Bottom Round Pot Roast Recipe Beef Flats

Bottoms Up!

It's no secret I use bottom round beef flats for my famous pit beef, everyone actually thought for years due to misreporting that I was using top round. Truth is, top round has a large layer of fat on it, and I find myself prepping more and losing 25% of it's weight.  I don't personally find it any more tasty than bottom round beef flats, if cooked right. Also when using an open pit, all that fat can really cause grease fires. My neighbors on either side of me at the fair won't appreciate me using top round at all.  My yield on a bottom round slab is about 90% with only a thin layer of fat and silver on the bottom, and some fat running through one end.  I get a lot of emails about using it at home.

Cut and Portion

A regular size slab of beef flat will weigh anywhere from 13-15 lbs on average. In manufactuer case packs they will come three to four slabs depending on the distributor.  One slab is enough to cut into four and have four nice sized roasts for your family meal time.  If I was cooking these at home, I cut them raw, and freeze them, sometimes marinating them in Italian Dressing then freezing them in zip lock bags.

Cut #4

If you are looking at a butcher's chart this can be confusing, as technically beef bottom round is cut from the outside of the roast. Keep in mind this whole flat in one big swoop of bottom, so what you see above is cut #4 which sure looks like brisket ....hmmmm  Truth is when you get the whole flat you are actually getting several different cuts of meat that normally you would buy separately. If you do your cuts right, you can end up with lots of good meals.  Overall,  I like the marbling and you don't lose a lot of meat.  The fatty membrane on top and bottom will mostly grill off if you are using it on a grill or open fire pit, but for the family member that hates having a little fat on his meat you may want to trim some of this off. I don't but you may wish to.  I leave mine on for baking will add more flavor to your au' jus.

Home Preparation and Bottom Round Roast Recipe

You can use bottom round beef flats for :

• Baking roasts
• CrockPot roasts, 
• Boiling down into beef barbecue
• Broiling

Quick and Easy Pot Roast

In this recipe I am going to show you the simple pot roast.   

WARNING:  The key to remember is cook low and slow,  because the meat is tough and needs to cook long ...

You will need: 

• Italian Dressing or any marinade that contains oil for moisture
• Any favorite spices you desire  - I'm using Dill
• Any fresh veggies you desire, for this I used sweet & hot peppers, celery and carrots.
• Glass or ceramic baking dish
• One cup water

For this recipe, I used another cut from the photograph above which ended up being almost 4 lbs, so then I cut it in half to score me approximately 2 lb mini roasts, set of two. Small enough to cook fast and have them in time for dinner.  Notice the fat that goes up into the beef flat, that is "V" shaped. If you choose to cut this out it's easy to do. I leave it on for more flavor.  I am using one to shave thin for sandwiches, and one to cut thick for dinner.

Cut of bottom round, with fat in tact. 

For this I used lite Italian dressing and decided not to use any additional spices other than Dill. I find the regular Italian Dressing is way too powerful and will take away from the flavor of the meat. You can also dry rub it if you want, but I don't. I'm going to stuff veggies down in between and make the meat get flavored naturally.

 Notice how the veggies are placed all down in between and around the meat. Since I'm cooking low and slow, these veggies will cook low and slow and their natural flavor will get into the meat. For this I did not use onion, and I'm sure you are wondering whyy. This is only because the Lite Italian dressing has onion flavoring in it and I don't want to overdo the onion flavoring on a pot roast.  The sweet and hot peppers are going to add some  kick to the roast, and the dill will sweeten it up.  I finish by adding 1 cup of water in the bottom.

Cooking Times: 

The longer you cook it the better. I started at 400 degrees for 45 minutes to brown the outsides, then I cut the temp back to 325 and cooked it slow for a few hours.  I actually removed one half at about 3 hours in, so that I could slice it for sandwiches. I left the rest in another hour and 15, making a total cook time of 4.25 hours on that one small 2 lb roast becasue I was slicing that for dinner thick and I like mine tender.

You of course can remove from oven once your meat reaches 165 degrees internal or let it ride for a fall apart in your mouth dinner!

TIP: Be sure when removing the pieces to let them rest a bit before cutting. This will ensure it maintains is juices. 

Dinner is served!

Yield on one 4lb roast cut:  

Pot Roast Half:  Four servings of pot roast dinner, everyone had three thick slices with veggies.

Sandwich Half;  Sandwiches served on potato rolls, and beef sliced thin topped with sliced onion, cheese, horsey sauce and bbq made  six luncheon sized sandwiches.

If you are a big guy like me, you will eat this up in two days. Yum!

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Filet Mignon Scallops Hare and Grace Garlic Recipes

These are my real filets. Not fake or doctored photos. You can tell from the way in which I charred it up!

This weekend I whipped up some Bacon Wrapped Filet Mignon (which we've dubbed the "Ray Ray Filet") and ultra tasty Garlic Scallops. Don't mind my grill muck, they tasted divine. I want to mention that before you put your steaks on the grill, (they will take about 15 minutes) you should be working on the scallops (about 20 minutes). This is where you must trust your wife, child, or best bud to do your steaks to perfection on the barbecue pit while you are whipping up scallops on the inside. (Don't worry, the filets are so tender, they really can't go wrong--or so you hope.) Here's what I did.

