Mom'S Slow Cooked Pot Roast - cooking recipe

Ingredients

Pot Roast
2 tablespoons butter
4 lbs rump roast
1 onion, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 bay leaf
1 large garlic clove, chopped
20 peppercorns
1 1/2 teaspoons fresh thyme (or 1/2 tsp dried)
2 cups beef stock or 2 cups canned beef broth
1 teaspoon salt
2 large carrots, sliced
Gravy
2 cups beef stock or 2 cups canned beef broth
1/3 cup flour
salt and pepper

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
Melt the butter in a large oven safe pot or dutch oven. Sear all sides of the roast in the melted butter for 2-3 miutes on all sides or until sides are browned.
Remove the meat from the pot to a plate. Add the onion, celery, bay leaf, garlic, peppercorns, thyme and parsley to the pot and saute over high heat for 5 minutes or until the onion starts to brown.
Put the roast back in the pot with the vegetables. Add the beef stock and 1/2 tsp of the salt.
Cook the meat in the oven, covered, for four hours or until the meat is tender enough to tear apart. Every half hour or so baste the meat with the broth so that it doesn't dry out.
When the roast is tender, remove it from the pot and strain the stock into a medium bowl. Discard the vegetables ans spices but keep the stock.
Using two forks, shred the roast apart into slightly bigger than bite size chunks.
Put the meat back into the pot and pour the stock over it. Add the remaining 1/2 tsp of salt and the carrots.
Put the pot back into the oven and cook for 40-50 minutes. This will make the meat more tender and fill it with flavor as well as cook the carrots to tender.
Just before serving, make the gravy but straining the stock from the pot roast and combining it with the additional beef stock. You need three cups of liquid so add water if needed.
Sprinkle the flour into a medium saucepan and stir in the the liquid. Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring often until thick. Remove from heat.
Serve the pot roast and carrots on a bed of mashed potatoes with the gravy poured over the top. Salt and pepper to taste.