Pot Roasts - continued

So, why this obsession with pot roasts. First, everyone in my family likes them. Second, you can eat it for days and have varied meals every time. The first day you eat it like a classical pot roast with gratineed/mashed/baked/whatever potatoes, gravy, pickles and gelée. The next days you make super thin slices and eat them on bread, making steak sandwiches.

My favourites are made with thin slices of meat on Philadelphia cheese and a liberal sprinkling of flaky sea salt on top. My husband likes to eat them with mayo, fresh tomatoes and avocado. And there is the classic, with pickled cucumber and roasted onions. If there is any meat left then (hasn't happened to us yet) I suppose it would work great to chop it up and use it in woks, soups, pasta sauces etc. The sky is the limit.

Well, pot roasts are theoretically easy to make, but not fool proof as you could read about in my last post. Here are some pointers for success:

• Good quality meat! If the meat isn't top notch, it's just not worth trying in the first place.

• An oven thermometer! It's impossible to know how warm the meat is inside just by watching the surface. Here are some temperature guidelines, my ideal is 58°C.

          55°C: rare
          60°C: medium rare
          70°C: medium
          75°C: well done

• Salt! As pot roasts are big chunks of meat, the main flavourings will be stuck on the outside. When sliced up and put on a plate every slice will need some salt, either in the guise of just plain table salt or in a gravy to taste interesting.