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Sunday, January 11, 2015

Stouffer's Beef Pot Roast Review

Frozen food from Stouffer's again.

Overview
Inside the Stouffer's orange box was a plastic tray filled with a mix of vegetables and meat. There was a single compartment. The vegetables that I saw were carrots, potatoes, celery, and onions. And of course, there were pieces of pot roast or beef that were generally about a centimeter or two in all three dimensions. A gravy or sauce "glued" all of the food together when frozen.
Stouffer's Beef Pot Roast in a Dish

Cooking
This package was cooked in a plate after the plastic cover was removed and the frozen block of food was inserted onto a plate. It wasn't much trouble this time around because the gravy kept everything stuck together. Only a stray potato or two got separated. This plate then went into a microwave and cooked. It came out mostly cooked, but while eating, I noticed that I probably undercooked a few potatoes -- they tasted watery. No flavoring of any kind was added to the plate.
Close-up of Dish
Taste and Verdict
Been a while since I had this package. The potatoes, carrots, and beef pot roast pieces made up most of the dish. I think the bits of celery and few pieces of onions were there just for flavoring. Did I mention the potatoes still had their skin? Well, they did. I didn't notice much flavoring on the vegetables and potatoes outside of the gravy.

I found that most of the flavor was in the beef while the gravy had a gentler taste to it. Most of the beef was picked out of the dish and eaten separately. They tasted like beef with some salt and had a good, consistent texture. None of the pieces I ate had any stringiness or undesirable chewy bits.

The vegetables and potatoes were generally lumped together and pushed around in the gravy before eaten together. I enjoyed them: the potatoes had sort of crispy edges, and the carrots were sweet. However, a bit of extra flavor in the gravy would have made me a happier camper. This could have probably been personally "corrected" with a bit of salt. But like I noted earlier, some potato chunks were slightly undercooked, so that may have caused the flavor to come out weaker in this package. Cooking longer could have helped to concentrate the sauce too. Regardless, not a major issue.

I liked it. A good package, overall, and I would pick up another one without hesitation. It wasn't the most filling package available, but I complemented it with something on the side to make it a meal.

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