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Stewed Brisket of Beef
Take about 7 pounds of nicely trimmed brisket. Any bone should be taken out; get it without if possible. Put it into a stewpan with water or stock to cover, a layer of bacon under, and over a few cloves, whole allspice, a bunch of sweet herbs, 2 small onions, 2 carrots, and salt and pepper at discretion. Simmer in a tightly covered stewpan from four to four and a half hours; then strain off the liquid (there will not be much), reduce it to a glaze, keeping out a little for sauce. Glaze the meat, and send up the sauce thickened round it. Garnish with carrot cut into slices, and glazed onions, which must be cooked apart from the meat.
A plain braise dressed up with a reduction glaze. The technique is sound and translates directly; the only real trap is the glaze, which goes from syrup to burnt sugar-and-gelatin in under a minute.
- The cutSeven pounds of trimmed boneless brisket is a whole packer trimmed down, or two flats. A 3-4 lb flat halves the recipe cleanly and still gives four hours of useful collagen breakdown. Leave a thin fat cap on.
- "Simmer" means barely movingHold the liquid at 180-185F, well below a rolling boil, or the muscle fibers tighten and squeeze out moisture faster than the collagen dissolves. Lid on tight. The recipe assumes a stewpan on direct heat; if your burner will not hold a low enough simmer, a low oven is a modern workaround.
- Bacon under and overThis is barding rather than seasoning: two or three thin rashers on the pan bottom keep the meat off direct heat, and more on top baste it. The recipe just says "bacon"; unsmoked streaky bacon or fresh pork belly will give a milder result than modern heavily smoked bacon.
- Sweet herbsA bunch of parsley, thyme and a bay leaf tied with string. Tie the cloves and allspice into the same bundle or a spice bag, since you are straining the liquid anyway and whole cloves in the sauce are unpleasant.
- Very little liquid"Water or stock to cover" plus four hours in a sealed pan yields far more liquid than the note suggests, because the brisket itself sheds a great deal. Expect to reduce a quart or more, and use stock rather than water if you want a glaze with any body.
- The glazeReduce the strained, degreased liquid until it coats a spoon and pulls into threads off the back of a ladle. Set aside a cup first for the sauce, then reduce the rest hard and brush it on in two or three coats. Once it thickens it scorches quickly, so pull it off the heat early.
- Thickening the sauceThe recipe says only "thickened." A tablespoon of butter kneaded with a tablespoon of flour, whisked into the reserved cup of simmering liquid, is one period way to do it, and takes two minutes to cook out the raw flour taste.
- Garnish cooked apartCarrots and onions boiled four hours with the meat collapse and turn muddy. Glaze fresh small onions and sliced carrots, as the recipe specifies, separately in butter with a spoonful of the reduction and a pinch of sugar.
- Yield and carvingSeven pounds trimmed serves ten to twelve. Rest the meat 20 minutes before slicing, and slice across the grain -- brisket grain changes direction between the flat and the point, so check as you go.