pot roast

Meanings

1. 1nouncountable or uncountable

   A piece of beef cooked slowly with a little liquid in a covered pot until it is very tender.

   Grammar: Countable when you mean one dish or one piece ('a pot roast'), uncountable when you mean the food in general ('We had pot roast').

   Patterns

   • make a pot roast
   • serve pot roast
   • a pot roast with vegetables

   She put a pot roast in the oven before the guests arrived.

   Pot roast is a cheap cut of beef made tender by long, slow cooking.

   We had pot roast with carrots and potatoes for Sunday dinner.

2. 2verbtransitive

   To cook a piece of meat slowly in a covered pot with a small amount of liquid.

   Grammar: Takes an object: pot-roast the beef. It is usually written with a hyphen as a verb.

   Patterns

   • pot-roast something
   • pot-roast a piece of beef

   You can pot-roast the meat for three hours on low heat.

   He pot-roasted the brisket with onions and stock.

Word forms

Common combinations

pot roast recipe

This pot roast recipe uses only five ingredients.

slow-cook a pot roast

I slow-cook a pot roast every weekend in winter.

tender pot roast

The secret to a tender pot roast is low heat and patience.

pot roast dinner

The whole family came over for a pot roast dinner.

leftover pot roast

We made sandwiches from the leftover pot roast.

Synonyms and how they differ

stew

A stew is meat and vegetables cooked together in liquid; a pot roast is usually one large piece of meat cooked with only a little liquid.

braise

Braise is the cooking technique (sear, then cook slowly with little liquid); pot roast is the dish made that way.

Word family

roast verb

to cook meat in an oven or over a fire, usually without a lid

roasting noun

the act or process of cooking something this way

Commonly confused: pot roast or pot pie?

Practice

Make it your own

Write a sentence using “pot roast”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.

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