Briskette

Brisket recipes run large but (despite having come from Costco), my brisket was small. So here’s a recipe for a 1 ½ to 2 lb. brisket, based on a Wise Sons Jewish Delicatessen recipe for a 5 lb. brisket. The briskettes grew later on, so I recalculated for that. (If you don’t have an appropriate baking pan for a full brisket, you can cut it into two briskettes and stack them in a dutch oven. Add more wine and water to reach most of the top briskette. Only flip the top briskette when turning it over partway through cooking.)

Ingredients

Small Briskette

• one 1 ½–2 lb. brisket
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• a generous dash mustard powder (optional)
• a generous dash thyme
• 1 tsp. brown sugar
• 1–2 T. olive oil
• ⅓ bottle red wine (or replace with 1 c. chicken broth)
• some chicken broth
• 2 cloves garlic, smashed
• 1 onion, diced

Medium Briskette

• one 2 ½–3 lb. brisket
• 1 ½ tsp. kosher salt
• 1 tsp. pepper
• ½ tsp. mustard powder (optional)
• 1 tsp. dried thyme
• 1 ½ tsp. brown sugar
• 1 T. olive oil or schmaltz
• ¼ bottle red wine (or replace with 1 c. chicken broth)
• 1 ½ c. chicken broth
• 4 cloves garlic, smashed
• up to 1 lb. onion, sliced thin

Small Brisket

• one 3 ½–4 lb. brisket
• 2 tsp kosher salt
• 1 ½ tsp. pepper
• 1 ½ tsp. mustard powder (optional)
• 1 ½ tsp. dried thyme
• 2 tsp. brown sugar
• 1 ½ T olive oil or schmaltz
• ⅓ bottle red wine (or replace with 1 c. chicken broth)
• 2 ¼ c. chicken broth
• 6 cloves garlic, smashed
• up to 1 ½ lb. onion, sliced thin
• carrots to taste

Brisket

• one 5 lb. brisket
• 1 T kosher salt
• 2 tsp. pepper
• 2 tsp. mustard powder (optional)
• 2 tsp. dried thyme
• 1 T brown sugar
• 2 T olive oil or schmaltz
• ½ bottle red wine (or replace with 1 c. chicken broth)
• 3 c. chicken broth
• 8 cloves garlic, smashed
• ~2 lb. onion, sliced thin
• carrots to taste

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350°.
2. Mix the spices and sugar and rub into the meat.
3. Brown the beef in the oil for 5 minutes per side, forming a brown crust.
4. Transfer the beef to the smallest baking dish that will fit it.
5. Optionally, fry the onions a bit.
6. Optionally, deglaze the pan with the liquid ingredients.
7. Add liquid ingredients to the beef.
8. Top the beef with the crushed garlic cloves and the onions. Cover with tin foil.
9. Bake 1 hour.
10. Turn beef over and bake 1 more hour.
11. For a large brisket, flip again, add carrots, and bake 45 more minutes.
12. Check near the end of cooking time. If the liquid is low, slice and submerge the slices for the remaining cooking time.
13. Optionally cool before slicing.

You can make it the day before serving and reheat up to an hour in the oven at 300°. Reduce the pan size if possible, or slice and submerge the slices.

Variants

For a more slow-roasted brisket, reduce heat to 300° and bake about 1 hour per pound. Alternately, you can add another flip and cook step to the instructions above.

Add ⅓ to ½ lb. carrots, in pieces, and some celery (fry a bit first) for the last stage of cooking.

Add 4–6 prunes.

Add tomatoes (optionally crushed).

Marinate the brisket before cooking.

Make it all in a dutch oven, setting the beef on a plate where necessary.

Slice after cooking and then heat in the juices for another 45 minutes.

Serve with horseradish.