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Making Nanny’s Brisket

posted Tuesday April 19th, 2011

I asked for a Dutch oven for Hanukkah last year.

My mother bought me two.

I laughed — and wondered where the heck I would put them — but I wasn’t entirely surprised. Not only is my mother an over-the-top gift giver in the very best way, she knew this was a meaningful gift. And so (because there’s nowhere else to put them) my stove now holds a big, red Dutch oven from Costco and a smaller green number from Le Creuset.

Tonight, they are both full of meat, potatoes and onions. I finally dusted them off a few days ago, in preparation for Passover. I’ve hosted three or four seders over the years, but this is the first one that counts.

This is the first time I’ve made brisket.

My mother emailed me the family recipe, then I called to question her on details. My grandmother’s recipe is too easy, I thought to myself. Something’s missing.

I come by my skepticism honestly. To understand why, you must know the story of The Pot.

I tried telling Ray the story the other day, and he rolled his eyes and said, “OK, Grandpa Keegan,” a not-so-subtle reference to his own grandfather, who back in the day was known to tell the same story again and again and again….

I’m not 100 percent sure, come to think of it, that I haven’t already told you story about The Pot, dear blog reader, but I’m going to go ahead and tell it anyhow.

My maternal grandmother, known as Nanny, was a master cook. Her secret wasn’t so well kept — she used a lot of butter. My mother (who spent most of the 1970s downing huge spoonsful of sawdust-like bran flakes to counteract the butter of her childhood) followed her mother’s recipes (only on very special occasions), and got the same delicious results, but there was one recipe she couldn’t get right.

The brisket — or, as my father calls it, the pot roast. The centerpiece of every good Jewish meal. A real accomplishment — if done right — and a real disappointment if not. Every time my mother made it, it just wasn’t quite as good as Nanny’s. She’d call her mother, double check the ingredients, the temperature, the cooking time. Never right. My mother decided that certainly, her mother was withholding valuable brisket information.

And then Nanny died. Among her possessions was a giant white, oval-shaped, incredibly heavy Dutch oven that looks like it came over from the Old Country. My mother took it home and made a brisket.

Just like Nanny’s.

“It was the pot!” she announced. Nanny hadn’t been holding back after all.

And my mother’s brisket was perfect from then on. (Even, oddly, after she lost Nanny’s Dutch oven when she and my dad moved several years ago. I think she was using a flimsy pot during the 70s and 80s. Or Nanny has blessed it from above — but I think it’s the former, as my grandmother wasn’t that nice.)

Tonight I sliced my Passover brisket and took a small bite. It tasted exactly like my mother’s.

Well, maybe not exactly. We’ll see what the crowd thinks tomorrow night. We’re having so many people that I actually bought three briskets. One for each of my Dutch ovens, and one for my mother. She offered to make it, and I figured it can’t hurt — the first year, anyway — to have some training wheels.

“We can mix all three up in the pot so no one even knows whose is whose,” she’s offered graciously.

Now that’s a good mom.

***

Here is our family recipe:

Go to Costco or a good butcher. Buy a brisket. Bring it home and heat a small amount of olive oil in the Dutch oven, along with three diced garlic cloves. When the oil is very hot, sear the brisket on both sides. Lower the heat and add two onions, sliced thick. Sprinkle with Lawry’s seasoning salt and paprika. Put the lid on the Dutch oven and do not open it, not even once, for three hours. Make sure the heat is high enough that you can hear the brisket bubbling inside. Cool and refrigerate overnight. Remove brisket, slice, and return to pot along with thinly sliced potatoes. Cook another 45 minutes or so, and serve. Or refrigerate again and heat to serve the next day.

One more thing: Make sure you have a really good Dutch oven.

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Tags: Filed under: holidays by Amysilverman

5 Responses to “Making Nanny’s Brisket”

  1. My grandmother has several cast iron pans older than I am but just as important is, as you said, the copious amounts of butter. And the tub of bacon grease she keeps – NOT in the refrigerator. The lady fries her steaks in this… and you’ve never tasted anything so yummy. Now I’m hungry!

  2. Very inspiring writing for someone sitting at her computer pondering “food as ritual” …

  3. Next year a brisket! I will ask for a dutch oven for Hanukkah. And a spring-form pan (because my half-birthday cake/flour-less torte might have been better in the proper pan.
    I made 40 Garlic Clove Chicken (which wasn’t ready in time, but I didn’t think it would be so I also bought a rotisserie chicken from Costco) as our main dish. It was also supposed to be baked in a dutch oven.

  4. Yum-Nothing beats a good pot roast! So, in my Italian pot roast, there’s always a little cooking liquid-like wine, or broth. How do you keep the meat from burning?

  5. carol — i don’t know! so far nothing’s burned. but i am a little worried it’s dry. we’ll see tonight!

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