Chuck Wagon

What's more important is how you handle them. I recommend marinating them, tenderizing them with a mallet if they are thick, and above all, not over cooking them. Sear them quickly in a sauté pan with vegetable oil on very high heat until medium-rare.

I can sum up how to pick a chuck roast in one word: BONE. I recently made a pot roast and had a hell of a time trying to find a roast on the bone. Every supermarket and butcher shop I visited had nothing but boneless roasts. Why?

Because the mass of individuals out there are either convenience-oriented amateur cooks who don't want to deal with the bone or food neurotics who have issues with it.

Professional cooks, and those whose childhood conflicts don't manifest themselves in their eating habits, know that any meat on the bone will be more tender, flavorful and succulent.

If you want the juiciest and tastiest pot roast, endeavor to find one with the shoulder bone still attached. And the more of the bone present, the better.

A 7-bone roast, (so called because the bone is shaped like the number seven), is the one most often recommended, although you'd be amazed how many "butchers" haven't heard of it. It is a cut from the center of the chuck and is also known as a center cut pot roast.

Since stew meat is cooked sans bone, you can use the boneless roast and cut it into chunks, or just buy the pre-cut chuck cubes.

Finally, ground chuck, as opposed to ground "beef", which is a hodgepodge of meat scraps, is the best choice for making hamburgers.

MARK'S POT ROAST

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