Ask Sara: TV Chef Answers Your Questions

April 14, 2011— -- Celebrated author and TV chef Sara Moulton is the food editor at "Good Morning America."

You've written to her with questions about what you want to do in the kitchen -- and she responded.

Sara Moulton Answers Your Questions

Susan Harris:Hi Sara. What is the best cut of meat for a moist and tender pot roast you can slice? A chuck roast tastes good but it is only about an inch and a half high, and is not really sliceable. It more or less just shreds apart. Thank you.

Sara's Answer: Susan

For this question I reached out to my buddy, mentor and cookbook author Jean Anderson. Her most recent book, "Falling Off the Bone," was published last year by Wiley and is all about braising. Here is Jean's reply:

Despite the "GMA" viewer's complaints, beef chuck is still best for pot roast because of the proportion of fat to lean. As you know, fat is what makes meat succulent and flavorful, and chuck has more fat than either round or rump (two other popular pot roasts). Round is far too lean for my taste, meaning a pot roast that's dry and lacking in flavor. Having slightly better marbled lean, boned and rolled rump is somewhat better (my second pot roast choice after chuck). But it should have a good outer covering of fat because it lacks the interior marbling necessary for a truly tender and juicy pot roast. If the outer layer of fat is skimpy, I drape the rump roast with bacon before it goes into the oven. Then as the meat braises, the bacon drippings will baste it and help keep it most. The drippings also add flavor. And here's something else people should know: Pork fat (bacon) is the least saturated of all the meat anmal fats (lamb fat is the most saturated, beef fat second, then veal, then pork).

The Main Problem: Most of our meat -- at least supermarket meat -- is cut and prepackaged hundreds of miles away, and the buyer has to settle for what's available. I suspect that the viewer bought something called chuck pot roast, which definitely would have been about 1 1/2 inches thick. The reason it "shredded," or fell apart, when sliced is that the viewer sliced it with the grain instead of across the grain. Chuck is composed of long fibers -- noticeable when raw and far more prominent when cooked. So slicing the pot roast with the grain merely separates these long fibers.

Solution: Go to a good butcher or high-end grocery with a butcher who knows his stuff, and order a Boston Cut (big blocky piece of chuck) or a Boneless Chuck Roll (also big and chunky). Then pot roast according to your favorite recipe. When slicing, cut across the grain and slightly on the bias. That way, the slices should remain intact. And your pot roast will be superbly succulent and deeply flavorful.