Making stovetop potroasts I just made a pot roast on the stove, vaguely following this recipe.

My altered ingredients list would look something like this:


some quick sprays of oil on the saucepan and meat while searing


Chunky bits:


big hunk of meat (a few pounds)
2 chopped onions
a bunch of little potatoes
2 smallish carrots


Liquid stuff added to the broth:


a few good shots of Bragg's All-Purpose Seasoning
between ½ and 1 Cup of white vinegar
maybe ¼ C of molasses
last dregs of the Worchestershire sauce (a couple of tsps)
a tablespoon or two of garlic powder
some "pumpkin pie spice" — cinnamon, cloves, etc.  about 2 tsp.
maybe ¼ C of olive oil
enough water to cover the roast in the pot.


Other than the ingredients list, my deviations from the recipe were I think limited to the fact that I put the carrots and potatoes in at the beginning.  I may have let it simmer a bit (&lt;= 30 min) longer than the prescribed amount of time.

The roast was not tied during cooking.

It turned out to be not unpalatable, but decidedly more bland and dry than I'd hoped for.  The broth, on the other hand, is a bounding meadow of savoury deliciousness.

Other than the obvious — adding more spices — is there something I can do to future roasts to encourage more flavour to congregate in the meat?
My mother taught me to insert bits of garlic into slits made into the flesh of the roast before searing and then cooking it, something like what's described here.

Some people like cloves in there as well, though I more prefer that with bbq pork. For lamb, it's garlic and green olives. So, accordingly, you should be able to get creative and experiment with injecting some other things so the roast will take on flavors you prefer.