How Much Fat Should You Be Trimming Away From Pot Roast Meat?

Pot roast is a super simple, hearty meal full of salty, umami flavor that may take a long time to cook in a slow cooker, but it's super easy to make. You can just prep your ingredients and have it cooking while you're at work or running errands. There are some tips you need when cooking pot roast, but you can make a simple pot roast with just three ingredients: meat, cream of mushroom soup, and onion soup mix. Sure, you'll probably want to add some potatoes and carrots, but all you have to do is peel them and cut them, so they'll cook down with the gravy. However, one thing that can be a little difficult to decide is just how much fat you should cut off of the meat before you start cooking.

In general, it's recommended to leave about ¼ inch of fat on the exterior of your pot roast to add more flavor and help tenderize the meat. However, the more fat you leave, the fattier your gravy will be, which means more fat to skim off the top. And it can depend on what cut of beef you plan to use. The best beef cuts for pot roast are the tougher cuts, like chuck, round roast, and brisket. They have plenty of connective tissue that cooks into gelatin and makes a beautifully tender, fall-apart roast. If you're using chuck or round roast, the amount of exterior fat may vary — there could be little to almost none, so you may not need to cut it at all. Brisket, however, usually does have a pretty thick fat cap, so you'll need to do some trimming.

When removing fat from your roast, it really comes down to personal preference. Extra fat will add more flavor. However, if there is too thick of a layer of exterior fat when you cook your pot roast, the gravy is in danger of coming out overly fatty and unctuous, giving you a layer of fat on top that hasn't fully emulsified with the beef stock base. Although chuck, round, and brisket are pretty lean on the interior, they still have a fair amount of fat, so you don't need too much exterior fat to help them cook down. Trimming the exterior to ¼ inch or less will allow for plenty of flavor.

When you're ready to trim the roast, you'll need a nice and sharp chef's knife for clean cuts — a serrated knife will give you jagged cuts with little precision putting you in danger of offset cuts and possible injury. A good way to cut the fat is to cut at the edge of the beef right where it first meets the leaner meat, pointing the knife away from your other hand. Once you have cut a section of fat, pull the fat away from the lean meat with the non-knife hand, keeping it in a solid piece as you cut through it to remove it. It will likely eventually break off into pieces, but it helps to pull the fat flap with the non-knife hand to keep your thumb and hand out of the way of the knife. Once you've removed sufficient fat, you should sear your cut of beef to seal in flavor, then add it to the slow cooker with some beef stock, veggies, and dried herbs. Cooked on low, it will be ready to go in just about eight hours.