My Bubie's Beef Brisket

Okay, technically, I didn't have a Jewish grandmother who made magnificent brisket.  I had two grandmothers I loved very much, but my fond memories of them don't revolve around their kitchen prowess.  My Italian grandmother didn't live near us, so she was more likely to visit us rather than the other way around.  She DID make spaghetti sauce, although learning to deal with bits of neck bone remnants was not easy.  My other grandmother was pure WASP.  She hosted bridge parties and ordered pies from a local restaurant for her guests.  When we went to her house for Thanksgiving dinner, she arranged for us to be served family-style in a restaurant--to give us the illusion that we were living in a Norman Rockwell painting.  I only remember one thing that she ever cooked.  That was corn pudding.  To make it like Grandma, you HAD to use her covered pink baker which would find itself nestled in its shiny copper cradle before being brought to table.  I think my sister Kay inherited the pink baker, so she's the only one on Earth capable of making Grandma's Corn Pudding.  C'est la vie.

I distinctly remember the first time I ever tasted a beef brisket.  I was in college and I'd gone to Columbus for a weekend with a suite-mate who hailed from Bexley.  Kerry RAVED about his mother's brisket. Incessantly.  Like all good mothers, Mrs. Rubin heeded her first-born's wish and made a beef brisket for dinner one evening.  It was delicious.  It may have been 38 years ago, but I remember the caramelized onions and the interesting (and tasty) sweet-sour finish to the meat.  I've been craving that dish ever since.

Since brisket wants to be cooked 'long and slow', the CP seemed like it might be just the tool to use.  I searched The Internets for guidance.  I resorted to googling 'Jewish beef brisket'.  If you ever find yourself bored, do this.  There are endless arguments from people who SWEAR that their mother/aunt/Bubie makes the best brisket EVAH!  None of the recipes seemed to hit all the notes of Mrs. Rubin's brisket, however.  I ended up using an amalgamation of others' recipes with the hope of finding my way to Nirvana. Ina Garten, The Barefoot Contessa, is my fairy godmother anway, so I started with her choice for a braising liquid: plain tomato juice.  Mrs. Rubin's brisket wasn't tomato-y at all, but you have to learn to adapt.  The onions were easy.  Now that I'm fairly comfortable with the magic that the CP can perform, I knew that simply tossing sliced onions into the mix would result in  perfectly finished onions.  As for the sweet-sour oomph, I decided to add some balsamic vinegar, honey, fresh ginger and allspice.  I used some Spanish pimenton to add a touch of smokiness to the mélange.  I also added garlic powder.  Why?  Because I use some sort of garlic in almost everything I cook.  That's why.

INGREDIENTS:

1 beef brisket (I used a first cut/nose off brisket weighing 5.8 pounds)
1 large can of tomato juice
3 large carrots, cut into sizable pieces
1 1/2 large onions, thinly sliced
2" piece of fresh ginger, cut into thin slices
8 ounces button mushrooms, quartered
1/4 cup of balsamic vinegar
6 allspice berries
1 tablespoon garlic powder
salt & pepper
1 teaspoon of pimenton
4 tablespoons of honey

TECHNIQUE

I put about half of the onions and half of the carrots into the bottom of the CP.  I took some sage advice from many brisket-bloggers and didn't bother browning the brisket first (they all argued that they'd tried it both ways and the differences weren't discernible, so...go for ease).  This brisket had to be WEDGED into the 6 qt CP.  No worries, as it shrinks as it cooks.  The spices were tossed on top of the meat, followed by the rest of the onions, carrots and mushrooms.  I poured most of the contents of the can of tomato juice over the mix (just enough to come about 3/4 of the way up the sides of the CP.  Lastly, I drizzled the honey.  I set the timer for 10.5 hours on low and headed to work.  Be forewarned, a brisket can put off a TON of fat.  You will have to deal with this after you remove the brisket to a platter, along with the veggies (covered).  As the brisket rested (30 minutes), I removed as much fat from the top of the liquid in the CP.  The liquid was then reduced over high heat on the stove until it thickened slightly.  Half of the reduced braising liquid was poured over the platter of meat and veggies, the other half put in a gravy boat for the table.  We served this dish with mashed potatoes and a simple lettuce and tomato salad, lightly dressed.

ASSESSMENT

It wasn't Mrs. Rubin's brisket, but it will be my go-to recipe for brisket for the foreseeable future.  The onions and carrots were perfectly done over the 10.5 hours that they spent at the spa, and the meat was fork-tender, but not falling apart soft.  The cooking time was right.  The sweet-sour finish was there, as I had hoped.  In the future, I'll ditch the fresh ginger and substitute ground, so as not to have to work at digging them out of the mix.  The mushrooms all but disintegrated, so I'd leave them whole in the future--or skip them entirely.  The tomato juice worked well as a braising liquid and lent itself well to the sweet-sour finish.

A whole first cut of brisket is huge.  This thing could have served 8-10.  Easily.  We were three for dinner, sent home leftovers with Terry's mother, and STILL have plenty in the refrigerator for leftovers of our own.

I wouldn't hesitate to make this for anyone with their own, real Bubie.