Cranberry Pot Roast

This is a recipe that my Grandmother always prepared around Christmas every year. It really brings back so many memories making this. I love the whole aroma of this dish filling up the house, and seeing it on our Christmas dinner table. It really brings a little old school to our modern table. With all of the new dinner recipes and new dessert recipes constantly coming out, you can’t help but to wonder the old school vibes.

That is why I love this dish so much. It reminds me of my grandmother and it helps to keep her memory alive for my children to enjoy as well. It would not be Christmas without this dish at our table. Even though the ingredients are simple, It really adds a lot to this dish. My great- grandmother would only make this once a year because of the time, She would save up to travel to get whole cranberries. She would cook them, pit them , then make preserve them for Christmas time. When my grandmother inherited the recipe from her she found it easier to to just by canned whole cranberries, so that is how I make this. It really is a timeless classic.

INGREDIENTS:

3-4 lb beef roast
1/2 cup flour
salt and pepper
2 cups whole prepared cranberries
1/4 cup oil
12 whole cloves ( or 1/2 tsp ground)
2 tbsp sugar

DIRECTIONS:

1. In a bowl combine the flour, salt, and pepper. Coat the beef roast with the flour mixture and set aside. Preheat your oven to 325*
2. In a large dutch oven add the oil and bring to heat over a medium heat. Carefully add the beef roast and sear on both sides.
3. In a bowl combine the water and the cranberries and mix well. Add the whole or ground cloves to the mixture and combine well. Pour the mixture over the roast and spread out evenly. keep in mind that if you use whole cloves you are going to have to fish them out later.
4. Cover with a lid and place in the oven and cook for 3 1/2 to 4 hours.
5. Remove the meat and fish out the cloves if you are using whole cloves. If you are using ground go to the next step.
6. Place the vegetables on a platter and place the beef roast on top. Strain the gravy from the roast and place in a gravy boat for serving.

You can certainly cook this in a crock pot for about 8 to 10 hours depending on your heat setting on your crock pot. You can also cook this in the instant pot as I have done this before. It took about 6 hours on my instant pot slow cooker setting on seal. I would recommend playing with the time according to the size of the roast you are using. smaller roasts use less time and larger roast use more time.

If you use whole cloves you can use a small herb bag to put the cloves in and just fish that out later or you can just opt for ground cloves. You get the same flavor profile using either or.