Brisket

House
Brisket, sliced with roasted sweet potato, brussels sprouts, mushrooms, on a plate.

This has never appeared in a cookbook. It was passed from person to person and served at a long list of holidays. Many years ago I was given a recipe on a stained index card. Its reputation preceeded it: this is the good stuff. This is the classic.

But there was a problem.

The card called for a Campbells Soup, and something called “Kitchen Bout VV” that I’ve never heard of and could not Google. (It’s sulfites in vegetable broth, apparently? I have no idea why, perhaps this made sense in the 1970’s along with tie-dye and smoking sections on airplanes.)

Is that recipe good? Yes. I’ve had it.

But I want to cook with ingredients.

After a few decent attempts, I had a realization: the point of this recipe is to braise the meat in onion soup for hours. I have a French Onion Soup recipe from Budget Bytes.

We’re not going to actually make the full soup, but it’s going to be the inspiration for our braising liquid. Take the original method, execute it with ingredients that make sense to my millenial brain.

And it’s perfect. It’s complex, balanced, and melts in your mouth.

Brisket, sliced besides the toppings, while beagle gazes on.

Ingredients

Steps

  1. Chop onions, garlic, carrots
  2. In a big pot, cook onions and garlic in oil and red wine viengar until well-softened
  3. Add salt, pepper, thyme, paprika to onions
  4. Stir in 5 cups of broth. I used a mix of beef and vegetable.
  5. Add bay leaf. Add of Worscester sauce. Simmer a while.
  6. Pre-heat the oven to 325°F
  7. Take the brisket, rub it down with salt.
  8. In a cast iron skillet or the roasting pan (if burner-safe), sear the meat on both sides. About 4m each side until you get some browning.
  9. Set the brisket in the roasting plan (or cut the heat), and then cover the brisket with onion soup and carrots. I like to leave some onions above the broth so they get crispy, but any on top of the brisket will be toast.
  10. Place the roasting pan in the oven and bake for 3-4 hours.
  11. Remove and let the brisket rest, covered, for 20 minutes before slicing. This is a fine time to turn up the heat and roast a side of vegetables.

Now, what does the beagle thing about all this—HEY WAIT NO! NO! DOWN!

Dog stretches to lick the side of the cutting board
That is NOT allowed.
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