Cooking Brisket: An Essential Jewish Skill

Cooking for large groups of hungry 20 somethings is no easy feat. Being able to prepare an entire Shabbat meal, or any meal for so many people can brew up several challenges. One of the largest difficulties involved in creating such a meal, is having everything be ready and warm at the exact same time. For my blog, I am going to teach you how to prepare a super tender and delicious brisket, which will even impress your Bubbe, and will require about 10 minutes of preparation at the most. This may not be the best method of preparing brisket, but we have already served it several times in Moishe House LA with rave reviews. I am going to give you the basic rundown of how to prepare this brisket, and then leave you with a list of ingredients you can mix and match to create your very own recipe.

Question: How much brisket should I buy?
Answer: I'd say each pound will happily feed 3 people...
To keep yourself under budget, serve foods with carbs (pasta, cous cous) that will fill folks up for less, and then the brisket will feed more people. Cooking Length: You should cook the brisket for 8 hours at 200 degrees if you want it to be extremely tender. Make sure someone is home during this entire process.

Preparation:

1. Get a pot that has a good cover that will fit your brisket inside. If you're making a larger sized one, you can get those aluminum tins at the market and cover with foil.
2. Put the brisket in the pot and fill the pot with liquids of your choice (see below) until it is about a half inch below the top of the meat.
3. Add spices and vegetables
4. Cover, place in oven, Set it and forget it!

Sauces (mix and match):

• Coca Cola
• red wine
• onion soup mix (or just throw in a whole onion)
  
• ketchup
• bbq sauce
• beer
• whiskey

Spices (mix n match):

• Salt
• Pepper
• Garlic
• Hot Paprika
• Cayenne
• Cinnamon
  
• Coffee grounds
• Cocoa Powder
• Cumin

After 8 hours are up, just take out the brisket and slice it up! You can use the leftover sauce to pour over rice, or you can use it instead of water to make cous cous or rice.

If you make some brisket, respond to this post with what you did, and how it came out!

Thanks,
Benjie

Masha Shtern, MHSeattle, September 2008 - warming: depressing!

It's funny that ever year I forget how the colder season feels, until it comes.  It doesn't fail to sneak up on me every year.  Last week there was a day where it was so chilly my body was reminded of the winter, and how miserable my joins feel and how I can never get warm enough no matter how many layers I put on.  Especially in our drafty old house, which I has been so great during the summer.  I'm a little sad to be reminded of all this, and it really got me down.   And in turn, I got a little upset that it got me so upset.  I wonder how much of the seasonal mood swings come from an actual lack of sunlight and vitamin D, and how much of it comes from the fact that all our other problems seem more visible where there's no yellow disk in the sky calling your outside.  Of course, it seems like the latter, and it reminds me of the fact that I should really work through those things... 

Although frankly, I'm not that sad at this very moment, but I just wanted to get that out of my system.  At the moment, I'm in West Virginia in a tiny town of Berkeley Springs, because my best friend is getting married on Sunday.  Joel and Tamar are here, too, and we've just had a lovely impromtu Shabbos meal in their hotel room.  I almost missed my connecting flight and had tomato juice on my butt today, but I also saw a gorgeous sunset and visited a Dunkin Donuts, which apparently, we don't have anymore in Seattle!  But enough of this graphomania, it has never been my forte, and I shall leave you with what I do best: a recipe.  This is a tribute of sorts to the passing summer, hopefully you will have enough good weather where you are to be refreshed by this.

Buttermilk soup - so simple, refreshing and delicious

buttermilk

chopped or grated cucumber

lemon juice

salt

fresh chopped dill

finely chopped garlic - about one clove per 2 cups of buttermilk

All the amounts are to taste, keep trying until it tastes right to you. Mix the ingredients cold and chill in the fridge for a couple of hours or overnight for the best taste.