Brisket Revisited

With Rosh Hashana (Jewish New Year) looming, I’ve decided to repost my brisket recipe, compete with added instructions for leftovers.

Originally posted April 17, 2011

As it is Erev Pesach (the eve before Passover), and I’ve been cooking all day, I have decided to share with you my mother’s recipe for BBQ brisket. But first, a little story…

A young Jewish mother is preparing a Brisket for Passover. Her daughter watches with interest as the mother slices off the ends of the Brisket before placing it in the roasting pan. When the daughter asks her mother why she does this, the mother pauses for a moment and then says, “You know, I’m not sure.  This is the way I always saw my mother make a brisket. Let’s call Grandma and ask her.”

So, she phones her mother and asks why they always slice the ends off the brisket before roasting.

The Grandmother thinks for a moment and then says, “You know, I’m not sure why, this is the way I always saw MY mother make a brisket.”

Now the two women are very curious, so they pay a visit to the great-grandmother in the nursing home.  “You know when we make a brisket,” they explain, “we always slice off the ends before roasting. Why is that?”

“I don’t know why YOU do it,” says the old woman, “but I never had a pan that was large enough!”

And now, the recipe for the best BBQ brisket I’ve ever had.

Ingredients:

• 5-6 lb brisket, 1st cut or flat cut
• 18 oz bottle Open Pit BBQ sauce, original
• 18 oz bottle Kraft BBQ sauce, original
• French’s Mustard
• Lemon Pepper
• Garlic Powder
• Instant Minced Onion

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Trim excess fat off the fatty side (yes, there should be some fat for flavor and texture, but not that huge blob-o-fat that is on one side of one end).
3. Prick leanest side of brisket with fork all over.
4. Cover with mixture of half Open Pit and half Kraft (half bottle of each).
5. Squiggle with mustard all over.
6. Blend together on top of brisket.
7. Sprinkle generously with Lemon Pepper, Garlic Powder and Minced Onion.
8. Cover very tightly with aluminum foil and roast for 1 ½ hours.

Since all of the ingredients are pretty much eyeballed, I thought a visual might be helpful:

Notes: I do have a nice, fancy-schmancy non-stick roasting pan. However, if I use that, then any gravy created by the meat juices and BBQ sauces just burns to a crisp on the bottom. This is why I use the disposable roasting pans for my brisket. They allow the gravy to pool nicely for serving later. It’s also helpful to place a cookie sheet underneath the roasting pan for support.

1. Take brisket out of oven, turn brisket over and repeat above process entirely.
2. After the second 1 ½ hours of roasting test to make sure fork can go in somewhat easily.
3. Take brisket out of the oven and turn oven up to 450.
4. Sprinkle more Lemon Pepper on top of brisket.
5. Put brisket back in oven uncovered for approximately 15 minutes or so until there is a crispy crust on top of brisket and it is fork tender.
6. Let the brisket cool completely out of the gravy and slice (3/16″ thick is optimal) against the grain.
7. Cool gravy in the refrigerator and skim off fat before serving separately or before putting over sliced brisket to reheat.

What To Do With Leftovers:

If you’re lucky enough to have leftovers, and would like to save them for a later date, the brisket freezes extremely well. I usually separate it into single servings and Foodsaver the sliced meat. I’ll pour any extra gravy into ice cube trays and freeze those as well. When I want to eat it, I just microwave it.