The Modified Mississippi Roast

Name: The Modified Mississippi Roast
Yield: 6 servings
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 1 yellow onion; 1 piece star anise; 1/2 stick butter; 2 tbsp dark red miso; 2 lb beef chuck roast; to taste salt and pepper

Ryan Goodwin @cook_3814251

San Francisco, California

The Mississippi Roast is one of the most popular recipes on the Internet. Probably among the most reproduced recipes of all time in fact, considering it's popularity, accessibility, and simplicity. It does call for some highly processed ingredients though, ingredients I tend to try and avoid. So I thought I'd see if I could get equally delicious results from more natural ingredients without adding to the complexity or prep time. Better than the original? I'm pretty satisfied, but I'll leave that for you to decide.

Ryan Goodwin @cook_3814251

San Francisco, California

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Ingredients

6 servings

1yellow onion
1 piecestar anise
1/2 stickbutter
2 tbspdark red miso
2 lbbeef chuck roast
to tastesalt and pepper

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Steps

1

Slice an onion and toss it in the crockpot on low heat.
2

Add the star anise, butter, and miso (feel free to substitute tomato paste if miso is not readily available).
3

Place the chuck roast on top of this mixture. Cover and cook until it falls apart.
4

Season with salt and pepper, fish out that star anise, and serve.
5

The idea here is that as the onions caramelize in the butter, the flavor of that star anise is picked up and dispersed in the butter fat. This combination of flavors pairs really well with meat dishes. The miso adds that hit of umami that the original Mississippi Roast contains in the form of MSG. The roast gently renders it's beefy juices into this hot whirlpool of flavor until it's structure gives way and it collapses into it's own nectar.