[Sca-cooks] Chuck vs Bottom Round

[Barbara Benson]

 >  To roast on the spit the shoulder of beef or cow.
>  One does not normally use this cut of beef on the spit, but I have found that it is possible to roast it, usually when the animal is young. Take the shoulderof beef and cut it into pieces, none bigger than four pounds, and each of these should be marinated for four hours in a marinade consisting of fine salt, ground fennel seed, ground black pepper and a little chopped garlic.  Put this meat on the spit without pre-cooking it or larding it with fat, if you want you can skewer it with several sticks of rosemary.  Similarly place sliced onions in the drip tray beneath so they may cook in the falling fat.  One can then serve it hot with the cooked onions mixed with a sauce made of vinegar, grape must and common spices.

>  I would never have thought to use it as a pot roast recipe, as I have beef stew recipes from Scappi so tend to use those for the cheaper cuts.  When I cooked this at feast I used ribeye roast, the onions caramalize in the beef fat (and they are yummy).

Yep, that's the one - I did not want to post it myself because I did
not know if it was OK. I simply cannot afford a better cut of meat so
I figured I would work with what I can manage. I substituted grape
juice for grape must - figured they would both be grape-y. With the
braising method the onion/grape juice mixture absorbs all of the
flavor of the beef and then when cooked separately so it reduces some
it becomes a lovely sweet/sour jus. I cut the onions in pretty thick
slices because I didn't want them to completely disappear with the
long cooking.

>  Here is a stew/braise recipe from Scappi:

>  To stew in the oven or on the heat beef or cow loin [1]
>  Take the beef loin, or that of the cow when it is good, as is described above, with a piece of it's fat and a little of the muscle of the shoulder.  After the meat is cleaned of tendons and filaments sprinkle with wine and white vinegar and powder with pepper, cloves, crushed salt, cinnamon, ginger and fennel flowers and let this rest in a stew pot of clay for four hours with a little bit of greek wine, or malmsey wine, cooked grape must (saba) and rose scented vinegar.  Put this same mixture into the oven in this same pot, adding to it a little bit of chopped lard and slices of ham.  When it is more than half cooked, having turned it several times, one should add to it dried plums and cherries, if it is the winter, but in the summer one should use new (fresh).  When it is cooked one should serve it thus hot with the same mixture and broth above.  In this same way one can cook this also in a stew pot (over the fire).

Heh, I hadn't seen that one on your site or I would have most likely
tried it out first. It looks super tasty. I wonder if I should toss
some dried fruit into my dish for fun and tastiness.

Again, thanks to everyone for their thoughts. I am feeling better and
better about this as I read.

--
Serena