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Brisket

Brisket with Vidalia Onion Puree

Brisket is tough, and it is best suited for braising and slow cooking, which tenderizes the meat from within by dissolving the cut’s plentiful collagen and fat. Brisket is very often smoked in the South; in fact, barbecue means brisket in Texas, as barbecue means pork in the Southeast. Buy fresh brisket (not corned or brined), ideally the flat or first cut, which is leaner than point or second cut, and has a layer of fat running across it to help keep it moist. Hungarian paprika, ground from dried sweet peppers, gives the sauce another layer of flavor and a slightly reddish color. There are six types of Hungarian paprika, ranging from delicate to hot; any of them would be fine in this dish. My mother and Aunt Lee took a whirlwind trip to Eastern Europe several years ago. True to their natures, they did have enough time, however, to shop. Knowing how much I like to purchase local ingredients when I travel, Mama brought me paprika as a gift. It’s basically a lifetime supply. I store it in the freezer in an airtight container to help it last as long as possible and not become stale and flavorless.

Beer-Braised Brisket

Brisket is a cornerstone of Texas cooking, as much a part of the culinary fabric as sweet iced tea and biscuits. This version is a great “prep it and forget it” dish. You can pull it together and toss it all in the roasting pan in just a few minutes, and then put it in the oven and do something else for 3 hours. The house smells amazing while it’s cooking and the result is meltingly tender brisket and a tangy-sweet sauce. Toward the end of cooking, toss a green salad and make some White Rice (page 126)—or if you’re feeling more ambitious, place the Broccoli and Rice Casserole (page 123) in the oven 30 minutes before the brisket is done—and dinner is served!

Scallop Burnt Ends

Here’s a barbecue-style surf and turf! This recipe combines both barbecuing and grilling techniques, with slow-cooked brisket slices wrapped around fresh scallops and cooked on a hot grill. Our tasty way to use up leftover brisket slices was featured on Live with Regis and Kelly in 2007. Serve it hot off the grill as either an appetizer or a main course.

Bare Naked Brisket

There are both pros and cons to wrapping meat during the cooking process. Kansas City pitmaster Paul Kirk has often referred to the process of wrapping your meat with foil during cooking as the “Texas crutch.” He maintains that wrapping is not needed to get tender, flavorful barbecue. Cooking in foil can dilute the barbecue flavors you have worked very hard to put into your meat, washing away the smoke flavor and natural caramelization of barbecue meat. The longer food stays in foil, the more it is cooked by steam. The obvious advantage to wrapping with foil is that the meat becomes more tender, but another plus is capturing the natural juices. These juices can later be drizzled over the barbecue or mixed with sauce to add an extra flair to your barbecue. Either cooking method can produce amazing results. For those who want to simplify the cooking process or retain maximum smoke flavor, this recipe is ideal. It utilizes a seasoning paste to flavor the beef. The paste will adhere to the brisket nicely during the smoking process, ensuring a great taste. No foil, no problem. Paul, this one’s for you.

Slow-Smoked Beef Brisket

The following brisket recipe was developed over a period of three years specifically for cooking competitions. It began after learning the requirements of the Kansas City Barbecue Association’s competition cooking circuit. I made a trip to my favorite Alabama butcher and asked to see the beef brisket. He proudly told me he had the largest selection of that particular cut in the area. The four varieties of corned beef looked good, but they were not exactly what I was looking for. It seemed we both had a little to learn about barbecue beef brisket. Many years and tears later I fell in love with the rich beef flavor of this recipe. In the restaurant we serve our brisket as thin slices with the juices drizzled over the fresh cuts of beef, but in competitions we separate the flat from the point and reserve the cooked point to make burnt ends (see page 86). Brisket has become one of our most consistent categories in cooking competitions, including wins at the American Royal Invitational Contest in Kansas City, Missouri, and the Best of the Best Invitational BBQ Cook-off in Douglas, Georgia.

Beef Burnt Ends

Burnt ends are the charred end pieces and flavorful crumbles that are left in the pooled juices and drippings after a beef brisket has been sliced. I consider them the most flavorful part of the brisket. Usually it’s the early bird who gets the worm, but in the case of brisket, it is the last person in line who gets to scrape the cutting board. Burnt ends have become so popular that people have come up with ways to make more of these flavorful brisket bits.

Brisket with Ginger, Orange Peel, and Tomato

To the Horror of chef Daniel Rose (see page 68) of Spring Restaurant in Paris, it is impossible to find an American brisket in France. It just doesn’t exist. American butchers tend to cut larger pieces of meat. Five- or six-pound briskets (poitrines) or huge rib-eye steaks (entrecôtes) are the result of sawing through the muscle or the shoulder section of the animal. French butchers, by contrast, cut around the contours of the muscles to yield more tender but much smaller pieces. French Jews tend to use a breast of veal that usually has a pocket inside it for stuffing for their brisket. In this version, Daniel applies French techniques to make a perfectly delicious brisket with a subtle hint of orange in the sauce. I always make this dish a day in advance.

