I usually make chuck roasts in the crock pot on low for 6-8 hours. I'm lazy and just use a bottle of Claude's for flavor and I'll add some more water to the pot. Today I cooked an arm roast the same way and it came out dryyyyyyyy. The meat didnt even pick up any flavor! Its so odd. Any ideas what I did wrong? I used a bottle of Claude's, added some beef broth and cooked on low for 6 hours. Thanks!
by colormepink150
13 Comments
In my experience 6 hours is much too short a time in a crock pot.
I’ve never in my life pulled anything except chicken breast off that soon.
It probably needed at least another 2 hours — ideally more like 4.
From my understanding, arm roasts are generally more lean than a chuck roast, so there isn’t a lot of fat to break down over the hours. It looks like you just simply overcooked it, unfortunately.
Did you accidentally set it on high?
meat is too lean- you need some fat and collagen to break down during the braising and this cut doesn’t have either in it. stick to roasts and cuts that have fat and collagen in ’em.
Not enough fat in the meat. Fat = flavor.
Ive been cooking for 30 years, I’ve never heard of an “arm roast”
I would have cooked it for 8 hours minimum. Sometimes I do 10 hours for leaner roasts. I cook game meat in the crock pot, which is incredibly lean – it turns out super tender and shreddy as long as I cook it for a long, long time. This to say, it doesn’t matter that the meat was lean, it just needed more time 🙂
Gonna make some great chili now
Leaner meats, hot temp and short time, fatty meat low temp and long time
Only slow cook fatty meats. Anything lean has to be monitored real closely for temp.
Round roasts are some of the leanest cuts of beef. You overcooked any love out you could. The only way I eat those is cooked to medium rare and sliced thin across the grain (pit beef or sandwich beef style).
Over cooked it
Crock pot slow cooking is for intense temperature over long time periods (generally for large roasts or other recipes that ask for it). You can actually slow cook anything without it drying out. But um, you still need the right time and temperature. Sous vide is your best bet for anything that is NOT a roast/ high fat content/ notoriously “tough” cuts of meat.