Pre-Fireworks Feast: Only 5 ingredients required. Toss it all together early in the morning, and it cooks itself perfectly by the time the evening rolls around.

This 5-ingredient slow cooker beef feast is the kind of dish you start in the quiet of the morning and forget about until the sky starts popping with fireworks. It leans on plain old top round steak, the same thrifty cut my mother used for Sunday pot roasts, and coaxes it into tender, gelatinous shreds swimming in a dark, peppery gravy. It’s very Midwestern in spirit—simple pantry staples, no fussy steps, just long, slow cooking doing the work while you spend the day setting out lawn chairs and citronella candles. By evening, you lift the lid and that rich, steamy aroma feels like coming home.

Pile the shredded beef and its thick, glossy sauce onto soft sandwich buns, over mashed potatoes, or on top of buttered egg noodles. A simple coleslaw, sliced garden tomatoes, or a bowl of green beans makes an easy country-style plate. For a pre-fireworks spread, keep it casual: set out the slow cooker on warm, a stack of rolls, a dish of pickles, maybe some corn chips, and let everyone build their own plates as the sun goes down.

Servings: 6

3 pounds beef top round steak, trimmed and cut into 3-inch chunks

Lay the chunks of raw beef top round steak in the bottom of a large slow cooker, spreading them out in an even layer so they cook evenly.

Sprinkle the dry onion soup mix evenly over the beef, making sure most pieces get a light coating of the seasonings.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the condensed cream of mushroom soup, beef broth, and freshly ground black pepper until smooth and well combined; the mixture will be pale now but will darken as it cooks.

Pour the soup and broth mixture over the beef in the slow cooker, gently nudging the meat with a spoon so the liquid seeps down and mostly covers the pieces.

Cover the slow cooker with the lid and cook on LOW for 8 to 10 hours, undisturbed, until the beef is very tender and easily pulls apart with a fork and the sauce has turned dark, thick, and glossy.

Once the beef is tender, use two forks to shred it directly in the slow cooker, stirring the meat back into the peppery, gelatinous sauce so everything is well coated and spoonable.

Taste the beef and sauce; if you like more heat, add a little extra black pepper, then cover and let it sit on the WARM setting for 15 to 20 minutes so the flavors settle together before serving straight from the slow cooker.

If you prefer a bit more body to the sauce, you can remove about 1/2 cup of the hot liquid near the end of cooking, whisk in 1 tablespoon of cornstarch until smooth, then stir it back into the slow cooker and let it bubble on HIGH for 15 minutes to thicken further. For a slightly sweeter, more barbecue-style twist, stir 1/4 cup of your favorite barbecue sauce into the finished shredded beef. If you enjoy a stronger mushroom flavor, add a small can of drained mushroom pieces on top of the meat before pouring in the soup mixture (this will add an ingredient but won’t affect the basic method). To keep the sodium in check, choose low-sodium broth and, if available, a reduced-sodium onion soup mix, and avoid adding extra salt until you’ve tasted the finished dish. Always handle the raw beef with clean hands and utensils, and keep it refrigerated until you’re ready to load the slow cooker. Make sure your slow cooker is set to LOW or HIGH as directed and not on the WARM setting during the main cooking time, since WARM does not reach a safe temperature for cooking raw meat. Leftovers should be cooled and refrigerated within 2 hours, stored in a shallow container, and used within 3 to 4 days or frozen for longer keeping.