Onion-Braised Beef Brisket
Ingredients
- 1 Kg beef brisket (flat cut preferred)
- vegetable oil
- 570 g onions (halved and sliced 1/2" thick)
- 1/2 T Sugar (Brown)
- 1/2 T minced garlic
- 1/2 T tomato paste
- 1/2 T paprika
- 1/8 t cayenne
- 1 T Flour (Plain)
- 1/2 c chicken stock
- 1/2 c beef stock (or dry red wine)
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 fresh thyme (sprigs)
- 1 t Vinegar (Cider) (to season sauce before serving)
Method
1. Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position; heat oven to 300F/150C/Gas 2. Line 13"x9" baking dish with two 24" long sheets of 18"-wide heavy-duty foil, positioning sheets perpendicular to each other and allowing excess foil to extend beyond edges of pan. Pat brisket dry with paper towels. Place brisket fat side up on cutting board; using dinner fork, poke holes in meat through fat layer about 1 inch apart. Season both sides of brisket liberally with salt and pepper.
2. Heat 1 tsp oil in 12" skillet over medium-high heat until oil just begins to smoke. Place brisket fat side up in skillet (brisket may climb up sides of skillet); weight brisket with heavy Dutch oven or cast-iron skillet and cook until well browned, about 7 minutes. Remove Dutch oven; using tongs, flip brisket and cook on second side without weight until well browned, about 7 minutes longer. Transfer brisket to platter.
3. Pour off all but 1 Tbls fat from pan (or, if brisket was lean, add enough oil to fat in skillet to equal 1 Tbls); stir in onions, brown sugar, and 1/8 tsp salt and cook over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until onions are softened and golden, 10 to 12 minutes. Add garlic and cook, stirring frequently, until fragrant, about 1 minute; add tomato paste and cook, stirring to combine, until paste darkens, about 2 minutes. Add paprika and cayenne and cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant, about 1 minute. Sprinkle flour over onions and cook, stirring constantly, until well combined, about 2 minutes. Add stocks (wine if using), bay, and thyme; stir to scrape up browned bits from pan; bring to simmer and simmer about 5 minutes to fully thicken.
4. Pour sauce and onions into foil-lined baking dish. Nestle brisket, fat side up, in sauce and onions. Fold foil extensions over and seal (do not tightly crimp foil because foil must later be opened to test for doneness). Place in oven and cook until fork can be inserted into and removed from center of brisket with no resistance, 3.5 to 4 hours (when testing for doneness, open foil with caution as contents will be steaming). Carefully open foil and let brisket cool at room temperature for 20 to 30 minutes.
5. Transfer brisket to large bowl; set mesh strainer over bowl and strain sauce over brisket. Discard bay and thyme from onions and transfer onions to small bowl. Cover both bowls with plastic wrap, cut vents in plastic with paring knife, and refrigerate overnight.
6. About 45 minutes before serving, adjust oven rack to lower-middle position; heat oven to 350F/175C/Gas 4. While oven heats, transfer cold brisket to cutting board. Scrape off and discard any congealed fat from sauce, then transfer sauce to medium saucepan and heat over medium heat until warm, skimming any fat on surface with wide shallow spoon (you should have about 1 cup sauce without onions; if necessary, simmer sauce over medium-high heat until reduced to 1 cup). While sauce heats, use chef's or carving knife to slice brisket against grain into 1/4-inch-thick slices, trimming and discarding any excess fat, if desired; place slices in 9"x13" baking dish. Stir reserved onions and vinegar into warmed sauce and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper. Pour sauce over brisket slices, cover baking dish with foil, and bake until heated through, 25 to 30 minutes. Serve immediately.
To Make and Serve the Brisket on the Same Day
If you would like to make and serve the brisket on the same day, after removing the brisket from the oven in step 4, reseal the foil and let the brisket stand at room temperature for an hour. Then transfer the brisket to a cutting board and continue with the recipe to strain, defat, and reheat the sauce and slice the meat; because the brisket will still be hot, there will be no need to put it back into the oven once the reheated sauce is poured over it.
Notes
Notes from source:
Video at: http://www.americastestkitchen.com/video/index.php?docid=24151&Extcode=L1DN3BA00
This recipe requires a few hours of unattended cooking. It also requires advance preparation. After cooking, the brisket must stand overnight in the braising liquid that later becomes the sauce; this helps to keep the brisket moist and flavorful. Defatting the sauce is essential. If the fat has congealed into a layer on top of the sauce, it can be easily removed while cold. Sometimes, however, fragments of solid fat are dispersed throughout the sauce; in this case, the sauce should be skimmed of fat after reheating. If you prefer a spicy sauce, increase the amount of cayenne to 1/4 teaspoon. You will need 18-inch-wide heavy-duty foil for this recipe. If you own an electric knife, it will make easy work of slicing the cold brisket. Good accompaniments to braised brisket include mashed potatoes and egg noodles. For a Passover menu, substitute matzo meal or potato starch for the flour.
Why this recipe works:
Brisket is naturally flavorful, but because it is so lean, it requires long, slow braising to become tender—and the result is almost always stringy, dry meat. We wanted a better way to cook brisket so that it would remain moist, and we wanted to serve it with a flavorful sauce that would complement the beef, not disguise it.
The fat in a piece of brisket is all on the surface; there’s no marbling to keep the interior moist. We needed to find a way to get the moisture inside. We tried many different types and amounts of liquids and a variety of cooking vessels and techniques, but no matter what we did, the meat was still dry. Could the answer lie in adding moisture after the long braise? We left the meat in the sauce after cooking it, and after about an hour there was a noticeable difference. Taking this discovery further, we refrigerated the cooked meat and sauce overnight. The meat reabsorbed some of the liquid, becoming more moist and easier to carve without shredding. The sauce—based on red wine, chicken broth, and lots of onions—had improved as well; the fat had risen to the surface and congealed, making it easier to remove. All we had to do was reheat the sliced meat in the sauce, and this hearty dish was ready.
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SJ Note 27 Apr 2011: I had high hopes for this dish, but in the end it was only mediocre. It wasn't nearly as tender as I'd expected, but more problematic is that it's too sweet for us - onion has a lot of sugar in it, and it sweetens the beef in this dish. It's edible, but it's not fantastic, for us. You might try it if you like the sweetness, or you might try reducing the onion, as I suspect the lack of tenderness may well be my fault (my brisket was cut wrong, and I didn't precisely follow the directions).