Forget about cheffy burgers, artisanal farm-to-table pork buns or the progression of locally sourced, pastured and sustainably raised datum of dishes one must eat for culinary correctness and instead plunge your fork into the classic pot roast.

It’s so old-fashioned—but never out of style–it may rank as the perfect helping of comfort food. And the thing is it’s so easy to make at home as an especially good Sunday supper.  All you need is some time for low and slow oven roasting in a covered pot.

A Dutch oven is the cooking receptacle of choice, and the best are those enameled cast-iron pots made by Le Creuset.

A chuck roast is braised in a Dutch oven with onions and surrounding vegetables of potatoes and carrots

Traditionally the two best cuts for pot roast are the chuck roast or brisket.  Other cuts such as shoulder, rump and top round don’t have the same marbling as the very fatty cuts of chuck.

Then there’s always confusion between pot roasting and braising.  Aren’t they the same?  Essentially but braising is done in a modicum of liquid such as wine or stock.

Pot roasting doesn’t rely on a liquid base but rather produces its own braising liquid from the large amount of chopped or sliced onions put on the bottom of the pot and on top of the meat.

So this pot roast that I offer is a 3- to 4-pound boneless chuck roast, rolled and tied.  It’s lightly coated in seasoned flour (I use a mixture of kosher salt, black pepper and garlic salt). It’s browned on all sides, removed momentarily from the pot, to which you then add two layers of sliced onions: half on the bottom of the pot, and flavored with chopped garlic and rosemary or thyme ; the beef is placed on top and then covered with the remaining onions, herbs and garlic.

The final fillip is to add large chunks of peeled potatoes and carrots.  Even after 3 hours of cooking the vegetables emerge perfectly done.

Arrange the beef on a platter with potatoes and carrots

Since the roast will render a lot of fat it’s best to put the entire pot (once it’s cooled down) in the refrigerator to chill overnight.  The fat will congeal and can be easily lifted off just before reheating.  The sauce will have lots of body, but you can thicken it with a beurre manie–flour and softened butter worked together and blended into the simmering sauce to thicken nicely.

Note, you can use this method to cook similar cuts of pork or lamb for a delicious difference.  And if you can find it (not easy) get a chuck roast on the bone; most butchers, however, bone the beef.

In Local sources: best cuts of chuck at the best price (about $4.99 per pound) are Bisson’s in Topsham; Pat’s Meat Market, Portland and Curtis Meats, Warren.  It’s unnecessary to get expensive organic, pastured beef; you want a fatty cut and pastured beef tends to be leaner. Besides, all the beef at Bisson’s and Curtis Meats are raised on pasture at their own farms but finished off with grain.