of the pot. Move all your braises to the oven, and you’ll get
better results—guaranteed.
When I made the pot roast, after about 3 hours the meat
was at just the point I wanted it—tender enough that a knife
or cake tester could slip in and out of it easily, but not so
tender that it had lost its structure. (The broth, by the way,
smelled awesome.) The problems arose when I tried to slice
the meat. While hot, it was so tender that it was nearly an
impossible task—it shredded and fell apart even with the
sharpest knife and the gentlest touch. The best way to slice
braised meat is to allow it to first cool completely.
Originally I thought it’d be best to allow the meat to cool
down in the air of the kitchen instead of in the hot liquid
inside the pot. But I tested identical halves of the same roast
cooled in the air versus in the liquid and here’s what I
found:
RETAINED WEIGHT VERSUS COOLING METHOD