Alex Guarnaschelli Adds This Powerhouse Baking Ingredient To Pot Roast

Just like adding bold dried fruit to your pot roast, Alex Guarnaschelli's use of brown sugar creates dynamite tastes (via YouTube). When rich, marbled red meat encounters sweet, earthy flavors, the two complement each other to form a more delicious protein and a far richer sauce. While there are plenty of mistakes everyone makes with pot roast, adding a dash of sugar isn't one of them.

The type of brown sugar you use matters, and Guarnaschelli opts for dark over light. Dark varieties have almost double the amount of molasses, which is what gives brown sugar that incomparable flavor when compared to standard white. When heated, it creates a caramel taste that works perfectly with seared red meat, simmering together in a crock pot until the two meld together to form something completely new. If you use light brown sugar instead, you'll still get some of that great flavor, but not enough to cut through stronger tastes like herbs, vinegar, and onion.

Even if you don't want the extra sweetness, dark brown sugar is still good to keep on hand in case of emergencies. Too much wine, vinegar, or citrus juice can mess with the flavor profile of your pot roast, but even a spoonful of sugar can blunt their bite significantly. While white sugar can still do the job, brown sugar blends into the background a bit better, so you avoid conflicting flavors. However, if you don't have brown sugar on hand, there are plenty of substitutes for every occasion.

Alex Guarnaschelli uses a quarter cup of dark brown sugar for a three- to four-pound roast, and while there's nothing wrong with just dumping it into the braising liquid, she takes things a step further. With a bit of heat and extra moisture, she transforms it into a potent seasoning that seeps into every ingredient in the pot.

After Guarnaschelli's done searing the meat, she sautes the vegetables in the same pot. By combining the meat's juices, vinegar, and brown sugar, she ensures every ingredient starts in the pot with all the same flavors rather than soaking them in later. Adding sugar at this stage gives it an extra dose of caramelization before it melts into a syrup, coating each vegetable as it breaks down. When she adds broth to this mixture, it gives the sugar a chance to immediately start diffusing through the liquid, kickstarting the process of all the ingredients infusing together.

If you were to add brown sugar to cold broth, it would most likely settle at the bottom of the pot rather than mixing in evenly. In a best-case scenario, only your bottom-most layer of meat would get all that sweetness. In the worst case, the sugar could potentially burn, creating a bitterness that could ruin your whole meal. Even if you don't use Guarnaschelli's method of adding sugar to sauteing vegetables, be sure to warm your broth before adding any sugar.