Going to my grandmother’s house for a beautiful brisket dinner was one of my favorite childhood holiday memories. All day, Grandma would slowly braise the brisket with potatoes, onions, and carrots, and the aroma would waft out the front door as we arrived. My mother adapted her mother’s recipe, adding a few touches of her own along the way, and now I have my take on holiday brisket that I make at home.
However, the core of the holiday brisket looks very similar for many Jewish families, and it’s a time-honored tradition we look forward to each Hanukkah. Brisket, particularly braised or wet-roasted holiday brisket, is arguably the most difficult cut of beef to prepare, right up there with all the other working cuts that necessitate real cooking to extract all of the meat’s flavor and texture.
The most common misconception about braising is how easy it is to overcook and dry out the beef, but he claims that with some careful planning, we can all enjoy a delicious brisket this holiday season. Here are some pointers to keep in mind when preparing the best brisket.
Buy the Right Cut of Meat
Big, beautiful pieces of beef can be expensive, especially when shopping for kosher meat, but buying a whole brisket is still a good idea. Get a good one and trim an inch off the top of the ‘nose’ or ‘point’ of what some call the second cut yourself. No longer. That’s the fatty part.
The braising results in a fantastic pair of muscles you can trim when it’s on your carving board.
Cook it the Day Before
Brisket is traditionally braised, sliced, and served with a sauce made from the braising liquid. The meat is essentially overcooked during the braising process until the connective tissue breaks down and the meat becomes soft and tender.
Resnick believes the best way to make brisket is to cook it the day before serving it and then cool it in its juices overnight. Then, instead of drying out, the meat will stay extra juicy. It will also firm up as it sits, making it easier to slice the brisket. Furthermore, by letting it sit overnight, all the fat that cooks off will rise and solidify as it cools, allowing you to easily remove it from the sauce and avoid serving a greasy mess.
A brisket recipe contains a lot of family traditions, but many chefs will add their personal touches. While most traditional Ashkenazi brisket dishes use tomato and carrot, I base my recipe on a more traditional Roman-Jewish brisket preparation that uses red wine, vinegar, onions, garlic, rosemary, sage, thyme, and honey. It adds a wonderful richness to the dish, while the herbs keep the flavor fresh. It also pairs well with a traditional potato latke, as the onions in the sauce, which I sweat in the same pan that I sear the meat in, bring out the onions in the latkes, and the crispy potatoes provide texture to complement the soft meat.
Brown the Brisket
You’ll want to brown your brisket evenly before braising or roasting it. Brown the brisket on both sides before placing it in a roasting pan, which he has one large pan that he uses almost exclusively for this purpose. To avoid losing all of the fondness from the brisket, I brown my onions in the same pan I browned them in.
Don’t Forget To Add Some Acid
Allow your acid to do the work for you! I leave the vinegar, wine, or both in the braising pan throughout the cooking process to bring out all the contrast with the fattiness.
Speaking of fattiness, a great piece of tender meat will have some fat in it – that’s where much of the flavor comes from. But you also don’t want to go overboard. Skim your brisket juices three times. The meat is already fatty enough!
Remember To Let it Rest
Cooks your brisket for about 6 hours, then rests it with half the onions on top to keep it warm before tenting it with foil. If you leave it in the hot braising liquid, it will continue to cook, and you risk drying it out.
Slice the Brisket
A stunning meat presentation will begin with how you slice the brisket. The first 4 inches of the brisket will always be drier and crumblier than the rest. After removing that piece, I cut it off, set it aside, and carve. Use the leftovers for sandwiches, hash, soups, tacos, and burnt ends the next day.
When you reach the ‘nose’ or ‘point,’ you’ll notice a line of intramuscular fat. Remove the top horizontally along that line. Because the fat seam has a different grain than the rest of the brisket, remove it and slice it separately.
Switch Things Up
If the opportunity arises, don’t be afraid to experiment with your brisket. I make brisket two ways: Texas BBQ style on my offset smoker once a year, a 16-hour process, and my grandmother’s brisket four times a year. I don’t make any crossover style briskets with special techniques or flavors from other places because I only like her brisket. My childhood’s holiday centerpiece roast. I’m emotionally attached to it in the same way that a child is to their first pet.
Honor the History of the Dish
Part of the allure of a traditional holiday meal is remembering those who came before us and how this dish came to be such an important part of the occasion. I am constantly astounded by how poverty – the food of struggle – has become the expensive food that is so highly valued and difficult to prepare for the modern kitchen denizen. When I was younger, everyone’s grandmother could cook briskets, shanks, tails, stews, and soups with their eyes closed – no recipes or timers required. It was in their souls. Today, we are too removed from everyday cooking; we are over-scheduled, short on time, and no longer cook 15 meals per week.
Know When it’s Done
There’s an art to cooking meat, but in this case, it’s all about the heart. Some people will use a meat thermometer because each brisket is different in shape, size, and weight. They will tell you to take it out when the thicker end reaches around 170 degrees because it needs to get that hot to break down the connective tissue and become tender.
Keep things simple
The best brisket, like many good things, is the simplest. Brisket has become an essential part of the Jewish experience in America. As a young chef, I abandoned my mother’s delicious, simple cooking style in favor of more complicated and fanciful fare. As we get older, we gain wisdom, which translates to greater simplicity and clarity in the kitchen. Cooking brisket culminates everything I’ve learned on my culinary adventure.
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