Dutch Oven Pot Roast with Root Vegetables
Chuck roast simmered slow over coals until it falls apart, with carrots and turnips finished in the broth.
- calories
- 520
- weight
- 11 oz
- cal / oz
- 47
- protein
- 42 g
- serves
- 6, scales
- prep
- 15 min
- cook
- 190 min
- total time
- 205 min
- water
- 950 ml boiled
- cost
- $$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Dutch oven
- Campfire coals
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Gluten free
- Dairy free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Needs a cooler
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Boneless chuck or rolled rump roast | 3 lb | chuck has more fat and forgives a hot spot |
|---|---|---|
| Water | 4 cups | |
| Onions | 2 medium | quartered |
| Carrots | 4 | quartered |
| Turnips | 2 | quartered |
| Celery | 2 stalks | cut into 1-inch pieces |
| Garlic | 1 large clove | |
| Whole cloves | 6 | |
| Peppercorns | 5 | |
| Bay leaf | 1 | |
| Dried thyme | 1 tsp | |
| Salt | 1 tsp |
Method
- Burn a fire down to coals, or light about 25 briquettes and let them ash over.
- Put the roast in a 12-inch dutch oven with the water, salt, thyme, cloves, peppercorns, bay leaf, and garlic. Lid on.
- Sit the oven over enough coals to bring it to a boil, then pull most of them out. You want a lazy simmer, not a rolling boil.
- Hold that simmer about 2.5 hours. Check every 40 minutes and feed the coals as they die. Add water if the roast is no longer half-covered.
- Add the onions, celery, carrots, and turnips. Lid back on, simmer another 30 to 40 minutes until a knife slides into the meat with no argument.
- Lift out the meat and vegetables. Slice the roast across the grain.
- Strain the broth into cups and drink it alongside, or spoon it over the plates.
This is a coals recipe, not a stove recipe. The whole thing depends on holding a low simmer for two and a half hours, and coals do that better than a burner because the heat comes from all sides and fades slowly. A boil at this stage tightens the muscle fiber and you end up with grey, stringy meat. Barely-moving water breaks the connective tissue down into gelatin instead.
The vegetables go in near the end for a reason. Carrots and turnips turn to mush in three hours, and cooking them alongside the meat from the start gives you soft meat and nothing to chew with it. The last forty minutes is enough to cook them through in broth that is already full of fat and salt. Strain the broth before serving or you will bite a clove.
Packing
Roast rides frozen at the bottom of the cooler and thaws on the drive. Salt, thyme, cloves, peppercorns, and the bay leaf go in one small jar at home so you are not opening five containers at the fire. Root vegetables need no cooler, just a mesh bag.
Variations
- Swap the turnips for potatoes if nobody at the table likes turnips. Add them at the same time.
- A cup of the water replaced with red wine deepens the broth.
- Leftover meat and broth reheat into a second night's soup with a handful of pasta or rice.
https://www.boyscouttrail.com/content/recipe/french_roast_beef-1291.asp