Larded Arm Roast

Jan 31 2013

Crazy weather, back to winter here in Ohio. Thursday morning it was 55 deg. by midnight it was below freezing and snowing.

I had known about larding meat a long time ago. I was reminded of it from a recipe for Daube Creole Glace by Chef Danno on Nola Cuisine blog. He larded a beef roast with salt pork and seasoning.

The first meat I larded was a half of whole pork loin. I used bacon instead of salt pork and it turned out great; just as moist as if I had brined it but with more flavor. I wanted to do beef so chose a small arm roast from my butcher, 2 ¼ pounds. I had left over mashed potatoes to use, so I would do the roast with onions, carrots and turnips in gravy. A package of Lipton beefy onion soup mix and a package of brown gravy mix and water would make tasty gravy.

I wanted to smoke the roast for an hour and half, go to high for about a half hour to brown and then in a Crockpot by noon for our supper at 6:00 Thursday. I got up a little late and by the time I got the roast in the smoker it was 10:30 so I changed to an hour on smoke mode.

I cut slits in the roast and cut up some bacon; dredged the bacon in some of the onion soup mix and inserted it into the slits. I sprinkled on a little of the onion soup mix, some dried garlic granules and pepper. After one hour on smoke mode I went to high. In just over 10 minutes my Traeger was over 400 deg. at grill level and in another 10 minutes it looked good.

I laid it over a layer of sliced onions in the Crockpot. I mixed the packet of onion soup and gravy mix, added some water to make slurry and poured it over the beef. I added more water to almost cover and set the Crockpot to high. I cut up 4 small carrots and a turnip and added. After a half hour I went to low on the Crockpot.

Close to 5 PM I removed the roast, removed any fat and sliced up. It went back in the pot and I turned it to high. We ate at close to 6 PM. I heated up the mashed potatoes and some leftover corn pudding. Ladled the meat and veggies over the potatoes with some more of the gravy. I had some rye bread and butter with mine.

It was melt in your mouth beef and flavorful gravy. We both loved it and a keeper recipe for me. I think I’ll have it over bread tomorrow night like an open face sandwich.

Roast and ingredients

Larded, seasoned and ready for the smoker

Smoked and browned

Ready for the Crockpot

Ready to slice up the meat

Meat sliced, I did get some smoke ring for only an hour on smoke

Meat added back to the pot

My Plate