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Recipe question: Jewish brisket

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    Recipe question: Jewish brisket

    This is from Pat LaFreida's book Meat:

    ------------------------------------
    4lbs brisket
    1T plus 1/2t kosher salt
    1/2t black pepper
    6 cups beef stock
    1/2 cup brown sugar (light or dark)
    1/2 cup honey
    1/4t cinnamon
    1/4t cloves

    Season brisket with 1T of salt and the black pepper. Put brisket and stock in dutch oven @ 325 for 4-4.5 hours.

    Discard stock, raise oven to 400. Mix spices and sugars and coat brisket with that sauce. Bake for about 10 minutes or until a candied crust forms. Remove from oven, sprinkle with remaining 1/2t salt, let rest 15 minutes, then slice and serve.
    -------------------------------------

    In the notes for the recipe, he says to use the second cut, the point, because the flat will be too lean and it will dry out.

    When Pat LaFreida was 14 he knew more about meat than I ever will in my lifetime. But I can't imagine that this can't be made with the flat. I think if I inject it with beef broth it will come out fine. Or maybe inject it with melted bacon grease.

    What says the collected wisdom of The Pit?

    #2
    My mother always used the flat. I question his choice of spices. No Jewish-style brisket I've ever eaten had sugar, cinnamon or cloves. Pretty sure my mom used a package of Lipton onion soup mix and water.
    Last edited by mgaretz; January 9, 2016, 08:24 PM.

    Comment


    • Dewesq55
      Dewesq55 commented
      Editing a comment
      Onion soup mix indeed. And braised for hours. The do mix it's the sine qua non of void Jewish brisket, at least in NYC.

    #3
    One thing to remember though is that we (the Jews) made brisket because it was cheap (like $.29/lb). These days, with brisket selling for the same or more as much better cuts, it doesn't make any sense to me to make this dish any more.

    Comment


      #4
      Mosca - I think injecting it with melted bacon grease would probably violate some Kosher law. ;-)

      Otherwise, I'm not keen on that combination of spices either. I make chuckies in the slow cooker with a pack of Lipton onion and a can of cream of mushroom. Man... so simple but the flavor is outstanding. Nothing better than dumping three things in the slow cooker and coming home from work to that smell!

      I think I may give that a shot with a brisket some day. I bet it would be fantastic.

      Comment


      • Mosca
        Mosca commented
        Editing a comment
        Oh man, I didn't even register the kosher thing!

        I'm thinking it would be outstanding on a kaiser roll with brown mustard.

      #5
      I think people over react concerning brisket flat. Yeah, it is literally one of the most undesirable cuts. However the word "brisket" brings with it such "connotation" that you could serve round steak and tell people it is brisket and they just enjoy the fact they are eating the all mighty brisket.

      I've served plenty dry Select flats (how else do you serve a fatless hunk of meat with mucho connective tissue that must be taken nearly to the boiling point of water) that people raved over because they were tender, had great bark, and they knew they were eating brisket.

      I've only injected one brisket, and I injected the ever-living chrud out of that dude. And the flat came out dry. I don't see how needle holes of fluid into an already saturated meat does much when you have to take something that high.

      Tuffy said he has done well injecting and not injecting. I don't think Johnny Trigg has ever injected anything. But it does give people something else to do to the meat, tinker if you will, and that satisfies enough to warrant it.

      Comment


        #6
        I am all about the good beefy flavor of a well cooked brisket. I prefer the point end because it has more flavor. This recipe sounds to me like they want to give the brisket a honey baked ham type crust. Which could be tasty. I personally would never discard the stock. If I wasn't using it right away I would freeze it. To me it is like gold. One other note this is unlike any Jewish brisket I have cooked. Most have had a tomato gravy, and I always cook my brisket in a sous vide first. Then I brown it at a very high temperature before serving. I have not mastered the low and slow smoking method.


