Upon closer review, a pot roast and a beef stew are pretty similar. Inspired, I headed to the store with the goal of finding a big, cheap roast and making an incredibly thick beef stew (or a fairly runny pot roast, depending on your point of view). It was time to put my crock pot through its paces.

I didn’t follow the grocery store recipe very closely (or at all, really), preferring to take one idea from them and then wing it. Their idea? To score the roast and insert little chunks of garlic before placing it in the slow-cooker. I had done this before when grilling London broil, but had never done it with a roast before. I don’t know if that’s what did it, but this was definitely the best beef stew I’ve ever made. The smell of the roasting beef, onions and potatoes first filled the kitchen and then spread to the entire house. And when I served up the stew, the beef was tender enough to cut with a spoon (which I did).

Slow cooking is ideal for making a stew on a Sunday afternoon. It keeps the meat and vegetables moist, and allows the flavors of the various ingredients to permeate throughout. Plus, it requires virtually zero oversight, leaving you free to putter around the house.

As for the cut of meat itself? I’m not overly prescriptive on that point. Here’s what I do when I’m ready to make beef stew: I look to see what’s on sale, or what is on “special” because they need to sell it quick. If they have a nice roast (be it chuck, bottom round, rib, etc.), with a decent amount of fat, I buy it. I don’t want a ton of fat, because then the stew can be too greasy, but I do want some nice marbling.

Ship’s Thick Beef Stew

2.5- to 3.5-pound beef roast (make sure it will fit in your crock pot)

1 cup beef broth

2 cubes beef bouillon

1 large onion (or 2 small onions), coarsely chopped

4-6 large potatoes, cut into chunks

3-4 carrots, coarsely chopped

4-6 cloves garlic, cut into small wedges

paprika

salt

black pepper

You’ll be making a rub for the roast that is equal parts paprika, salt and pepper. You’ll want enough to rub over the entire roast, so at least one teaspoon of each—and possibly quite a bit more.

Once you’ve rubbed the paprika/salt/pepper blend into the whole roast, take a knife (I just use a steak knife) and score the top and sides of the roast. Squeeze the small garlic wedges into these incisions. Set the roast aside.

Put the potatoes, carrots and onions into the crock pot. Place the roast on top of the vegetables, with the top (the garlic wedged side) facing up.

Pour the beef broth into the crock pot, being careful not to wash off the rub on the roast. Toss in the bouillon cubes and make sure they’re in the broth, rather than sitting on top of the roast or on any vegetables that may not be submerged.

Set the crock pot to “high” and ignore it for between 5.5 hours (if the roast is closer to 2.5 pounds) and 6.5 hours (if the roast is closer to 3.5 pounds).

When you open the crock pot, take a big spoon and break the beef into chunks, stirring it around so that you end up with a big, sloppy mixture of beef, potatoes, onions and carrots. There should be plenty of liquid.

Voila! Thick and delicious beef stew. I like mine with some fresh-baked bread and a big bottle of Tabasco sauce. Enjoy!

*A note about the illustration: Sometimes blog posts come to us with photos, and sometimes they don’t. The Virginia Living test kitchen has made this recipe twice, both times with highly successful results, but without success in capturing this wonder on film before it was consumed. (Plus, you know, it's just ... brown.) So we gave up and asked the youngest member of our test kitchen group to produce an illustration of the oldest member of the test kitchen group enjoying the stew. The artist insists that this is not intended to be an exact representation of his father, but the sentiment depicted is spot-on.

12/3/09 5:19 PM