Cooking a Roast

[blacknoir]

I'm a crock pot kind of guy when it comes to roasts so I'm not sure about the specifics when it comes to cooking one in an oven. What I'm wondering is what should the temp be in my oven when I put it in and then how long should I leave it? Also, what kind of pot/pan should this be in?

-Shay

[blacknoir]

Roasting Pan

Something like this? Would you go with Aluminum or Steel?

[PizzaPolice]

Re: Cooking a Roast

Any roasting pan will do. You are going to fire it up to a typical home oven temperature.
Same as which temperature you would normally roast.
Me? Next week, I'm gonna stick about 70# of beef in my BFO for Italian beef. Normally, I would let it heat up and moderate to about 325F. When it drops to about 275F (no fire), I close the door and let it hang out (covered) until morning. The lower temps tend to melt the collagen and fat.

[blacknoir]

Re: Cooking a Roast

I think I might try throwing a roast in after firing on Sunday, which is day 3 so I'll be up to 300F.

[dmun]

Re: Cooking a Roast

If I'm not making gravy, as with a pork roast, I just throw the roast on a sheet of aluminum foil, close the door, and wait. Your oven has a complete self cleaning cycle everytime you fire it up to pizza temps.

I hate scrubbing greasy roaster pans.

[Wiley]

Re: Cooking a Roast

Shay, I do like you are suggesting and use a roaster with rack. Mine is stainless steel.

By coincidence today I'm firing a load of rolls and a couple loaves of bread. When I rake out the fire and coals I will place them in a standing by BBQ. I then do the usual process and will bake the bread. Then I'll place the roaster uncovered in the WFO off to one side and place a wall of firebricks on edge along side. I put the firebricks off to one side when firing the WFO and so they are hot....one more advantage to a slightly larger WFO. I will then replace the coals stored in the BBQ with soaked hickory chips and smoke the roast (in the case of today pork shoulder). It'll smoke for about an hour then I'll rake the coals out, cover the roast and close up the WFO. Tomorrow the pork will be done and served on the rolls for my granddaughter's 22nd birthday.

Bests,
Wiley

[blacknoir]

Re: Cooking a Roast

Wow.. that sounds amazing!

[Ken524]

Re: Cooking a Roast

I'm a crock pot kind of guy when it comes to roasts

I have a few crock pot cookbooks that I use for "day 3" cooking. Anything you can do in a crock pot works great in a warm brick oven.

A dutch oven or casserole with a lid work fine for crock pot recipes.

[PizzaPolice]

Re: Cooking a Roast

Sounds real nice, Wiley. If I had my hat on str8 when we put this oven in I would have built this rascal along side it.
The Lexington Collection

[Wiley]

Re: Cooking a Roast

I don't mean to hijack your thread Shay, but here's a few pictures.... and in the one you can see I screwed up badly and cracked the window in my baking door. I forgot to soak the door and then after it was in and started to smell scorching wood I realized my error. A quick splash with the garden hose (what was I thinking? it's borosilicate not Superman) and well you can see the crack. Bummer.

Also learned that a spray of olive oil and a dusting of flour works for release from the proofing basket but it tends to "over brown" the surface sooner than a side by side non oiled loaf. Living and learning, life's not long enough for all the mistakes I like to make....

Oh, and those three specks of black in the photo with the bread and the pork that is part of the remains of the baker's parchment. Who said you could use that stuff twice? Not me, for me it ends up crisp, black and falls apart.

Bests,
Wiley

[blacknoir]

Re: Cooking a Roast

No problem Wiley, those all look delicious!

[Neil2]

Re: Cooking a Roast

I often do a slow roast the day after firing up for pizza.

I put the door on after cooking the pizza, and the next day about 2 PM it is still 220 degrees. I put the roast in for 3 to 4 hours.

Two meals with one firing.

[blacknoir]

Re: Cooking a Roast

I put the roast in this morning after heating it up to around 340F and letting it drop a bit before putting the door on. I'll let you know how it comes out.

[ksm]

Re: Cooking a Roast

How DID it turn out? Inquiring minds want to know!

[blacknoir]

Re: Cooking a Roast

Well.. It was almost perfect.. The only problem is the oven really wasn't hot enough when I put the roast in to cook it fully, so I ended up throwing it in the inside oven for about 20 minutes to finish it off.. but it still turned out great. Next time I know to make sure the oven is at a steady 325ish before putting in the roast. When I did it I hit a high of around 340 and then let the fire die down, it was small so pretty quick to die down, and put the roast in but by then it had dropped to around 250..

All in all it was a good lesson in oven baking and temperature control. I now feel I have a better grasp of how things work. Next step is Pizza and my goal is for Friday night.. that should be my last day of curing.