Pickelfleisch

Alsace is the only part of France with a tradition of France with a tradition of both pork and beef charcuterie. When I asked a butcher in Strasbourg about pickelfleisch (corned beef ) and pickled tongue, he paused to think a minute. Yes, he told me, both are eaten primarily by Jewish clientele. Of that charcuterie, pickelfleisch is the crown prince. Basically corned beef cured for eight to ten days with salt, sugar, spices, and saltpeter and then baked or boiled, it is more garlicky, with more varied spices, than that in America. Try making your own corned beef. It is great fun. Eat it as is or in a choucroute garni (sauerkraut dressed with meat and potatoes).

Adafina

In Southern Morocco, this Sabbath stew was cooked first over a wood fire and then kept warm in a pot tucked under the hot sand. In Spain and northern Morocco, it was cooked in communal ovens in the Jewish quarter of cities. Called by the Jewish youth of France today “daf marocaine,” this flavorful stew, also known as skeena—meaning “hot” in northern Morocco—is preferred by many young people to ordinary cholent (see page 213) for Sabbath lunch. Today in France the meat is usually beef rather than the lamb or mutton more commonly used in North Africa. For this one-pot meal, the rice and/or wheat berries or white beans must be kept apart for cooking, so that they can be served separately. Carène Moos encloses the seasoned rice and wheat berries in pieces of gauze or cheesecloth, knotting the cloth to make two individual bundles.

Sri Lankan Beef Smore

This is a pot roast. It is a specialty of Sri Lanka’s Burgher community, which owes its origins to a happy mixture of European colonialists, mostly Dutch but some Portuguese and English as well, with the local population. Burgher cuisine is a glorious by-product of this union. Here, a simple pot roast has been made wonderfully Sri Lankan with the addition of roasted coriander, cumin, and fennel seeds—the main ingredients in Sri Lankan curry powders—and, of course, coconut milk. Some people add a little simple lime pickle, or tamarind water or vinegar, to give it a tart edge. I have used red wine vinegar. A few simple steps are required here: The spices need to be roasted and ground. Then, after the meat is browned, everything goes into a pot and is braised slowly in the oven. The meat is sliced, and some of its own sauce is ladled over the top. It may then be served with rice, noodles (Sri Lanka has exquisite rice noodles, so Thin Rice Noodles would work), or mashed potatoes, if you prefer.

Pulled Brisket Sliders

Chef Todd Aarons of Tierra Sur at Herzog Wine Cellars in Oxnard, California, shared this recipe as part of a Hanukkah cocktail party menu he created exclusively for Epicurious. Aarons insists this dish is even better the next day, so braise the meat the day before then quickly assemble the sliders before serving. The spicy pulled brisket also makes great tacos, served with corn tortillas and garnished with red onion and chopped fresh cilantro.

Pot-Au-Feu

This hands-on French feast of vegetables and cuts of meat boiled in a savory broth is traditionally served in courses. It begins with the bone marrow on toast, then follows with the broth and the meats and vegetables. Feel free to serve it all at once, providing plenty of toasted bread and savory condiments for dipping.

Brisket

These succulent stews, roasts, and piquantly spiced meat dishes are among our heartiest entrées. Slowly baked in casseroles or simmered in large stockpots, they'll suffuse your kitchen with wonderful aromas. Most of these well-stewed entrées were developed by Eastern European Jews, because the tough and sinewy cheaper cuts of meat they could afford required hours of cooking to become tender. But that's not the whole story; other meat recipes hail from the abundant sheep- producing regions of the Middle East, where lamb is traditional spring fare and the featured entrée at Sephardic Seders. Some entrées in this chapter are suitable for an elegant dinner party, while others consist of everyday dishes like meat loaf, corned beef hash, and potted meatballs.

Horseradish-Glazed Brisket and Short Ribs with Root Vegetable Mash

The brisket and short ribs are simmered, then roasted, which makes the meat tender on the inside and crusty and brown on the outside. The celery root, rutabagas, and potatoes are cooked in the leftover broth from the meats, which results in a wonderfully rich, flavorful mash.

Triple-Beef Cheeseburgers with Spiced Ketchup and Red Vinegar Pickles

At the restaurant, the burgers are served on house-made buns with celery root slaw. For both recipes, go to bonappetit.com.

Country Hash

Not everything Feniger serves at her restaurant is typical street food, and here's a delicious case in point. The intriguing combination of shredded brisket, diced root vegetables, and apples is based on a recipe that Feniger's grandmother Sylvia Morgan often made for family meals in Toledo, Ohio. Roasted poblano chiles, a nod to the chef’s days at Santa Monica's Border Grill, add a spark of heat, and a fried egg makes it enormously satisfying.

Braised Beef Brisket

Every cook should have a good brisket recipe at the ready, and this one's a doozy. Braised with lots of browned onions, carrots, and celery in a mix of chicken broth and crushed tomatoes, the beef exits the oven full-flavored and fork-tender, ready to be shredded for the country hash or sliced and served with mashed potatoes for a homey dinner (though it's even better if you can wait a day). By all means, freeze the leftover braising liquid; it's wonderful as a sauce for fettuccine or as the base for a vegetable barley soup.

Brisket Braised in Porter

The brisket tastes best if prepared ahead, so make it at least one day and up to two days before you plan to serve it. Chilling the brisket makes it easier to slice. Rewarm the meat in the sauce and serve with a full-flavored dark beer (see our suggestions below).