A Succulent Brisket Almost as Good as Mom’s

My grandmother made brisket all the time. Onions,carrots, etc. it was a food be brisket. The one I make is a sweet and sour version. Of course meat is browned and then loaded with chopped onions above and below the meat. About a cup stock and then braised in the oven in a Dutch oven for 2 hours. Meanwhile fill a 1 cup measure with raisins and fill with sherry. Steep for 2 hours. Add it all to beef after braising time. Add some brown sugar and a tablespoon or two of tomato’s paste. Also a glug of apple cider. Cook for another hour until fork tender. The sauce is stupendous. Or as my old friend Martin Roaman proclaimed “The best pot roast ever.”

A much easier way: several onions sliced in pot first, 1-2 cartons beef broth, brown first all sides, use an electric roaster!!!! Cover with tin foil to keep in moisture and then cover. Cook on low one hour per pound. Onion soup mix or one beer optional as is salt. Refrigerate and remove fat and slice then reheat next day , really falls apart soft . Salt to taste also ...

One of my grandmothers (the Hungarian one) would stare menacingly into the butcher's eyes and say "I want a NICE brisket", meaning not too lean. My other grandmother (Lithuanian) baked her brisket on a bed of carrots and sliced onions with ketchup and paprika on top. That's the version I make. I also cook it the day before, slice the meat and refrigerate it overnight so I can take off the fat. Much easier to serve also. Nothing makes the house smell better!

I have tried other brisket recipes but always go back to the way my mother did it with just some fresh onions as a base and an envelope of onion soup mix The recipe with caramelized onions and leeks was delicious, but I guess the original is the taste of my childhood. Nothing will ever beat that.

We are not Jewish. My mom learned to make a brisket very similar to your mom's description from our neighbor, Mrs. Cohen. We love it and have been making it 50 years or so now. So many of our Jewish friends have a version with BBQ sauce or Ketchup that they grew up with and loved, but for me and my family, nothing will do but this one with the beefy flavor of the meat oozing out--no competition from a tomato based sauce. Sometimes we thicken the delicious salty, beefy, oniony juices to make a gravy to top the meat and the always-served mashed potatoes. Almost every time I've shared our recipe with a Jewish friend who is used to tomato-based sauce, she has said, "Best brisket ever--I'm not making our old one ever again!" Guess Mrs. Cohen and your mom got it right.

I live in France where meat cuts are different. The search for real "brisket" has consumed much experimentation time for a friend from NYC and me. Does anyone know the exact name of the part of the cow we should ask for en français?

Three tablespoons of salt ? WOW !

I sure hope that is a misprint. This a braise not corned beef so three teaspoons would be plenty for a large brisket and two should be enough for most.

My version of brisket - not from my Mom, but a recipe in Better Homes and Gardens magazine as I recall, and then doctored - consists of a piece of heavy duty foil.

Slice onions, put on the bottom of the foil. Place the brisket fat side down - with some of the fat cut off if there's too much of it - on top of the onions. Then put garlic powder on the brisket, then an envelope of onion soup mix. Then sprinkle light brown sugar on the brisket. Cover the top of the brisket with ketchup and an undrained can of chopped tomatoes. Seal up the foil but leave some breathing space between the top of the brisket and the foil (seal the foil but don't wrap the brisket so tightly so there are no air pockets). Cook at 300 or so for 4 - 5 hours. And yes, then separate the brisket from the juice/drippings and refrigerate. You'll be able to pick off the fat of the juices easily. When you want to serve it, slice the cold brisket, add the de-fatted juices and reheat.

My mother used very high heat to brown, lots of onions and some red wine near the end.
Although I use watched her cook many briskets, I never get as much dark, rich gravy as she did.

It isn't clear (with other brdand names being mentioned) why the seasoned salt isn't named. And with so many on the market which are in most cases superior to what mixture was mentioned, why not use another brand?

My late Mom had 2 brisket recipes which I love. One used Lipton onion soup mix, Campbell's cream of mushroom soup, and onion, the other with apple, red cabbage, and caraway seeds. I'd tell you the rest of the ingredients, but she'd come back and get me!

Two things are missing, in my view: I would make little slits all over the brisket and insert garlic cloves into them. I would sear the meat before roasting. It also would not hurt to make enough caramelized onions so you can put some in the pan and roast the meat on top of it.

I hate to disagree, but no no no. No cloves, no allspice, no ketchup, no chile sauce (and certainly no grape jelly). Rub salt onto all sides of the meat. Sear it in an iron frying pan. Saute onions (1 to 1-1/2 onions per pound of meat). Cook beef and onions in a covered dutch oven at 300 for hours until tender. Maybe add some water if it dries out. That is my mother's recipe, and I wouldn't deviate for a second!! Happy New Year.

Mr. Tanis writes, "Brisket, for me, is an aromatic memory". Indeed, we all have memories since childhood of pleasant smells that stay with us forever.
I wish bon appétit to all who should be rightfully inspired by Mr. Tanis's recipe.
I found the pictures very appetizing, despite the fact of my dislike of boiled carrots and fatty meat.
As far as it being "absolutely standard fare" for the Jewish New Year, I think it is a habit of New Yorkers to identify East European Ashkenazi dishes as the only "Jewish food".

