Plastic roast twine?

October 17, 2012 11:26 PM

What's up with the plastic strings on my roast?

I'm preparing a pot roast to cook tomorrow in a slow cooker. I noticed that while the roast is tied up with the usual twine, the strings themselves are connected with plastic strings, like a netting. I've never noticed a roast to have plastic strings before in addition to the usual twine.

The plastic strings run perpendicular to the twine, and they aren't removable because the twine and the plastic is woven together. I don't have any twine here at the moment and it's 11 PM so I can't run out to get any, else I would just re-tie it.

I need to brown this roast before I set it to cooking, but I'm afraid the plastic will melt. What do I do? Who the hell ties a roast with plastic? Did I miss a memo somewhere?

posted by Sternmeyer to food & drink (5 answers total)

That's nuts!

I've seen elastic string stuff, but never full-on plastic. While I'm sure they mean for you to cook it with the plastic (the way some stuff is meant to be put in the oven in plastic bags, another concept I do not understand, BTW) I wouldn't sear with the plastic on. Yuk!

Cut off the bindings. Is the roast manageable without the binding? It's mostly for aesthetics unless the roast is very unevenly shaped, you may be able to get away without it.

If not...

Toothpicks or wooden skewars broken into pieces and piercing the bits together is your answer!

OR

Cut the roast into smaller compact chunks, sear, roast.

Done.

Good luck!
posted by jbenben at 11:38 PM on October 17, 2012 [1 favorite]

I've seen the plastic mesh on a few roasts I've purchased recently. It's just a way of making it look attractive while it sits on the shelf.

Just remove it. The roast won't instantly dissolve into a pile of goo if you cook it without twine.
posted by Katemonkey at 1:56 AM on October 18, 2012

I was at a trade show a few years where they pitched this product (or one like it). It is oven safe and is intended to replace twine. I'm reasonably sure it is intended to something you can safely cook. If it troubles you, you can always cut it off. They claim it is safe to sear with, but that would probably stress me out personally.
posted by Lame_username at 2:24 AM on October 18, 2012 [2 favorites]

Do you have dental floss in the house? Remove plastic & re-tie with floss. I've tied up turkeys with floss, works great. (I have also tried using the tines of a normal dining fork to "pin" together meats while cooking. That worked... much less great.)
posted by cuddles.mcsnuggy at 10:17 AM on October 18, 2012

Wound up cutting off the provided twine/fishing line netting. It's cooking now in the slow cooker, should work out fine, as it seemed to hold together pretty well without tying. Seemed like a blasphemy, a roast unbound! But, if it works, so be it.

Normally I have twine here for cooking, but I was out last night. This ain't my first roast rodeo, but I've never seen mixed-material netting like that. I am gonna go ask the butcher what gives, because he's never given us a roast bound up like that before.

That floss idea, I wouldn't have thought of that! Sadly we have only the ribbon floss in the house, which I think might not work out well.
posted by Sternmeyer at 10:27 AM on October 18, 2012