RFCJ RECIPE ARCHIVE
Posted by : Karen Selwyn Brisket Zweigenthal - meat
The Zweigenthal in the title is Gail Zweigenthal, the editor-in-chief of GOURMET magazine. The story behind this recipe has resonance for me -- and I assume many others -- whose mothers and mothers-in-law have had their cooking skills diminished with time or have had family recipes lost through death. At some point after her mother's death, Zweigenthal realized she did not have a copy of her mother's brisket recipe. She tried re-creating the recipe as best she could, but she never had complete success. She put out a request for brisket recipes to the employees of GOURMET in the hopes that a reasonable facsimile of her mother's recipe would turn up. She explained that while she got lots of interesting recipes (none of which she has published incidentally!), none were what she was looking for. She then turned to a first cousin, the daughter of her mother's deceased sister. Apparently, Zweigenthal's mother had given the brisket recipe to her sister, who in turn passed it on to her daughter, Zweigenthal's cousin. So the recipe was found. Karen Selwyn * * * * * * 5-6 lb first-cut brisket 3 tablespoons vegetable oil 3 large yellow onions, cut into 1/2 inch dice (approximately 5 cups) 2-3 large garlic cloves, minced 1 teaspoon Hungarian paprika 3/4 teaspoon salt 3/4 teaspoon pepper 3 cups water or beef broth Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a Dutch oven, heat 1 tablespon oil in oven for 10 minutes. Pat brisket dry and season with salt and pepper. Roast brisket in pan, uncovered, 30 minutes. (If brisket completes 30 minutes cooking time before the onion mixture explained below is complete, remove brisket from the oven and allow it to rest.) Reduce oven heat to 350 degrees. While brisket is in the initial cooking phase, cook onions in remaining 2 tablespoons oil over moderate heat in skillet. Stir until onions are softened and beginning to turn golden. Reduce heat to low-moderate and continue cooking onions until deep brown, stirring occasionally. (If necessary, reduce heat to keep onions from burning.) Stir in garlic, paprika, salt and pepper and cook 1 minute. Stir in 3 cups water/beef broth and bring to a boil. Spoon onion mixture over brisket and bake, covered with lid 1/2 inch ajar for 3 1/2 hours or until brisket is tender. Check pan every hour and, if necessary, add more liquid. Remove brisket and let cool in onion mixture for 1 hour. Remove brisket from pan, scraping onion mixture off meat and back into pan. Chill, wrapped in foil, overnight. Spoon onion mixture into a 1 quart measuring cup and chill, covered, overnight. Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. Discard fat from onion mixture. If necessary, add enough liquid to measure 3 cups total. In a blender, process the gravy until smooth. Heat onion gravy in a saucepan. Slice the cooled brisket against the grain. Lay brisket slices in a 13" X 9" baking dish. Pour heated onion gravy over the meat slices, lifting up each slice as you pour to make sure some gravy comes in contact fully with each piece of meat. Heat brisket in oven for 30 minutes. Notes: Consider pureeing only half the onions -- leaving the remaining onions intact -- to form the sauce. I found that the pureed onions made the sauce too uniformly sweet, canceling out some of the contrast between the sweetness of the caramelized onions and the spicyness of the pepper which I tasted while the sauce was cooking. At any rate, give the sauce a final seasoning of pepper.
