Feed Me: My Nonna's Brisket

By Elisabeth

Are you looking to entertain? Need a quality piece of meat that will impress the pants off your guests? Or, are you just looking to spice up Sunday night dinner? No matter, this brisket is DIVINE.

My grandmother made this for family dinners as long as I can remember. Since she passed away three years ago, I try to make her brisket more often. It reminds me of home. It does take a little planning, as in marinating overnight, but it's a good-priced meat that can feed and delight many!

First things first. DO NOT, repeat, DO NOT BUY A CORNED BEEF BRISKET. There is an extreme amount of salt in a corned beef brisket. This recipe will RUIN that meat. Buy just a regular brisket. Trust me. I did this 10 years ago when making my first meal for my future in-laws. YES, totally serious and yes, a complete and totally salty piece of meat. How Impressive!

• 1 brisket (4 to 5 lbs)
• 3 tbs of Worcestershire Sauce
• 1/3 bottle of Liquid Smoke
• 1 tsp of celery salt, onion salt and garlic salt
• salt and pepper
• BBQ sauce (I use Trader Joe's brand.)

Trim fat off brisket. (I asked the butcher at my grocery store to do it for me. SUCH a big help.)

Line glass casserole with heavy foil. Put in brisket. (If your brisket is too big, do the same with a roasting pan.) My last brisket was only 2.5 lbs and fit in a 9 x 11.)

Sprinkle with all 3 salts, 1/3 bottle of liquid smoke and Worcestershire sauce. (I was out of most of these salts, so I added an equal amount of just garlic salt.)

Seal foil over brisket and refrigerate overnight.

*****

Open foil, sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Bake at 275 degrees for 5-8 hours. (Depending on size of your brisket. You want this meat to fall apart when separating with two forks.) Start with 5 hours, open foil, cover brisket with BBQ sauce; reseal and bake one hour longer at 225 degrees. (Continue to check on meat to get that perfect "fall apart" consistency. Cook longer if you haven't reached that yet. As I said, ALL depends on weight of brisket.)

Cool briefly before slicing. (30 minutes. Also, start at a corner and cut against the grain at an angle.)

Serve with potato casserole and a salad.

Enjoy!

{photo credit: me.}

Comments

[Kandi]

This looks incredible! If I can find brisket in my grocery store I'm definitely going to try this. The first time I ever tried brisket was in Houston and it was so amazing. I've had it a bunch since but never made it myself.

[Home Sweet Sarah]

I'm obnoxiously going to invite myself over next time you make this. Just so you know :-)

And potato casserole? I reckon we need a recipe for that, too!

[Jamie]

I wonder...how would this work if the second step (the cooking/roasting) was done in a slow cooker. ??? Just put on low all day, and leave it be? Thoughts?

[elisabeth]

Jamie-

I found a recipe online that slow cooks the brisket in a crock pot. The ingredients are a tad different, but the concept is the same. Hope this helps!

http://www.justslowcooking.com/printer/print-0037181.html

[Life of a Doctor's Wife]

YUM! This looks amazing!! I have always seen brisket on the food network and it usually looks delicious... But have never tried it. You make it seem so easy.