Ways to Brisket?

November 22, 2010 6:45 AM

This Friday, I am making a late Thanksgiving on Brisket! Brisket two ways in fact. One will be my famous brisket marinated in Coca Cola and BBQ rub by way of Polish cane sugar coke with roasted garlic and beef gravy. The other brisket I am sort of freaking out about. Does anyone have any ideas?
posted by parmanparman to Food & Drink (12 answers total)

My brisket recipe: sear the brisket, deglaze the pan with some sweet sherry or marsala, return the meat to the pan, cover the whole thing with an absolutely appalling amount of sliced onions (seriously, you can't possibly add too much onion to this - I typically add two or three softball-sized red onions to mine), add water to braise, a couple of bay leaves, loads of black pepper. Simmer low & covered until fork tender, about 3-4 hours. Yummmmm.
posted by deadmessenger at 6:51 AM on November 22, 2010 [3 favorites]

Montreal Smoked Meat! here's a recipe that sounds just like the way I heard the guys at Schwartz's make it - brining, smoking, then steaming for moistness. mmmmm...
posted by lizbunny at 6:52 AM on November 22, 2010

deadmessenger's recipe sounds like a classic Jewish brisket, little more than beef and onions. Cook it right and it melts in your mouth. So good.
posted by Faint of Butt at 6:55 AM on November 22, 2010

Malaysian?
posted by neroli at 7:05 AM on November 22, 2010

Faint of Butt - yep, exactly. My recipe came from my family's next-door neighbor when I was growing up, Mrs. Goldberg.

The other thing I forgot to mention in my recipe - you can also add mushrooms (again, as much as you care to) or celery to the braising liquid. I've seen other people include diced carrots in their recipe, but I think they tend to make the sauce overly sweet.
posted by deadmessenger at 7:09 AM on November 22, 2010

The best I've ever had was made by a friend for a Passover meal. He says it was "basically Emeril's recipe with a few tweaks": not those spices, but that's the basic idea. I think the stock & onions & garlic are the most critical components.
posted by knile at 7:10 AM on November 22, 2010

Epicurious has some good-looking brisket recipes.

The only one of those I have made is the Texas Beef Brisket Chili, which was outrageously delicious but probably wouldn't go with your other one. The horseradish glaze recipe, though, and the one with the herbed stuffing... I think they sound excellent.

Smitten Kitchen makes everything look good, too.

Now I have to make a brisket!
posted by heatvision at 7:10 AM on November 22, 2010

Response by poster: Oh, I should add my own brisket recipe...

1 7-10 pound brisket unrolled
2 bulbs of garlic
.5 bottle Bulls eye bbq sauce
1 glass bottle of coke
black pepper

You make a simple sauce using the bbq sauce, coke and pepper and marinate the brisket open overnight. In the morning, You discover my oven is too small for the pan and your phone rings, informing you that work needs you to be there in 30 minutes. You knock on every door until your half-awake German friend allows you to use his oven to cook. You go to work and completely forget about the eight hour roasting at 240 degrees farenheit until your friend calls you and tells you if you are not home by five, he will eat the whole thing himself.

Serve with horseradish sauce on warm bread and ignore your girlfriend with caution.
posted by parmanparman at 9:11 AM on November 22, 2010 [2 favorites]

You may have already seen my earlier question about bricket. The recipe I ended up using was delicious, and should give you a very different brisket experience from the one you already have.
posted by tavegyl at 10:17 AM on November 22, 2010

I do a brisket kind of like deadmessenger's, except I rub the meat with mustard before covering it with onions.
posted by catlet at 11:19 AM on November 22, 2010

My two no-fail brisket recipes:

Super Easy:
put brisket, peeled halved potatoes, sliced onions, baby carrots and mushrooms (all optional) into slow cooker or roasting pan
dump 1- 1 1/2 packets of onion soup mix over brisket (depending on size - we use telma brand)
fill the soup-mix packet half-full of water, half full of white wine, dump in.
Put brisket in slow-cooker on lowest setting, or roast in oven tightly sealed in foil at a low temp.

Easy:
slice red, green, and yellow pepper, and one purple onion. sauté in olive oil until soft. put aside.
Put brisket on a bed of sliced raw onions in roasting pan or slow cooker with 1 packet fajita seasoning and amount of water suggested by packet, or 1/4 cup of pre-made jarred fajita sauce. Roast.
About 1-2 hours before serving, add sauteed peppers and onion to brisket, stir sauce to cover them, reseal.
posted by Mchelly at 11:36 AM on November 22, 2010

I use the Barefoot Contessa recipe for brisket. The acid in the tomato juice balances out the sweetness of the carrots and onions and helps tenderise the meat. I usually use chopped tomatoes, not juice though.
posted by essexjan at 11:49 AM on November 22, 2010