Brisket

Winter market brisket

Find the recipe here. 

I've only cooked brisket once before in Vancouver. I bought a package labelled 'brisket corned beef' from a supermarket which required long, slow cooking. Never a huge fan of corned-beef after over exposure to those tinned varieties that are covered in a dubious looking 'jelly', I hoped that the real thing would be far better. I was disappointed. The meat was almost gelatinous, bouncy even for lack of a better expression, it seemed to squeak between the teeth. I don't even remember the flavour that well, it must have been quite forgettable. But today I am cooking a piece from a local farm bought at the Winter market on Saturday and have much higher expectations. It is a deep red colour with some creamy fat to provide good tenderness with an open, distinctive grain.

I found a recipe online that seemed to have great potential, rubbing the meat with a dry rub consisting of paprika, sugar, garlic and salt, cooking some onions with the meat and using red wine as the braising liquid.

 I didn't have any red wine, so I used dry Marsala and a little beef stock.

 

The beef was sealed tightly with foil and a lid and left to cook at 325oF for 2 hours.

After 2 hours it was uncovered and left to cook for another hour to develop a crust and deepen the flavours and juices.

  

Until it looked like this. So, how was it? It was indeed a much better beef than the previous disappointment. It had a nice, tender texture, although another hour of cooking may have been beneficial to make it really bbq house soft. Neil nodded mid mouthful and commented approvingly, "Yep, tastes like roast beef". It did. It had that depth of flavour that can be lacking from topside or round, definitely a taste remembered from growing up when beef and Yorkshire pudding would be presented. Neil took the choicest pieces to work in some sandwiches today, commenting that he wasn't even going to use any condiments. High praise. The juices and sauce that resulted from using Marsala instead of red wine had a sweetness that may have been lacking if I had used the suggested liquid. I kept drinking it by the spoonful whilst pretending to baste the meat, I honestly think I would have put it in a glass and drank it if I hadn't wanted it for the sauce!