A Tisket, a Tasket, a Recipe for Brisket

My grandmother used to make brisket and I can recall liking it, but I haven't had any in decades, nor even thought of it until I read an article about it in a magazine that started me wondering what I was missing.

Any brisket fans here and any favourite recipes? I'm assuming that butcher's around here can provide the meat even if it isn't a common cut today.

I'd be interested in brisket recipes, too. I've done one so far on the smoker and it was fine but not great. I love brisket, so I plan on doing more. A good recipe would help get me off the ground.

Brisket is not hard to find around here (New Hampshire). Unless you want to do Texas-style barbecue, which happens to be my favorite way to cook brisket. Barbecued brisket needs to cook for twelve or more hours. For retail sale butchers separate the two leaner parts of the brisket (the point cut and the flat cut) and discard the fat layer between them. For Barbecue you need the intact, whole brisket, called the packer brisket. The fat layer keeps the lean meat from drying out during the long cooking process and can be trimmed off when you serve the BBQ if necessary. The one time I made Texas-style barbecued brisket myself (I have an offset-fire barbecue that I normally use for pork butt and ribs) I had to have the local independent butcher special-order a packer brisket for me. The brisket came out wonderful but I've decided that babysitting the barbecue all day to keep the fire going at the right temperature is just too much work.

Julia Child's The Way to Cook has a few braised brisket recipes that look good, although I've never made them.

-Paul W.

I like brisket but pot roast will usually scratch the itch.

[Jenise]

Brisket's a great cut for smoking. But also braising, and it's common in the Jewish culture for a Passover meal. You should be able to find it--at least within proximity of Oak St. near the synogogue there.