Kettle Beef: Food of My People
Kettle beef, I recently learned, is a regional dish of southeastern Missouri. Which is where I’m from — Cape Girardeau to be precise — but I couldn’t recall ever having it. So I asked my sisters, one of whom still lives in Cape, the other in neighboring Jackson, for a recipe, and last night we had it for dinner.
Here’s a little more about kettle beef, from Missouri Life:
Kettle beef is one of those regional delicacies born out of necessity. Sometimes called beef tips elsewhere, kettle beef is traditionally made with rump roast, an inexpensive cut, that is slow-roasted with bacon drippings and a few aromatics in an iron kettle over an actual fire, like at one of the many southeast Missouri church picnics or civic clubs where you’ll find this dish. Kettle beef is often served alongside handmade chicken and dumplings. Missed the annual Sedgewickville United Methodist Kettle Beef and Chicken & Dumpling Dinner or the Burfordville Baptist Church Community Kettle Beef Dinner? Head to Hickory House Restaurant in Jackson, where they serve it with housemade brown gravy over mashed potatoes alongside Skillet Cornbread.
This is my sister Charlie’s recipe. She includes instructions for cooking it in either a crock pot or an instant pot. We used the crock pot method.
Kettle Beef
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp bacon drippings or cooking oil
- 3 lb rump roast or chuck roast
- flour, salt, pepper
- I onion, diced
- 2-3 cloves garlic, sliced
- 12 oz beef broth (or 1 cup water w/2 tsp beef bouillon)
- 2-3 tsp Kitchen Bouquet
- corn starch, extra water
Directions
Trim roast, cut into 1 1/2″ cubes, dredge in flour seasoned w/salt and pepper. Brown in skillet w/bacon drippings or cooking oil, chopped onion, garlic. Transfer all to crock pot and cover with beef broth mixed w/Kitchen Bouquet. Cook on high 4-6 hours. Before serving, mix a tablespoon of corn starch with a little water and stir into the broth to thicken it. Serve over mashed potatoes.
Notes
If you’re using an instant pot, cook for 40 minutes at high pressure, then quick release.
Kettle beef is a basic version of the fancier pot roast recipes most of us are familiar with. I was delighted to learn it’s a specialty of the part of Missouri where I was born and raised. My sister Charlie asked how we liked it, and I replied that it made us feel Amish … it’s plain, simple food, tasty and filling.
