My First Hanukkah Brisket

As I previously mentioned, I spent six long hours cooking on Friday night in preparation for Hanukkah dinner with Bret's family on Saturday.  We had lots of different items on the menu but I was incredibly nervous about the main dish - the brisket.  One of the major highlights of Hanukkah dinner is the beef brisket, which is a cut of meat from the lower breast or chest area of the cow.  I've had brisket several times but I've never actually cooked brisket before.  Still, I knew just who to turn to for my brisket advice.  Lara at Good Cook Doris is constantly publishing mouth-watering brisket recipes on her blog.  When I asked (okay, begged) her for a brisket recipe a month ago, she provided me with three of her favorite brisket recipes.  While they all looked delicious, I decided to go with the one noted as her grandma's recipe because this seemed to be the most traditional.

On Friday, Bret went to Whole Foods to purchase the brisket.  They had plenty of smaller cuts of brisket but we needed four pounds.  Thankfully the nice folks at Whole Foods happily measured and cut four pounds of brisket with a little fat on it.

To start, we preheated the oven at 350 degrees and let the brisket lay out at room temperature.  To prepare for the brisket, I laid out several layers of aluminum foil, which would later be used to wrap the brisket up.

The brisket was seasoned with salt and pepper on both sides.  I laid the brisket (fat-side down) on the aluminum foil.  I then sprinkled one envelope of dry onion soup mix on top of the brisket.

Finally, I poured 1/4 cup of red wine on the brisket. 

We decided to go with a bottle of syrah and we happily finished the rest of the bottle while we cooked and baked up a storm on Friday night.

The brisket was wrapped up tightly in the aluminum foil and placed in a roasting pan.  The brisket went into the oven for two and a half hours.  While the brisket was in the oven, Bret and I chopped up a bunch of carrots and celery.  We also chopped up three medium white onions and five medium baking potatoes.

We bagged these vegetables and made sure to leave as little air as possible in the bags to prevent the vegetables from discoloring overnight.  When the brisket was done roasting, it was removed from the aluminum foil and rested on a large platter for about half an hour.

The drippings from the brisket were saved in a plastic container and refrigerated.  After the brisket was done resting, we wrapped it up tightly in fresh aluminum foil and also refrigerated.

The next day, at Bret's parents' house, we got to work on the brisket and roasting vegetables.  The brisket felt rock hard from the night before and we left it out to bring it back down to room temperature.  In the meantime, I preheated the oven at 350 degrees.  We had a lot of vegetables so I divided them into two medium-sized casserole dishes. 

The vegetables were seasoned with salt and pepper.  Bret split the brisket drippings from the previous evening in between the two casserole dishes and I added half a box of beef broth to each baking dish.

The vegetables went into the oven for an hour.  When the vegetables were done, I removed them with a slotted spoon into a serving dish.  The remaining vegetables juices were poured into a small saucepan and kept warm as the brisket gravy.

The brisket was sliced thin and placed into one of the hot casserole dishes.

We warmed the brisket up in the oven for about twenty minutes and basted it with the hot gravy to keep the brisket from drying up.

The brisket recipe ended up being super easy in both ingredients and preparation.  Bret's family had multiple servings, which meant that we had made this brisket right!  Next time, however, I will make less vegetables as we had tons of roasted vegetables leftover!

Thank you, thank you, thank you to Lara for sharing this recipe with me (and for her words of encouragement)!