I am having a small get together this weekend and am preparing a beef brisket for this. This is quite an easy meat dish, and it is incredibly easy to prepare. What’s even better is that it tastes like a lot of work went into it, while the actual work to be done is very little. I took the recipe from here and modified it to my liking. If your still in the beginning stages of cooking, I highly recommend following the recipe exactly. Then, when you taste it, you can try to figure out what you like about it and what you don’t (Is it too spicy? Too much salt? Not enough au jus?, et cetera).
INGREDIENTS
2 tablespoons chili powder
2 tablespoons salt
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon onion powder
1 tablespoon ground black pepper
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons dry mustard
1 bay leaf, crushed
4 pounds beef brisket, trimmed
1 1/2 cups beef stock
*** I leave out the sugar as I don’t think it alters the taste very much. You should be aware that sugar often acts as a tenderizer in meat so you may wish to keep it in other meat recipes such as ribs. However, I have not noticed any difference in the flavor or tenderness of brisket when I leave it out.
DIRECTIONS
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Make a dry rub by combining chili powder, salt, garlic and onion powders, black pepper, sugar, dry mustard, and bay leaf. Season the raw brisket on both sides with the rub. Place in a roasting pan and roast, uncovered, for 1 hour.
Add beef stock and enough water to yield about 1/2 inch of liquid in the roasting pan. Lower oven to 300 degrees F, cover pan tightly and continue cooking for 3 hours, or until fork-tender.
Trim the fat and slice meat thinly across the grain. Top with juice from the pan.
MY NOTES
~ I have been able to find some nice briskets at a good price at the warehouse stores. The ones in my local grocery store tend to be small and quite expensive.
~ I think this is too much spice. It’s just too much of a good thing. However, I do mix up a full batch (as you get better at cooking you won’t need to measure the spices, but rather eyeball it and this will save you some time) and I save the extra spice in a glass jar or small bowl and use it for the next one I make. It lasts for a very long time.
~ I also leave out the black pepper. Maritus doesn’t care for it and I don’t miss it at all.
~ I cook mine in my iron frying pan. The 3-5 pounders fit in there well and they will cook down quite a bit.
~ I add enough beef broth to go up more than half the sides of the meat. I make it from a beef bouillon powder and it comes out quite good. DO NOT forget to cover the meat after the first hour. Yes, I speak from experience here. If your pan does not have a cover, heavy duty tin foil works very well.
~ This comes out very tender and it may fall apart as you try to lift it from the pan. Just try to lift it out with two forks or a pair of tongs and do your best. The goal here is not for it to look pretty, but for it to taste good. It seems like a lot of people are concerned with presentation of a meal, and while it is a very nice thing, it is not what people will remember. Don’t fret too much over how it looks. It’s not important and few people will remember how it was presented. People will remember the company kept and the flavor of the meal.
~ Please remember to cut against the grain! This is very important and this is a huge part of what makes it fall-apart tender. If you cut with the grain, the consistency will be wrong.
~ The au jus is also very good. Make sure to put this out at well.
~ This is excellent left over especially if you refrigerate it in the jus and warm it like that the next day. It’s also a perfect lunch warmed up for your husband at work!
***Briskets are incredible smoked and then shredded with some homemade BBQ sauce as well. Unfortunately, while I have had brisket made by others this way, I don’t have a smoker so have never done it myself. Prepared this way has to be the best brisket I’ve ever had. It’s amazing.
** UPDATE: Try Danny’s brisket recipe as well!
On the Rock 
I shall be trying this.
But “doesn’t care for black pepper”?
My mother once sat next to a guy who put black pepper on everything (like me). She said, “how do you know it needs pepper?” He responded with, “I’m 42, and so far, everything has needed pepper.”
Oh my gosh this sounds amazing! I can’t wait to try it. How big and deep is the pan you use?
Pepper is the spice. Coarse, fresh-cracked, my entire life is au poivre. Black flecks of soul, pungent on the tongue and burning like good bourbon down the gullet.
I’m a pepper, you’re a pepper, he’s a pepper, she’s a pepper
WOULDN’T YOU LIKE TO BE A PEPPER TOO?
But I insist.
Matt
Hmmm, we’re in the Brisket Capital of the World, and it’s all smoked here, so I’m kinda scared to try it on my own in the oven… but it’s Captain M’s absolute favorite. I think I’ll try this next week. 🙂
Uuuuuuum, you do realize I posted my recipe for brisket a while ago…..right.
No one ever listens to me. *sigh*
But “doesn’t care for black pepper”?
Yup. Simply doesn’t like it. At first, he asked for me to just cut it back, and finally a few years ago asked if I would just leave it off his food. I tried it myself and really didn’t miss it at all, so now we hardly use it.
Darling,
The cast iron is 11.75 inches and it’s about 2.5 to 3 inches deep.
Pepper is the spice.
