Barbecued Beef On Buns

February. The shortest month and the one that always surprises me by being harder than I expect, because February has Valentine's Day and February has the approach of March and February is the month when winter has been going on long enough that its stubbornness starts to feel personal, as if the cold is making a decision. The collard greens this week were a response to the stubbornness of February: a full pot, all day, because the cold requires it and because cooking something that takes all day is its own argument against the season, its own insistence that there is enough time, that the time exists, that you are not rushing through anything but rather moving through it at the correct pace.

Bernice's Table had fifty-six people Tuesday. We are at a new record even in the outdoor pandemic configuration. The word continues to spread—I don't advertise, I don't have a marketing budget, I have the mouth of every person who has eaten here and told someone who was hungry—and fifty-six people came to the parking lot tables in the February cold and ate fried chicken and mac and cheese and collard greens and sweet potato pie. I had extra coats that people from the congregation had donated—winter is hard on people who live outside or on the margins—and we put them at a table beside the food and people took what they needed. The food and the coat. The material needs. You feed the belly and then the body and then maybe the soul, in that order, because Bernice always said the full belly is the first step toward the full soul and Bernice was right about the order.

Fifty-six people is a lot of buns to plan for, and after Tuesday I’ve been thinking about the recipes that scale with grace—the ones that don’t punish you for cooking more of them, that only get better when the pot is bigger. Barbecued beef is that recipe for me. You can make it for four or you can make it for forty, and the low heat and the long time do the same patient work either way, which is exactly the kind of cooking that February asks for. Bernice always said feed the belly first, and this is belly food, honest and warm and enough.

Prep Time: 20 min | Cook Time: 3 hrs 30 min | Total Time: 3 hrs 50 min | Servings: 10

Ingredients

3 lbs beef chuck roast
1 cup ketchup
1/2 cup water
1/3 cup brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon yellow mustard
1 medium onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon celery seed
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
10 hamburger buns, split and toasted

Instructions

Sear the roast. Season the chuck roast on all sides with salt and pepper. In a large Dutch oven or heavy pot, heat 1 tablespoon of oil over medium-high heat and brown the roast on all sides, about 4 minutes per side. Remove and set aside.
Build the sauce. In the same pot, reduce heat to medium. Add the chopped onion and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Stir in the garlic and cook 1 minute more. Add ketchup, water, brown sugar, vinegar, Worcestershire, mustard, and celery seed. Stir to combine and bring to a simmer.
Braise low and slow. Return the seared roast to the pot, nestling it into the sauce. Cover tightly, reduce heat to low, and cook for 3 to 3 1/2 hours, turning the roast once halfway through, until the beef is completely tender and falling apart.
Shred the beef. Remove the roast to a cutting board. Using two forks, shred the meat into rough pieces, discarding any large pieces of fat. Return the shredded beef to the pot and stir it into the sauce over low heat for 5 minutes until well coated.
Serve. Pile the saucy beef generously onto toasted buns and serve immediately. The beef holds well on low heat for an hour if you are feeding in waves.

Nutrition (per serving)

Barbecued Beef On Buns — The Meal That Feeds the Body First