        Comment


        • Jerod Broussard
          Jerod Broussard commented
          Editing a comment
          Nothing to master low and slow but time, with a little more attention than sous vide.

          I would sous vide a brisket, but my wife just tripped out over a sirloin tip roast that went for 12+ hours.

          I will sous vide my next corned brisket (not 48 hours ). Then apply rub, chill, then smoke for pastrami.

        #7
        I sous vide my corned beef for 36 hours at 160 degrees and for pastrami I rubbed it with Penzeys mignonette pepper and smoked it with Oak if I am not mistaken. It was delicious! If I am not mistaken I rubbed it before putting in the sous vide and then smoked it in the end. I will start taking better notes now that I have more time on my hands.

        Comment


        • Jerod Broussard
          Jerod Broussard commented
          Editing a comment
          I'm going bare sous vide...thanks for the temp/time.

        #8
        Oh hell, pork shoulders were 99 cents a pound so we're making pulled pork instead.

        Comment


        • Jerod Broussard
          Jerod Broussard commented
          Editing a comment
          Too funny. A lady contacted me for Christmas and told me she wanted pork shoulder cause they were 99 cents a pound at a local store. I told her the other local meat place has had them for 98 cents a pound for over 2 months now.

        #9
        Jerod, about the corned beef in the sous vide. Don't make the same mistake I made by purchasing a corned beef that has had meat tenderizer added, specifically papain. The sous vide will turn it to mush. It was not pretty.I assume that because you are in Texas t h a t you have access to top notch meat mongers.

        Comment


        • Jerod Broussard
          Jerod Broussard commented
          Editing a comment
          I'm going to do my own. But thanks for the papain tip.

        #10
        ​I agree with mgaretz above on price and the recipe. When a select cut of a brisket flat is "on sale" at Kroger for $7/lb, it ceases to be immigrant food. The only briskets I had on Jewish holidays growing up were not sweet. They were essentially pot roast, vegetables and savory spices. I feel like the only thing that makes that recipe Jewish is that it's for brisket. However, growing up in a small Jewish community in WV, I wasn't exposed to a lot of Jewish cultural differences. When I moved to Atlanta for college and met Jews from around the country, you learn that everybody does the traditional Jewish recipes a little differently. So, there might be a group of Jews who made candied brisket like the one above, but I've never had one or heard of one.

        Comment


          #11
          My Auntie Ruth, very Jewish including going to Israel when she was in her 70s to work on Kibbutzes, was not overly fond of cooking - her limit was 4 ingredients, and, if she was in a less than good mood, the stove and the pan would count as ingredients... BUT She made the very best braised brisket EVER! Brisket trimmed, 2 onions sliced, one bottle of Heintz Chili sauce and a beer... chuck the whole mess in a dutch oven (no browning, no spices, nada) and cook at 300 for an afternoon. Cool the brisket overnight (easier to slice and the fat can be picked right off the top), reheat the sliced brisket the next day and folks swoon... every time... To make this Kosher (enough - at least in our house) for Passover, substitute ginger ale for beer. Sometimes she would get fancy and take the sauce and the onions and puree them to serve over Kasha. Very tender and succulent brisket and the sauce over kasha or rice is divine... Now that brisket costs nearly as much as some steak, this recipe is reserved for treats and holidays

          Comment


            #12
            Originally posted by mgaretz View Post
            My mother always used the flat. I question his choice of spices. No Jewish-style brisket I've ever eaten had sugar, cinnamon or cloves. Pretty sure my mom used a package of Lipton onion soup mix and water.
            My wife makes some of the best brisket I've ever eaten using this method BUT she includes 1 whole bottle of liquid smoke along with the lipton onion soup mix. Yes--a whole bottle of liquid smoke poured right out of the bottle onto the brisket. Freaked me out 40 years ago when I first saw her do it--figured the brisket a goner. Still love it that way to this day. I'll find the recipe and post if anyone is interested. It will amaze you.

            Comment

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