Wrong. Salt. Salt is where it is at. I love salt and have discovered that the type of salt one uses can make a very big difference in one’s cooking. I can do without the pepper. I would mourn the loss of salt. 😀
I’m kinda scared to try it on my own in the oven
This is a very good brisket. However, I do not think it will be nearly as good as what you can get there. Captain M might like it, but I would warn him that it won’t be the same. My dad made a smoked brisket that I recently had. It was beyond incredible. This oven one is good, but it is not smoked good.
Links Danny! Links!
I do remember seeing yours. I’ll look it up again.
Danny, you posted your brisket in 2011! It looks really good, though I like the method of cooking it in the beef broth for two reasons. One, I only have to open the oven once during the cooking time (IOW, it’s easy) and two, it comes out amazingly tender every time. I’ve heard that the grilling method sometimes comes out very tender and sometimes not as tender as one would hope?
SR-
http://dannyfrom504.wordpress.com/2011/09/08/bbq-brisket/
i cook it in an oven for about 4-6 hours. all depending on the poundage of the meat. i mop it in an apple vinegar/beer/worchestershire liquid every hour or so. haven’t made one in a while so i might have to cook it now on GP.
try my way and let me know how it goes. kees kees Punkin.
Maybe they sell beef brisket differently where I am from, but here we all soak the brisket in water overnight before cooking it or it will be too salty.
Where I hail from we make a dish called “Jiggs dinner” which is beef brisket with cabbage, potatoes, carrots, and turnips.
They never sell brisket in the small local supermarket of where I live now. I’ve never roasted brisket in the oven before. Your recipe sounds delicious though, Stingray.
PS I am with Matthew King in that I absolutely LOVE pepper and could not live without it. Yum. Steak, for instance, I never season with ANYTHING except salt and pepper. I am horrified when people put hot sauce, BBQ sauce, or even (gasp) ketchup on their steaks.
Hah, I have a brisket in my fridge right now! This may be blasphemy, but I will regularly put half a brisket in the crockpot for the low & slow – tastes awesome to me! I sprinkle with garlic & onion powder, paprika, salt & pepper & put a tiny amount of water & cook it covered all day.
The thing about pepper is that cracking fresh black pepper on food increases the nutrient absorption by 2000% (from Whole Health Source). It also comes in a supplement called curcumin.
Looks delicious, but I think Danny’s right, needs worchestershire to be brisket.
Stingray propagandized:
Salt is not a spice. It is a biological necessity. Salt is plain and understated unless consumed in large quantities. Until then it is the righteous flavor enhancer. It preserves what is already present. “The salt of the earth” is necessary for life, it is in a category all its own. Even the bible agrees with me (Matt 5:13).
A spice possesses a flavor all to itself. It doesn’t enhance, it complements and asserts. Salt is the conductor, the maestro, but spice is the concerto soloist. The flavor orchestra comes together and provides the counterpoint to sharp notes of the singular artist.
And of all spices, pepper is the most wide-ranging virtuoso. Fie on your apostasy against the sovereign peppercorn!
Matt
P.S. I recovered from my Top Chef poisoning a few months ago, but this episode precipitated a relapse.
Sis- and it must be mopped. My recipe link gives detail.
Beeyootiful. The mere image at the top makes me happy. Stingray, danny, you inspire me – and in the same topic, which is pretty unusual!
Lauren,
What you are talking about is referred to as corned beef here. It’s much different than just the plain brisket.
Love some plain steaks with the minimal of spice. Obviously, we just do salt, but they are perfection!
Temptest,
Really, cooking it in the crock pot is pretty much as cooking it on low in the oven, right? You could just add a little beef broth instead of water and I don’t think it would be too much different than what I have here. Though, I think you would have a lot more juice with the crockpot and no browning, but otherwise it’s pretty close.
Sis,
You may be right, but this recipe was my first ever brisket, so I knew absolutely nothing about this cut of meat before hand. BBQ where I am is mostly pork, so we are on our own to figure out the beef. I didn’t even know there was BBQ beef until a few years ago. Now that I’ve had it, it’s wonderful, but I still love this. 🙂
Salt is not a spice.
I know, Matt. I simply could not resist writing Wrong. The temptation was too great. 😉
John,
If I inspired you in the same way Danny does on any other topic, I would get nervous! I lady slayer I am not. 😉
Looks great – thanks!
It still gets nice & brown & crunchy on top (I cook fat side down in a little water) & the water makes a pretty stout broth. I usually don’t have extra broth to add to things because broth gets consumed pretty quickly at my house!
i can’t WAIT until you make my snicker brownies.
I very nearly ruined my computer when I saw the picture of your Snickers brownies. I’ve never seen any thing like them!!
wiat until you see the video i’m posting dedicated to my “food porn” sluts. lol. a girl i gave a sample too was HOUSING some of the leftover jambalaya while describing them.
she’s in no way ashamed of being called a “food porn” slut. lol.
That looks real tasty. Damn I need a wife