice Osborne
    Weekly Newsletter Contributor since 2006
    Email the author! alice@dvo.com