There is nothing that says “Jewish mother” like a good
brisket. Over the years, I have
experimented with different styles, flavors and cooking apparatuses. One of my favorite versions is my friend Flo’s. She cooks brisket in a slow cooker with a
bottle of mesquite BBQ sauce, a can of cranberry sauce, and a dry package of
Lipton’s Onion Soup Mix. It is delicious
and easy!! But the version of brisket
that gets my kids to cancel their plans and stay home for dinner--even causing
my vegetarian daughter to risk filling her lungs with the fragrant waft-- is my
low-and-slow, oven-basted version.
There is an important trick to making brisket. I find that it is most successful if you do
not attempt to eat it on the same day that you make it. This takes a great deal of resolve, as we are
not a people known for patience and delayed gratification. The smells generated by the slow-cooking meat
and vegetables will drive you and the other inhabitants of your house insane.
Thus, it is mandatory that you procure tonight’s dinner before you begin
preparing tomorrow’s brisket.
The reason for this routine is not simply to heighten the
expectations. A good brisket is not a
feat of taste alone; one must take care to get perfect, even slices. About
45 minutes before done time, I remove the meat from the pan and place it on a
large cutting board. There, I let it sit
for AT LEAST an hour—sometimes longer—allowing the juices to redistribute back
into the meat. Only when the slab of meat has cooled
considerably to the touch, looking almost shriveled and dry, is it then OK to
slice. Always slide thinly across the
grain. Remember to wait patiently until
the brisket is cool, or you will end up with something resembling shredded
barbeque. It is important to monitor the
brisket, both before and after slicing, as it tends to attract husbands and
other wild beasts. There is nothing
worse than going to all this trouble only to have your prize brisket disappear
as a midnight snack.
My brisket gets a run for its money during the Fall-Winter
holiday season. I usually get a call
from my son at college a few weeks before exams asking if we can have brisket
when he gets home. He uses the
anticipation like a magic carpet to help him soar through his exams. Every Jewish Mother has her own version of brisket. My mother makes a darn good traditional brisket, however I
prefer the layered flavor profiles I have been able to develop in my
version. And unlike my mother, who
always threw potatoes into her brisket pot for something that resembles Yankee
Pot Roast, I leave them out. When I am
ready to serve, I remove the large chunks of stewed vegetables (carrots,
onions, tomatoes, celery) for use as a side dish (my family fights over them),
then take the remaining juices and solid pieces and blend them into a pan gravy
to serve with it. What’s nice about this
is that it is a completely natural thickened sauce made without added butter or
starch.
About the potatoes: I
agree that every flavorful piece of meat needs that accompanying spud. In our house, a good brisket is an occasion
for potato latkes—those delicious, crispy fried pancakes of seasoned, shredded
potatoes. Latkes are a production all
their own, causing the smell of hot grease to linger in the house for
days. This is why I make latkes in bulk and
freeze them, placing them individually on a sheet pan in the freezer until they
are frosted, then piling them into a large Ziploc freezer bag for long term
storage. Latkes retain so much oil after
cooking that they reheat beautifully, providing a “just cooked” result after
only a few minutes in a hot oven.
After all this, you are probably expecting a brisket
recipe. Tune in tomorrow. . .
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