I wouldn't use roasting beef for braising. Get some braising beef, cut it up, toss it in seasoned flour before searing and cook slowly with your wine/water, veggies.....etc. The flour will help give you a thick sauce.

In my hands, the best braising cut is chuck roast. Fatty enough to have flavor, enough connective tissue to make a good sauce. Flanken cut ribs or short ribs do well also.

I don't know your experience with braising, so please forgive me if I'm saying stuff you already know: braising is low/slow cooking to allow the connective tissues to melt and soften. (High temp and you get the opposite--meat toughens up.) And you want just enough liquid to keep the environment moist--you don't want boiled beef.

A trick I learned from Molly Stevens' "All About Braising" is to add a pig foot to the braising pot. Blanch it, rinse it, then add it with all the aromatics. It yields a huge amount of gelatin, making the sauce have a wonderful mouthfeel. (Works for beans, too.) And if you have a dog, it will go nuts for a cooked pig foot.

Here is a link that might be useful: all about braising

I second arley's recommendation of using a trotter in a braise. I first started using them last fall when I was gifted my first pig's foot by Terra Firma Farm. The results were so good we picked up a dozen from them for this season. I've already used one in a pork shoulder braise that eventually morphed into pulled pork sandwiches. Do try trotters!

/tricia

Here is a link that might be useful: Trotters

"------Flanken cut ribs or short ribs do well also.---"

Short ribs are not cheap at $5.99 a lb here. Yes, wonderful flavor.

Last week I saw beef rib bones in the store for $0.99 a lb. They are like short ribs with about 1/2 the meat.

I bought 6 lbs and had the most delicious braised ribs. The meat was removed from the bones before serving, and the bones gave me a nice pot of stock.

Ths spent bones after stock making were pulverized with my garden shredder and mixed with my compost pile, for next year's tomatoes. :-)

dcarch

Basic process: use a fatty, tough, even gristly cut. I like getting stuff from the bargain bin. Cut into serving sized pieces. Dust with flour, brown it well in plenty of oil. In pot with lots of red wine, beer, stock or a mix thereof - enough to completely cover. Aromatics at will. Add something with lots of cartilage aka gelatin - chicken foot, pork foot, beef tendon, or even a package of unflavoured Knox gelatin. Boil then simmer for hours. Remove meat. Strain and discard all solids from the liquid. Boil the liquid uncovered until reduced by half or anyway when it is at the thickness you want. Pour sauce over

This takes a lot of time, but is very little work, if you see what I mean.

I think John has it exactly right.

I see no problem in braising individual servings as opposed to one big hunk of meat.

Annie

II forgot I even put this post up. No, in fact, I have only braised one time when I made beef shanks, if that was even braising. Thanks for the suggestions. I guess this takes a little bit of research. I do like the idea of the collagen though. I am working at getting over my squeamishness (?) when it comes to animal parts but I do want to use more of the animal since I'm not a vegetarian.

Good for you, cookie, for trying to use the less commonly used parts of an animal.

I'm not a vegetarian either, but after I work hard raising my beef, making sure they are safe, well cared for, healthy, well fed, I think it's shameful to waste any of it, and disrespectful to the animal which died to feed me.

Annie

I eat nose-to-tail because other parts taste delicious, nutritious, and save me money too.

We are one of the very few cultures who limit ourselves as to what are edible from an animal. We basically waste 1/2 of an animal each time we slaughter one.

I had braised beef tripe a few days ago, wonderful!

dcarch