A few years ago, the “Mississippi roast” became popular. Being both from Mississippi and a big fan of pot roast, I was intrigued, because I wasn’t aware that we—as a state—had an official roast. I asked my mother, my father, my roast-making grandmother, and a couple of aunts if they had heard of the recipe. They had not.
The Pinterest darling did, however, sound like something that could have been conceived in Mississippi, particularly the Mississippi I grew up in, where Southern food is less Sean Brock/home grown, and more Little Debbie/poured out of a can. The Southern food I see fetishized by non-Southern people—usually “elevated”—is rarely what I grew up eating. This makes sense when you consider that Mississippi is the poorest state, and people rarely want to think about what poor folks eat, particularly if it involves a packet or a can. Though fresh, sliced tomatoes and cornbread were omnipresent in my childhood suppers, so were canned soup, garlic salt, and heat-and-serve rolls. (For the record: I am not complaining about any aspect of those meals.)
My grandmother’s roast has three ingredients—chuck, a can of cream of mushroom, and garlic salt—whereas this roast has five. The ingredients are chuck, a whole stick of butter, a packet of ranch dressing mix, a packet of au jus mix, and jarred pepperoncinis. The pepperoncinis surprised me, but the rest feels right, particularly the whole stick of butter. “That part sure is authentic,” said my father, when I explained the roast to him over the phone.
The recipe is a classic “fix and forget”
After reading about the origin of this roast and its rise to popularity, the name rings true for me. Robin Champman, the OP who got the recipe from her aunt, looks extremely warm and familiar, even though I have never met her. And in spite of the fact that this roast has been made by multitudes of moms—you know, women who usually do a lot of cooking—it has been mostly dismissed by food writers and scholars as a “mommy blog recipe” at best and “trash” at worst.
In truth, it is delicious. It’s super savory, slightly tangy, and doesn’t taste at all like ranch dressing. (If you balk at the ranch dressing for MSG-related reasons, remember that the stigma surrounding monosodium glutamate is based on bad science and racism.) The recipe is a classic “fix and forget,” usually made in the slow cooker, but you can achieve faster, fall-apart-with-glance results in the Instant Pot (another Pinterest favorite). I made very few tweaks to the original recipe, but you should feel free to tweak it yourself. Southern cooking—at least the Southern cooking I was raised on—is mostly about preparing delicious food with few ingredients, and utilizing what you happen to have. I happened to have the roast beef-flavored Better Than Bouillon, so I used that instead of the au jus packet. To make it yourself, you will need:
1 chuck roast, approximately four pounds
Flour for dredging
1 tablespoon of vegetable oil
1 stick of unsalted butter
1 packet of ranch mix
2 teaspoons of Roast Beef Better Than Bouillon
1/2 cup of jarred pepperoncinis + 1/4 cup of the liquid from the jar
3/4 cup of water (or wine)
Season the roast with salt and pepper and dredge it in flour. Turn on your Instant Pot by pressing “Sauté,” then press “Adjust” so it is set to high. Add the vegetable oil and, once it is very hot, sear the roast on all sides to create a crust. Press “Cancel” to turn off the Instant Pot, then add the remaining ingredients. Close the pot, make sure the valve is switched to “sealing,” and press the “Manual” or “Pressure Cook” button. Set the cook time to 60 minutes (or 15 minutes per pound). After the cooking time has elapsed, release the pressure manually. If you would like to thicken the gravy, remove the meat, and add a slurry of one tablespoon of cornstarch mixed into three tablespoons of water. Serve with carrots, potatoes, and heat-and-serve rolls.
Update (9/27/18, 12:25 pm ET): This recipe originally said to use 1 1/2 teaspoons of Roast Beef Better Than Bouillon, but it should actually be 2 teaspoons.