Brisket Recipe Wanted

Epicurean Exploits - Food and Recipes
1

I want to try cooking a small brisket, preferibly in a crock pot for an easy mid week meal. Anyone have a good recipe or tips? Thank

2

I do this in a roasting pan at 325 in the oven with a tight cover of aluminum foil, but the basic technique would work find in a crockpot. Salt and pepper. Sear in a roasting pan to get some caramelization. Make a sauce of ketchup and red wine. Dump over the brisket. Chop up a whole bunch o’ carrots and onions. Dump on top. Split a head of garlic and dump that in there. More salt and pepper. Cover tightly and cook until tender. (Optional. Remove and chill overnight. Defat.) Slice across the grain and rewarm.

The key thing to understand is that this is a tough cut and starts like shoe leather. You have to cook (for me about 6 hours) until it gets fork tender.

3

As Eric stated, you should brown all sides first in some OO and then place in a roasting pan, however, I think it should braise at 275 in your liquid of choice. I have used Mushroom soup, white wine with carrots, onions etc. You can also use some Sherry as well. Keep in mind that it will shrink in the oven, or use the crockpot. In the oven it only takes about two hours or so and then is quite shreddable. Oh and I never use ketchup…except for eggs and French Fries pileon

4

Mike, it’s a grandma recipe. I would never normally use ketchup except that it works…

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OK, here is a somewhat silly but good and easy way to do a brisket the old fashioned Jewish American circa Philip Rothian Goodbye Columbus era way. Rub the brisket with equal parts kosher salt and brown sugar, and I mean really work it in well. Throw into the crock pot (my mom did it Mr. Levine’s way-in a roasting pan with aluminum foil on top crimped to make a seal and in the oven at low temp) some chicken stock and a packet of Lipton freeze dried onion soup mix and a can of peeled whole tomatoes. Add the brisket. Make sure some tomatoes are resting on top of the meat but you want to braise it and add stock as need be-it should not be totally submerged. If your Crock Pot has a low and high setting, keep it on low for eight hours. I like it served on a bed of kasha and mushrooms, but learning how to cook kasha the old fashioned way means a dissertation.

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Mmm Mitch, sounds good!

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I like the recipes mentioned so far although as someone mentioned, I think it’s key to brown the brisket before braising it in the crock pot.

My typical recipe involves browning the brisket, sauteing carrots/celery/shallots, deglazing with red wine (or stock), adding can of whole peeled tomatoes (and a few tbl of tomato paste), put brisket in crock pot and pour the liquid/vegetables over brisket, add handful of garlic cloves and a handful of dried fruit i.e. apricots, prunes, 1-2 tbl of grain mustard and then setting the crock pot to low for 9-10 hours.

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This recipe for ‘Atlanta Brisket’ works well in the slow cooker:
http://www.accessatlanta.com/atlanta-restaurants-food/southern-foodways-alliance-cookbook-678656.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; (scroll down)

10

Thanks guys. I am about 5hours into this in the slow cooker on LOW and the meat is around 190. I checked it for tenderness and it is still pretty tough. Keep going? I know most say to go 8+ on low but the meat already at 190 concerned me a little bit. Thanks

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Mike, keep going. This is not about temperature at all but purely about texture. It will magically transition from shoe leather to fork tender. Just be patient and loving, and your brisket will reward you.

12

Nice, thanks Eric. Continuing on…

13

I realize it is way too late to help you with tonight’s brisket, but I highly recommend this recipe that was in the Atlanta Journal & Constitution about a year ago. We’ve made it twice with great results both times. Doesn’t get any easier than this.

http://projects.eveningedge.com/recipes/richard-blais-14-hour-brisket/

Could easily be adapted to the slow cooker. Note, when cooking wrapped in foil, I think it is very important to have the fatty part of the brisket on the top.

14

Wow what a difference another 2 hours made. The brisket was tender and amazing, I am definitely adding this to my winter rotation. I ended up using this recipe minus the brown sugar and subbing carrots for the potatoes:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Brisket-100844" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I am going to try one of the suggestions here for the next round. 8 hours on low for my slow cooker (first time using it) was perfect.

Cheers,
Mike

15

Mazel Tov!

Yes time is the friend of a brisket. Collagen becomes gelatin and magic ensues. In a moist cooking technique (versus smoking) you have huge leeway, and the only mistake you can make is getting too salty (either due to over-seasoning or over-reducing) or simply not cooking long enough.

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Eric - how about this for a new venture:

briskettracker.com