To learn whether your roast is underdone or overdone, cut away a slice or two. An underdone pot roast will be dense and somewhat leathery. An overdone pot roast will appear dry and its muscle fibers will flake and separate as you slice, like a bad holiday turkey.
Does chuck roast get more tender the longer you cook it? It does!
Cook it too long, and you've got a dry, tough mess. Cook it too little, and you've potentially got a case of food poisoning. Either way, very bad news indeed. As we approach the season of holiday roasts, pork loins, and The-Bird-That-Shall-Not-Be-Named, meat anxiety can come to an all-time high.
Once the food gets overcooked, it often becomes tough and dry. If you've gone too far, there are some things that you can do to keep things from being too tough and too dry. Keep things warm. Once the food cools off, your tough and dry meat will become even tougher and dryer.
Not using a meat thermometer
While it does take some time for the meat to fall apart on its own, overcooking can lead to a roast that is mushy and overcooked.
Why is my pot roast still tough? It's because you haven't let the collagen break down. Extend the cook time, make sure there's enough liquid and keep an eye on the dish.
If the pot roast or chuck roast is tough, it is because it needs more cooking time. As the beef cooks the muscles and connective tissues break down and this makes the beef tender. Also, if you cook the roast at a high temperature, the roast will be tough.
Overcooked steak tends to be solid light gray all the way through, flavorless, dry, and feels like chewing a bundle of tough muscle fibers. It detracts from the sensory experience and can make eating your steak a painstaking and laborious task. Raw meat is essentially made up of protein, fat, and liquid.
If you've ever cut into a fork-tender roast and been surprised by chewy, woody bits of beef – you've got an overcooked roast on your hands. To ensure a tender roast without overcooking, probe it with a meat thermometer at the minimum cook time depending on the setting (4 hours on high, 8 hours on low).
To give your meat a flavourful crispy exterior, cook uncovered on a rack set in a shallow roasting pan. Don't add water! Invest in a digital thermometer that lets you monitor the temperature of your roast – or even alert you when it's done – without opening the oven door.
A three-pound roast usually takes four to five hours to cook thoroughly. A lower, slower setting will take six to eight hours for the most tender finish. Using a bone-in cut will enhance flavor but extend the cooking time.
If your crock pot roast is tough, it is possible you didn't use a boneless chuck roast, in which cases some cuts of meat will never become fall-apart tender OR more likely, you did not cook your beef long enough.
If the meat is not falling apart, it needs to cook longer. When the meat is done, take it out of the pot and set aside. Scrape the fat off the top of the beef liquid. Taste the sauce- you may need to add salt or pepper.
It's overcooked. Overcooking meat causes it to dry out, and as moisture is lost, the meat gets tougher and so harder to chew. It was cooked at too high a temperature. For soft and tender meat, it's always better to cook it low and slow than to heat it very quickly, which causes the protein in the meat to toughen.
It sounds odd, but meat can become dry even when it's cooked in moisture. The most likely cause of this is overcooking. As meat cooks, its muscle fibers shorten in both length and width and eventually squeeze out the juices they normally hold. As you can imagine, this leaves meat dry, and often stringy in texture.
Here's what I do: I put a rack in the bottom of a roasting pan. Then I place the roast (no rubs or seasonings) on the rack and cover it with a lid. I put it in the oven at 400° for 15 or 20 minutes, then turn it down to 325° and roast for 30 minutes per pound.
The meat will be fall-apart tender when the pot roast is cooked and ready to eat. This happens when the internal temperature is between 190ºF to 200°F. A high internal temperature like this causes the marbled fat to melt throughout the meat, making it extra soft and tender.
If you cut into it right away, the liquid will actually pool out and your beautiful roast will end up very dry. By letting it rest, the moisture is re-absorbed and your meat will be tender and juicy.
If you are short on time, cooking on high is fine, but for a really succulent fall-apart roast try to cook it on LOW if you can. Leaner cuts of meat tend to come out better when cooked on HIGH for a shorter length of time. This is because the longer it's in the slow cooker, the more time it has to lose moisture.
There's no magic "fix it" button, but there are ways you can make it better. A simple fix for overcooked meat is to dump it in your food processor with some olive oil, purée it, and use it as a stuffing for everything from hand pies and empanadas to dumplings and ravioli.
The dangers of overcooking meat
Meats cooked at a very high temperature can also cause problems. Researchers have found that high consumption of well-done, fried or barbecued meats is associated with an increased risk of colorectal, pancreatic or prostate cancer.
If it looks nice and charred on the outside but hasn't shrunk at all, it probably needs a longer cooking time. If it starts to look smaller, then chances are it's close to done. The change will be subtle. If your meat is quite a bit smaller than when you started, it may be overcooked.
When using a common stewing beef such as a chuck roast it is necessary to cook the dish slowly in order to ensure the breaking down of these muscle fibers. The tenderizing process is necessary when using these cuts of meat.
If you don't have a meat thermometer, check your beef is roasted by piercing it with a skewer. The juices should run red for rare, pink for medium and clear for well-done. Also, a meat thermometer should read 40C for rare (it will rise to 54-56C, medium-rare, as it sits) or 48C for medium (it will rise to 65C).
Slow cookers are specially designed to cook food for long periods of time, but yes, you can still overcook in a slow cooker if something is left on the wrong setting for longer than it's supposed to be.