DIY Filet Mignon : Bacon Wrapped Medallion

First you can use filets already cut from your butcher or grocer. In my case,  I bought the whole beef tenderloin. Some of you may be scared off by the price of a whole tenderloin,(or even the hearts or butt sections) but trust me, you can get your money out of it versus buying single cuts of steaks. I cut enough steaks off it for the next few months to feed my family and guests.  I am known to vacuum pack the ones I won't be needing to use right away in a marinade (yum) which would make even the worst cut of meat taste good. 

If you are new at this, it may be confusing. Not all of the tenderloin is considered the Filet Mignon and you may need to read up on how to butcher the filets out of the tenderloin (Based on if you have purchased the whole tenderloin, the butt or the heart)..If you do it once or twice you will have it down to a science. I trimmed my "silver" or silvery thick membrane off and cut two nice filets out for the wife and myself.  These I cut as thick as a slice of bacon. I was able to get about 8 filets this size, meat for stew, beef tips (for my Beef Tips and Onions recipe that I make quite often) and some smaller niblets which I intend to make into fresh dog food.   

Good luck duplicating this, I've tried with no luck.

Olde Canadian Steak Rub:   First I want to explain I get a blend of something called "Gourmet Olde Canadian Steak Rub" (that's a real picture of it above) that is packaged for my local grocer by Nutmeg Spice Company in Terryville, CT.  If you can find a distributor in your area please do. Besides the fact I make my own rub, I've got to say this is one of the best spice blends I've tasted and has a huge ZING to it,  A small dab of spice leaves your mouth hot, salty and wanting more. They call it a pungent taste and they are right. A small $5 bottle of this has lasted me a year at home on steaks, burgers, and pork and I'm halfway empty.  Here is the link to it Olde Canadian Steak Rub    If you can't find it, you can use your regular Canadian Steak Rub, or try to create some yourself, which I tried to recreate as spicy as theirs to no avail.   (I do teach how to make a similiar rub in my cooking school,so I won't divulge here..)

Step One:  Dry rub a small bit of the Olde Canadian Steak Rub onto all sides and edges of your steak. Marinate refrigerated in a covered glass dish for 24 hours.

Step Two:  Wrap two pieces of bacon around the sides of  each steak prior to cooking. I used Canadian Maple Bacon but sometimes opt for Pepper Bacon, it's really up to you. Use a toothpick to hold it together. (WARNING: I have to also warn you, that if you don't like your steaks well done, then you should possibly consider zapping your bacon half way first in the microwave (cheating, I know) to where it's still pliable to wrap around the steak. I like mine rare so my bacon would be raw if I didn't do something like this. Wait until the bacon is cool to the touch then wrap and pin with your toothpick.

Step Three:  On the day of cooking, slather your steaks with a mix of fresh garlic and your favorite sweet bbq sauce. I like to do this to kill myself with garlic and combat the zing of the dry rub with some sweet sauce. As well the sauce will give the outside of the steaks that burnt and crispy coating that reminds you of yummy bbq, but inside be as juicy as butter itself.

Don't forget, you are timing these  to come out with the scallops...

Hey, Did you know I offer cooking classes?  Sign up for Pitmaster School here!

This Recipe Sponsored by Hare and Grace


Hare and Grace used his great recipe for Garlic scallops, herb breadcrumbs and aioli.   Now, my scallops didn't turn our nearly as nice.

Ray Capaldi, pic from HareandGrace.com

In case you are unfamiliar with  Hare and Grace, they are an award winning  restaurant in Melbourne City (Australia) launched by Capaldi (he's Executive Chef and Owner).  I keep up on them because they do a lot of Charcoal Grilling and a wide variety of meats including offering the rare WAGYU cuts of meat.  As you know I'm partial to using Australian cuts of beef  (because often they are not loaded and injected with artificial growth hormones) .

Their menu includes a wide selection of items from the barbecue charcoal grill, including grass fed angus.  Capaldi has been known to hand select his meats, and forage for herbs and spices ensuring they are fresh, untouched by chemicals.   I hope to visit their restaurant someday. In the meantime, I'll just visit from afar.  If you are reading this from Australia, check them out and remember they cater all kinds of events, big or small!

Hare and Grace
525 Collins street, Melbourne, 3000
info@hareandgrace.com
(03) 9629 6755

Tiny Grill Award

The only thing worse than showing you my scallops is showing you this teeny tiny grill I used for my filets, so don't laugh.  It's one of those teeny wee grills that are tailgate size. Why waste all that hardwood firing up the big boy when I can use a small tabletop?

This may ruin my reputation, or get me the smallest grill award.

You may wish to read my post on: Three Aussie Meat Recipes here.

This page last updated 12.22.14 Note; Hare and Grace's links to their recipes have been removed as they are broken.  If you like my Filet pictures pin them here: