When colder climate rolls round, foodies start fascinated about their go-to warming consolation meals. For meat eaters, there is a fairly good likelihood that pot roast and beef stew are close to the highest of the checklist. Each dishes make knockout fix-it-and-forget-it meals for busy weeknights, and can even feed a crowd for stress-free internet hosting. Though, even to diehard followers, the excellence between these dishes is “stewed” at finest. What precisely makes pot roast totally different from beef stew?

These hearty consolation meals classics are all about tender beef, mushy greens, and aromatic herbs. Chuck roast is the perfect reduce of beef for each dishes because of its toughness (which holds up properly to the lengthy, sluggish cook dinner time), beneficiant fats marbling, beefy taste, and affordability. This reduce comes from the entrance shoulder of the steer. Nevertheless, this reduce is extra necessary for pot roast; any boneless beef spherical steak will work for beef stew. Why? In pot roast, the meat is served in giant slabs, whereas in beef stew, the meat is pre-cut into bite-sized cubes — and that is only the start of the variations between these two distinctive (but extremely comparable) dishes. 

Pot roast lovers would possibly criticize this description as an unlimited oversimplification, however pot roast is actually a big reduce of meat slow-roasted with greens, and sliced into slabs to serve with veggies plated on the facet. It is assembled in a casserole dish or Dutch oven, and braised within the oven round 275 to 325 levels Fahrenheit till fork tender. This could take wherever from two to 4 hours relying on the cooking technique and weight of the roast. You possibly can cook dinner pot roast in an oven, on the range, or in a sluggish cooker or stress cooker like an Prompt Pot. Whichever means you select, the meat’s powerful connective tissue wants sufficient time to soften. 

The “pot roast” umbrella refers as a lot to the precise meat as to the medley of softened greens cooked within the pot alongside the roast, which usually contains carrots, onions, and potatoes. Different pot roast veggies might embrace cubed butternut squash, parsnips, mushrooms, pearl onions, or celery. Aromatics like thyme and rosemary are frequent, in addition to added moisture elements like additional beef broth and pink wine. There are many less-common substances that may take your pot roast to the following stage, as properly; we’re all about pot roast cooked with candy figs or spicy harissa. To finish the meal, pair your sliced pot roast slabs with a facet of aioli-chive mashed potatoes and a full-bodied pink wine like a cabernet sauvignon or merlot.

Beef stew is cubed beef combined with equally bite-sized chunks of toothy veggies, all certain collectively by a thick broth-sauce hybrid (like just about each binding agent that falls beneath the “stew” class). Like pot roast, beef stew’s substances checklist reads beef, thyme, rosemary, pink wine, potatoes, and carrots. Different beef stew veggies can embrace peas, onions, potatoes, cremini mushrooms, and celery. Not like pot roast, additional moisture parts resembling Worcestershire sauce, tomato paste, and typically beef inventory are added to the stew to type the broth-sauce. Since this can be a stew, which is by nature simmered in a pot to assemble, beef stew can be usually flavored with bay leaves, an fragrant absent from pot roast. You can additionally amp up the flavour of your tried-and-true beef stew with avant-garde substances like apple cider or contemporary ginger.

Beef stew begins on the stovetop and ends within the oven, and in comparison with pot roast, it entails one additional step: The uncooked beef is reduce into bite-sized cubes, that are then dredged in a skinny coating of flour and typically a floor spice like paprika or garlic powder. The coated beef cubes are then browned in scorching oil on the range earlier than being added in with the remainder of the stew substances to braise collectively, which takes round two to a few hours in an oven at 300 levels Fahrenheit. Alternatively, some foodies favor to sear their beef earlier than cubing.

Regardless of their almost similar substances lists, the first and most instantly obvious distinction between pot roast and beef stew is the dimensions and form of the meat. Pot roast is reduce into slabs to serve, then plated with veggies, whereas beef stew is already reduce into bite-sized cubes of meat stewed with greens and scooped right into a bowl to serve. Beef stew is often eaten with a fork and comprises a higher moisture factor in comparison with pot roast, which is served as a fork-and-knife entree on a plate. 

Their distinction comes right down to the meat measurement and the extent of moisture content material. However, neither pot roast nor beef stew could be attainable with out braising — the cooking technique used to create each of those dishes. Braising is all about lengthy, sluggish, moist warmth, and it would take just a little longer than hungry foodies would favor, nevertheless it’s important for tenderizing harder cuts of meat (the inspiration of each pot roast and beef stew). Enter: collagen. Beef is roughly 60-70% water, which signifies that should you cowl the roast because it cooks, the pot roast will cook dinner in its personal ample juices for a succulent chew. Because it cooks, the collagen fibers and fats within the meat cook dinner down and are launched into the veggies, creating the savory taste and crave-able richness that make pot roast and beef stew such enduring favorites.