Not my mother's brisket

For every Rosh Hashanah dinner I've ever thrown (so far, 4), I've made brisket. It has become a weird signature food for me (I mean, what non-religious 25 year old who was raised by vegetarians has a signature brisket dish? I ask you....). People expect it. They love it. It's bizarre.

However, this year, when I went to my bookmark for my recipe, the website had disappeared! What ever would I do? I turned to Joan Nathan's Jewish Holiday Cookbook (which I don't own, but get out of the library every year. I don't think anyone else has ever checked it out), my source for all Jewish Food. There was a recipe in there that I've always wanted to try, and never have, out of loyalty to my old recipe (I'm a big fan of repeating recipes. It's very comforting to me. I also read books over and over again).

My Mother's Brisket - adapted from Joan Nathan (one big inadvertent tweak - you'll see)

2 tsp salt
1 Tbs pepper
3 Tbs brown sugar
1 cup chili sauce
1 1/2 cups white vinegar
1 5 pound brisket
1 cup chopped celery leaves
2 onions, sliced
4 carrots, sliced
2 cups water

1. Mix the salt, pepper, brown sugar, chili sauce and vinegar together. Pour it over the meat. You're supposed to let it sit overnight....but I didn't. Whoops. That was my tweak.

2. Cover the meat/marinade with celery leaves, onions, carrots and water. Make sure the meat is fat side down.


This is where I realized I didn't take a picture of the big piece of meat! Argh. It was so impressive. It's huge! One big five and a half pound piece of flat brisket.....covered in stuff. Oh well.


I tried to push the stuff away....it didn't really work. Oh well.

3. Cover the dish (mine came with a lid - love it) and cook it for nine hours at 200 degrees. I put it in at midnight and when I woke up at 9am, my whole house smelled amazing and the brisket was done. I put it in the fridge and warmed it back up right before people arrived.

It was so easy and delicious. It fell apart in my mouth, kinda like pot roast. I also forgot to take pictures at the end of the process. I am totally failing as a food blogger lately.

But I loved the cooking method! I may change the marinade next year and go back to my old recipe (or what I can remember of it), which had red wine and apricots.....delish. Stay tuned for much better documented posts about challah (from scratch), kugel, chopped liver and much much more.