A friend of mine gave me this recipe, and it made the best pot roast we've ever had. I just did a search and found it on-line, so I didn't even have to type it out! Lisa's Lazy Pot Roast from The Complete Meat Cookbook Ingredients: 1 tsp. dried thyme 1 Tbs. chopped fresh rosemary or 1 tsp. dried rosemary 1 Tbs. paprika 1 Tbs. Kosher salt 1 tsp. freshly ground black pepper One 4 lb. boneless beef chuck roast or a beef brisket, trimmed of most fat 2 Tbs. vegetable oil 1/2 cup water or beef or chicken stock, or more if needed 5 cups thinly sliced onions (about 3 large) 6 chopped garlic cloves Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste Preparation: For the flavor step, combine 1 teaspoon dried thyme, 1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary or 1 teaspoon dried rosemary, 1 tablespoon paprika, 1 tablespoon Kosher salt and 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper in a small bowl. Rub the meat thoroughly with the mixture. You can cook the roast immediately, but it will taste better if it sits for an hour or two at room temperature or overnight in a zipper-lock bag, or well wrapped, in the refrigerator. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large, heavy casserole or Dutch oven, heat the vegetable oil over medium high heat. Brown roast on all sides, about 7 minutes. Remove and set aside. Pour off any fat from the pan and deglaze the pan in water or stock, scraping up any browned bits with a wooden spoon or spatula. Put the roast back in the pan, cover it with 5 cups thinly sliced onions and 6 chopped garlic cloves, cover and bake for 1 hour. Remove the cover, turn the roast over so that it is on top of the onions, and continue to cook, uncovered, for another hour, adding more liquid if needed. Stir the onions around after about 30 minutes so they can brown more evenly. Replace the cover and continue to cook for 1 hour more, or until the meat is fork tender; brisket will take a little longer than chuck. Remove the meat from the pot and let it rest, covered loosely with foil, while you prepare the sauce. (At this point, you may refrigerate the pot roast for later reheating. Refrigerate the cooking liquid separately. To serve later, remove any congealed fat from the cooking liquid and strain it before using it to reheat the meat gently.) To serve, strain and defat the sauce. Taste for salt and pepper. Cut the meat into thick slices or separate it into chunks. Spoon some sauce and onions over for serving. Serves: 6 Chef's Note: If you are in a hurry, you can eliminate the herb rub. In fact, if you are really in a hurry, do not bother with the browning. Just put the roast in a heavy casserole, smother it with the onions, and cook it as described above. You will be amazed at how good it is, and you family will think you have been slaving away at the stove all day.

For Christmas Eve I made a 12 lb loin of beef. I have so much stuff going on that I bought a digital therm with a probe and program it to the proper temp, it beeps when it's done so I don't forget about the beef. I cut the beef in half to make it a little easier to handle and used Ina Gartens recipe. 1 (4 to 5 pound) fillet of beef, trimmed and tied 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature 1 tablespoon kosher salt 1 tablespoon coarsely ground black pepper Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F. Place the beef on a sheet pan and pat the outside dry with a paper towel. Spread the butter on with your hands. Sprinkle evenly with the salt and pepper. Roast in the oven for exactly 22 minutes for rare and 25 minutes for medium-rare. Remove the beef from the oven, cover it tightly with aluminum foil, and allow it to rest at room temperature for 20 minutes. Remove the strings and slice the fillet thickly. Note: Be sure your oven is very clean or the high temperature will cause it to smoke.

Linda - thanks for your prompt reply - and your method sounds simple (and tasty!) I have cooked a pork roast once or twice, but find that I keep opening the oven to check the internal temp, and that probably delays the whole cooking process. I am trying to put together a decent (simple) meal as a weeknight alternative to the 'quick' dishes I usually fall back on since invariably I am trying to put dinner on the table in between carpooling sessions. Tonight I have a window of opportunity between 6:15 and 7:30 to have a family (of four) dinner. I also have an oven that I can program to start while I am out (leaving the house at 5 for the first round, due back home at 6:15, before DS heads out to practice at 7:30.) The package says 'pork boneless rib roast' Is this interchangeable with a loin? Also - I did to a google search prior to posting here, with conflicting information re: roasting times and temps - some sites say 20 minutes a pound at 350 degrees - and others advise much longer -- sigh I found this recipe too, which says about 1 1/2 hours - which is why I turned to the experienced cooks on this forum, because I am confused! Here is a link that might be useful: rib roast recipe

The theroy behind cooking meat at very low temperature and very long time is complicated, but you don't have to go into all the details to end up with a wonderful end result. Here is a direct quote from another forum where there are many interests in this topic. Just to be clear, cooking at 133f will require a very accurate temperature control. If you are doing it in a regular oven, you may want to go higher and also check the temperature frequently: dcarch ------------------------------------------------ " My cross-rib roast was a big success. So, here are the details. Cooked at 133F for 18 or 20 hours. Then given crust in a medium hot pan with some olive oil. I wanted to make sure that the outer fat got crispy -- so the browning was in medium hot rather than smoking hot pan like I usually use to sear post-sous vide. It worked out nicely. This was a boneless roast and I snipped the twine and unrolled it before putting it into the bag since I realized that the deboning might have introduced contaminants. (The roast was 4.5 inches thick rolled up so I decided to err on the side of caution). Anyway, the result was great. This medium-quality fairly inexpensive roast ended up tasting like a much higher-quality roast. It was fork-tender without being mushy. And made for amazing sandwiches the next day. "