Jewish Brisket for the Holidays

What is Brisket?

Brisket is interesting because two different groups can claim it as “their” dish; the Jews and the Texans. And I guess if you’re a Jewish Texan you get double helpings. Down South brisket is usually slow cooked over indirect heat, with basting and smoking often involved. The brisket here is from the Jewish camp, with the meat being braised in the oven for a long time. It’s a pot roast, essentially. Other cultures have their versions, too, and we could discuss them for a while, but this is not that kind of cookbook.

Brisket for Holidays, and More

Many of us think of brisket during the Jewish holidays, and rarely otherwise, but like potato pancakes my family is so crazy about brisket that it makes no sense not to make it all throughout the colder months. First, it’s a pretty inexpensive cut of meat. Second, aside from acknowledging that it needs to cook for a few hours, it really takes little work. Don’t you just love a main course that you can ignore?

Some recipes call for browning the brisket first, which is a nice step if you have extra time on your hands (pause for laughter). But it’s just not necessary for a nice tender brisket, and not only do you save the extra time, you also save having to clean up the splatters all over the stove (at least that’s what Gary tells me).

Make Ahead

There are a few reasons to make the brisket a day or two ahead of time. (1) It tastes better; the flavors really meld and blend and all of that stuff, and the meat is at its most tender. (2) Your life will be easier the next day because dinner is basically made. (3) You can skim off the fat from the cooking liquid, which will create a more concentrated cooking liquid with no greasiness. (4) It’s much easier to slice the brisket when it’s cold.

This was originally called Monday Night Brisket because it’s the kind of dish you want to start early in the day, when you have a stretch of time, for example on a Sunday afternoon, and refrigerate overnight for the next night’s dinner.  Refrigerating it actually makes it so much easier to slices, and then you tuck the slices back into the sauce and reheat it at your leisure.

What Kind of Liquid to Cook Brisket In

You’ll see that the brisket recipe calls for three liquids: broth, tomatoes, and wine. If you use only one or two of these, and just make the quantity equal to about 6 cups of liquid, the results will be fine. The tomato paste adds richness to the cooking liquid and is great, but if you don’t have any, add some squirts of ketchup or skip it altogether. The reason brisket tastes so good is mostly because of its long slow cooking in liquid, and it’s fairly magnanimous about what kind of liquid it is braised in.

First-cut brisket means brisket with much of the fat cut off (but not all, you don’t want that). If you get a bigger piece of meat and want to cut it into two pieces, you can overlap them in the pot. On the whole, brisket is fairly resilient.

What the Kids Can Do

The kids can peel carrots, if they can handle the peeler. They can also measure ingredients and add them to the pot with the brisket.

What to Serve with Brisket:

• Roasted potatoes
• Herb Roasted Fingerling Potatoes
• Baby Romaine, Chickpea, and Root Vegetable Salad with Slightly Spicy Dressing
• Spinach, Radish, and Kohlrabi Salad with Preserved Lemons
• Chopped Winter Salad
• Romaine and Slivered Kale Salad with Lemon Dressing
• Endive, Arugula and Orange Salad