Pretty funny pairing Rosh Hashana recipes with Clam Chowder.

Brisket isn't a roast; it's a religion with many sects. To make your roast complete, you also need six mothers at the table so each can tell you and the others her version of why you did it wrong.

Brisket, food of the gods. A poor piece of beef ennobled by good, long cooking and a lot of love. The carmelized onions make it. Thank you.

A brisket, a can of beer, and an envelope of Lipton's Onion Soup Mix cooked 5-6 hrs. at 225˚ is simple perfection!

The Flat or Point brisket cuts yield dramatically different results. The flat is relatively fat-free and is prone to drying out. The point is fatty and yields a succulent dinner. For braised brisket, I always use the point cut. For my money, the flat is better cured in brine and then braised a la corned beef.

I must beg to differ, Mr. Tanis: MY mother's pot roast, as it was always called, was the best. Her recipe had passed through many hands over time and I now possess and follow it.

Briefly, you must salt and pepper a 6 to 7-pound brisket than rub into it on all sides a mixture of flour and paprika. In a Dutch oven--Magnalite in mom's case and now in mine--sear the brisket in oil until brown on all sides. Add 2 large onions, sliced thickly, 2 carrots also sliced, a bay leaf and 2 cups beef or chicken stock plus 1 of water. Cover the pot and cook for over moderate heat until the meat is fork-tender, 4 1/2 to 5 hours. During the last hour add a can of tomatoes and, if you like, some sugar. Slice and enjoy.

Mashed potatoes was the accompaniment of choice--or latkes if mom was up to making them. The "gravy" is stupendous, especially when ladled over the mashed potatoes.

I have several pieces of my mom's Revere Ware but not all. It still serves me well!

The fact that the lean cuts produced a dry brisket is a clue that this recipe is far from foolproof. What is foolproof is Julia Child's version. Brisket was poor man's food that could be raised to astonishing heights with a little kitchen chemistry. As a poor cut of beef it has a lot of connective tissue. That's actually because of where it comes from in the animal's anatomy. The way to break this down is with acid which denatures the protein of the fibrous tissue. In practical terms, cover the seasoned brisket--or the cut called blade, which is thicker, with crushed tomatoes and a tbsp of crushed garlic. Cover the pot, preferably a large enamel lined one, with aluminum foil and put in a 300F or 150C oven for 4 hours, Of course you've put in 2-4 cups chicken stock, carrots, parsnips, potatoes. You begin the process as you would normally by carmelizing the onions to season not the meat but the pot. Guaranteed spoon tender.

The cut that is available in supermarkets and the Costco's of the world is the flat cut. The flat is too lean to get that juicy flavor. Unfortunately it is best to cook and then shred, which it will do unless you chill it and slice it cold.
A sweet new year to all.

My mom's seasoned salt was Lipton's Onion Soup Mix. She also made a non-onion variation with tomato juice. I wish I was more into cooking and got the recipes before she passed. At least I have great memories of those wonderful holiday meals. Shanah tovah!

Marinate it (balsamic or rice vinegar, a dash of honey, hot mustard, etc.) for a day; or marinate it for the same amt. of time in decent red wine. Then cook it as indicated.

The best piece of Revereware was the double-boiler! I would not trade
mine for anything and have kept it through ten family moves, hurricanes, divorce, and down-sizing. One of the few things my mother and I actually agreed on.

Sorry but this recipe did not do it for me. The most important thing that was left out was the browning of the meat and the onions first. The browned onions need to braise with the meat for total flavor. I would also do half beef or chicken stock and half water.

Right on time for a Sunday football double-header. Simplicity at its best! Thanks.

Of course it was perfect; your MOM made it. I hope your mom is around, Mr. Tanis, to make many more briskets!

My mother of blessed memory is gone these past 33 Rosh Hashanah's....though I hope I recreate something similar and that my own kids will remember as fondly.

Is the picture of your mom's ACTUAL brisket? I ask, because IMHO it is too pale. My mom's recipe (similar but unique) includes rubbing the raw brisket down with a natural product called Kitchen Bouquet -- made of caramelized carrots, so it adds a really appetizing deep color to the meat and gravy.

Instead of seasoned salt, my mom added (equally very salty!) Lipton Onion Soup Mix. She also added lots of actual onions. So her brisket was ultra-oniony, which was ultra-delicious. She added a lot of whole carrots (though sometimes I use baby carrots out of convenience).

Mom also had that premium set of Revereware -- from 1952, when she got married to dad -- and yes, it had every size of pot, including a tiny one that I played with a toy -- almost too small to put on burner! the most coveted one, however is the extra large 4-quart saucepan. It's very hard to find.

NOTE: I love that Revereware and still use some of mom's surviving pieces. But it is too thin to use in the oven for brisket. I recommend instead Mom's favorite Magnalite cast aluminum roasting pan. It comes in several sizes; the medium works best for brisket. It retains heat like nothing else I've ever used.