Cast Iron Pot Roast

Chuck roast in my vintage Wagner Ware pan, ready for the oven. 

We finally un-glutened and re-seasoned my favorite vintage cast iron pan. Some cookware can hold on to traces of gluten, which can transfer to the food you cook in it. If you're celiac like R, even that trace of gluten could make her sick. My stainless steel All-Clad Dutch oven and smaller saucepans are fine. But nonstick pans can have tiny scratches where gluten can linger even after repeated washings, and cast iron is porous.

So we replaced our Teflon skillet, and put the cast iron through the oven's self-clean cycle. This takes the pan down to bare metal, and burns off all the gluten. It also burned off the careful seasoning we've built up. This is an old pan, that we got second hand and already beautifully seasoned. But it was easier to heat seal and re-season it than I thought it would be. I'll do a post about that process soon.

This is by far my favorite pan, and it's great to have it back again and safe for R. It makes the best pot roast. Get the skillet piping hot and sear the salted and peppered beef (this one was a chuck roast) in a little oil (I used avocado oil). Take the beef out, add more oil if necessary, and layer thinly sliced potatoes on the bottom of the hot skillet. After the potatoes start to brown, add sliced onions, carrots, and a bay leaf or two. Put the roast back in the skillet, and almost cover it with a mixture of tomato paste (or ketchup), gluten free beef bouillon, and hot water. Add a bay leaf or two, and other herbs if you like. Cover the pan with aluminum foil, or a pot lid if you have one big enough.

This is what it looks like after 3-4 hours of slow roasting, at 250 or 300.

I brightened the flavors with some grape tomatoes and parsley, and served it on top of a green salad. We also had kiwi, strawberries and tangerine segments.