How to Choose a Roast
- 1). Decide how many people you plan to feed with the roast. Beef and pork roasts both reduce in weight while cooking, depending on the fat content of the meat; leaner cuts will retain more of their pre-cooking weight. Buy enough meat to provide about 3 oz. per person.
- 2). Figure your budget and determine how much money you can spend on a roast, as this -- along with the cooking method called for in your recipe -- will determine what type of roast you purchase.
- 3). Select beef or pork and determine how you will cook the roast. Slow-cooker recipes require less tender, and therefore less expensive, cuts of meat because the broth added to the cooker along with the slow, covered-cooking method helps keep the meat moist. Beef shoulder and rump roasts are less tender than rib or sirloin roasts. Pork loin roasts are more tender than picnic or shoulder roasts. If you are using a dry-cooking method, choose a marbled roast, which has fat running throughout, or a cut with a layer of fat on it.
- 4). Go to your local grocery and look for the meat counter. Discuss what you are looking for with the butcher and ask him to cut you a beef or pork roast in the amount you need. Tell him that you want a cut that has either a layer of fat on one side -- if you are dry cooking the roast -- or a cut which is marbled, with strands of whitish-colored fat running throughout the meat -- if you are slow cooking the roast.
- 5). Once the butcher gives you the cut, examine it to ensure that it is deep red in color -- not gray -- and that it is has a 1/2- to 1 1/2-inch-thick strip of whitish-colored fat running along one or two sides of the cut. If you requested a marbled roast, examine the meat to ensure that there are thin strands of whitish fat running throughout the entire cut of meat.
- 6). If there is no butcher on duty, look for packaged roasts that are deep red in color and have fat on them as described previously. Examine the label carefully to ensure that you get the amount -- in pounds or ounces -- of meat that you need, and that the package "sell by" date has not expired. Look for the terms "shoulder," "loin" or "picnic" pork roasts or "shoulder," "sirloin" or "rump" beef roasts on the package labels.
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