aka "What unappetizing thing are you cooking today ?"

Thought I would try some "fusion" cooking for this week's lunches. Sort of a Wal-Mart-ized Italian version of Sauerbraten, I guess, going by the name of "Beach Boy's Pot Roast".

Nice and simple - cut slits in a beef roast, insert slices of garlic, drop into the slow cooker, then dump an entire jar of pepperoncini peppers and juice over the roast and cook for 12 hours or more. All good so far.

I lifted the lid after a couple of hours to make sure it was still happy, and noticed that the garlic slices had turned a blue-green colour. Nothing subtle, looked like they had been soaked in turquoise paint and rinsed briefly.

A bit of quick digging around on the ol' internet revealed that this frequently happens when garlic is exposed to an acidic environment, and is not a problem. I guess being braised in a jar of pickle juice is about as acidic an environment as any of us are likely to encounter.

After a few more hours the colour has faded a bit, so now it just looks like the garlic *used* to be turquoise. Not sure whether that is better or worse. I guess I'm going to have to pick out the garlic slices before letting anyone see the finished dish.

All that said, it does seem as if slow-cooker roasts have some potential. It's starting to smell good now that the aroma from the beef is winning over the "aroma" from a boiling jar of pepperoncini...

I had that happen once when we pickled some green tomatoes. It was quite a sight and I had never seen this before either. Like you did John I looked on the net and found the same thing, I ate the garlic with no change in taste.

Thanks Rick. I'm probably going to have to eat it with my eyes closed anyways, or I *know* it's going to taste blue

I have seen some peeled garlic turn partially blue in a jar of olive oil (non acidic solution). I think it has to do something with the sulfur compounds that are present in the garlic.

Pix or it didn't happen.

I've never heard of garlic turning blue. Too weird. And we eat a fair amount of garlic at my house. I'll have to file that nugget of info away.

Sounds like a good recipe. Sort of 'italian beefy'. I bet after you let it go for a few more hours the garlic will continue to fade. Let us know how it tastes!

We use our slow cooker/crockpot for stuff like that for time to time, especially in the winter. A family favorite is 'busted beef'. Simple as can be. We'll saute down minced onions and garlic directly in the bottom of crock pot (high temp), then add a cheap beef roast (shoulder roast? I can't remember - my wife usually does it), oregano, thyme, and a container of beef broth. Simmer for hours until it becomes fork-tender. Serve on crusty buns. Yum.

I make hot roast beef sandwiches on occasion as well using a crock pot. I basically use the same technique as you peter however I roast the beef (seasoned with salt, garlic, oregano and pepper) in a 450 degree oven to get a good sear on the outside of the meat (the inside should still be quite raw) before going into the crockpot. I let the meat rest and then cover the meat with a bottle of red wine, few tablespoons of worsteschire sauce and let it sit overnight in the fridge.

Day 2.
Slice the meat thinly with a meat slicer (meat should be still nice and red inside). Throw it in a crockpot. Cover sliced beef with beef stock and some of the wine/worsteschire marinade. Cook on low for 4+ hours. Thicken the gravy with a cornstarch slurry. Season again to taste. Serve on a crusty roll with horseradish. The beef will be melt in your mouth tender.

You guys are REALLY making me hungry!

One real disadvantage of having a forum full of friends is that we can't have a "food day".

Wow! Appreciate the slow/easy recipe help!

I've had the blue garlic thing, too. We have a recipe that calls for lemon juice and garlic (and pepper and olive oil - not sure what else). Horrifying, it is.

The recipe called for at least 12 hours in the cooker but I ended up pulling the plug around 9 hours. The roast (the slightly larger half of a 6 pound eye of round roast cut in two) was at the point where it was starting to come apart in large chunks but not yet turning into "debris". The garlic had faded to the point where you didn't really notice unless you looked hard for it, and the peppers could be pulled apart easily with a couple of forks.

I picked out the peppers, pulled off then discarded the stems and some of the seeds, broke up the roast into small chunks, and dumped chunks plus peppers into a container. Tried boiling the juice to reduce & thicken it, but the vinegary and beefy aspects increased together so I figured it would be too sour by the time it was nice and gravy-y. Dumped the juice into the container and left in the fridge overnight.

Next morning the beef+peppers+juice had more or less solidified, which was real handy for making sandwiches. Bottom half of bun + beef/pepper/juice + raw onion + processed swiss cheese slice torn in strips + top of bun, microwaved for just under 2 minutes. Excellent, although probably could have used a bit of horseradish.

In hindsight chilling the juice separately would have allowed skimming off the fat, but there wasn't much (perhaps 1/8 inch on top despite half of the surface area being taken up by beef). Probably not worth it.

Some reviews of the recipe complained that there was too little taste, but those reviewers may have discarded peppers+juice and only eaten the beef. You really need all three together for best effect. There was a casual aspect to the recipe leaving some room for interpretation, but I suspect the intention was to serve beef + peppers + juice all together.

I'll try one of the recipes from this thread next (thanks guys !); hopefully without the vinegar I won't have to worry about the blue garlic either