High Holiday Brisket
Hockey Fan, my sister, Med Student, and my Friend Kung Fu Jew, decided that they were going to go to Rosh Hashanah services together this year. Not being much for religious ritual myself, I decided that I would stay home and make them a traditional, Jewish, High Holiday dinner. Such dinners always include beef brisket.
Often, this brisket is served with a stewed compote of dried fruit called tsimmis that every one finds disgusting, but somehow continues to get itself made each year, at least at my parents’ house. The brisket that cooks in said compote of dried fruit that everyone finds disgusting is, inevitably, mostly charred gristle by the time it comes out of the oven, with the aroma of carbon and the consistency of shoe leather. We may be the Chosen People, but whomever chose our traditional meals was certifiable.
I decided I was going to break of of the box and make a brisket using a more modern recipe, one that would leave the meat succulent and tender, with no stewed prune residue. I chose this one:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/passover-brisket-recipe/index.html
As there were only going to be five of us at the meal (Med Student’s boyfriend, Ironman, was planning on stopping by), I decided I did not need an 8-10 lb. brisket as called for by the recipe. I purchased a two pound, kosher brisket at Trader Joe’s and figured that it would be sufficient, since Tiny Hockey Fan wasn’t much of a meat eater that week and half a pound would be more than enough for each of my guests.
Have I mentioned that I had never made brisket before?
Remember the rule about never, ever baking anything for the first time when you’re having guests? Well, it applies to cooking too. I just decided to ignore it. I did not do a test drive and thus, did not learn the following, very important lesson until we sat down to our high holiday brisket:
My friends, just because you’re using a quarter of the amount of meat doesn’t mean the thing is going to need to cook for a quarter the amount of time.
Why, might you wonder, did I not use a meat thermometer?
I did. I set it to the proper temperature. It’s a really good thermometer, with an alarm and everything. That alarm went off half an hour after I put the meat in the oven. I decided that I didn’t believe the thermometer. That the meat couldn’t possibly have finished cooking that quickly.
So, I made the sauce as directed and put the meat in it to braise for another half an hour.
For the good of your guests, the sanctity of the holiday, and your own pride, unless you like shoe leather, trust the thermometer. If the meat doesn’t have time to braise in the sauce, then make the sauce into gravy, pour the gravy over the finished meat, and let it soak for a while.
It would have been better with the tsimmis.
