pot roast beef in slow cooker with vegetables.

[Haertig]

I'm rereading this thread and you already chose the kind I recommend. I've never used an Instapot. Is there enough fond (the dark flavorful bits that stick to the pot) there to make gravy or au jus?

Probably not the kind of gravy you are thinking about. Yes, I make gravy when using the Instant Pot. But it is thin and doesn't really thicken much as I boil it at the end and add cornstarch. Because in the Instant Pot, you add the roast and vegetables and also 3 cups of beef broth. That amount of beef broth really waters things down. The roast cooks in it, and gets super tender, but the liquid left at the end, what you'll be making gravy out of, is a lot of beef broth, water cooked out of the veges, with a little bit of fat from the meat thrown in. So don't expect a thick luscious gravy. You basically end up with a decent tasting "mass moisturizer" that you can pour over the dinner.

 

[Weedygarden]

My cousin is an excellent cook. She used to have a restaurant, always a busy place. She has also cooked in restaurants. Her mother was also an excellent cook which is where she learned to cook.
These are photos that she posted of a roast that she cooked yesterday. She paid $20 for this roast. You can see the marbling in the meat, the fat that is in small parts throughout it. See how dark brown that gravy is from the roast? That gravy is full of flavor. She likes to make hot beef sandwiches, with mashed potatoes and gravy over all of it.

Her comment: Wow I got one good and tasty roast at local grocery store n damn was that huge hot beef combo good. Roast was nice and big so it didn't bake up to nothing, lots of different meal off this bad boy!!

 

[Tim Horton]

Weedygarden... Your killing me with that hot beef sandwich photo.... Two places I dearly miss from the ...great white north.. are the hot beef sandwich from the truck stop cafe where the logging trucks would stop... And smoked salmon eggs benedict from the fisherman cafe by the cannery..

 

[Weedygarden]

Weedygarden... Your killing me with that hot beef sandwich photo.... Two places I dearly miss from the ...great white north.. are the hot beef sandwich from the truck stop cafe where the logging trucks would stop... And smoked salmon eggs benedict from the fisherman cafe by the cannery..

Cousin made me want to cook one as well. We never did the hot beef sandwich when I was growing up, but we did have lots of meat, potatoes, gravy and a plate of bread on the table. It makes me want to make the hot beef sandwich as well. I haven't made a beef roast in a while, but I want one now.

Another favorite of ours is chicken fried steak served with mashed potatoes and gravy. We make a milk gravy with that, so it is not as dark, but it is tasty.

 

[Tim Horton]

Chicken fried steak..... Weedy, your double killing me...
Now I've got a craving for Waffle House also... Closest one is 435 miles.... sniff....

 

[Weedygarden]

Chicken fried steak..... Weedy, your double killing me...
Now I've got a craving for Waffle House also... Closest one is 435 miles.... sniff....

What about cooking it yourself? These are not difficult things to cook. For chicken fried steak, it is cheap steak cuts that have been tenderized, dipped in a milk and egg mixture, then dredged in a seasoned flour and fried. Mashed potatoes, from real potatoes, are not difficult to make either. These things just take a little time and a little watching. Good mashed potatoes have butter and milk in them.

Some people think that making gravy is difficult. In a different forum someone was talking about how many gravy packets they had in their food storage. Me? I get migraines from whatever they put in that kind of stuff. The less chemicals, the better for me. The convenience is great, but not worth the headache for me.