I have tried many brisket recipes over the years and actually don’t love many of them. I used to make one with the famous onion soup mix but certainly can’t make that now given all the MSG and fake food nasty chemicals in it. I also make a mean southwestern style recipe which I will post at some point but that doesn’t ring for the holiday season. I needed something new and different. I decided to look in my new favorite cookbook, The Flavor Bible. Well, it isn’t really a cookbook – it is more of a guide to building flavor and using your creative juices. You can look up any ingredient and it will tell you what flavors pair well with that ingredient. So I looked up brisket. And what did I find: maple syrup! Hmm…now that could be interesting. I found something here which is where I drew the base of my inspiration but modified a bit to include some things I had on hand and obviously to take out the bacon which isn’t something I want to serve on Hanukkah! I tasted the sauce throughout the cooking process and it just kept getting better!
This is best made a day ahead of time. I cook it and slice it and then add the meat back to the sauce and put in the fridge overnight. In the morning you can scrape off the fat very easily from the pan juices and reheat at 350 for about 30-45 minutes. If you reheat it uncovered for part of that time, the juices will reduce into a lovely sauce.
Ingredients
- 1 beef brisket (3-4 lbs.)
- 2 cloves garlic, smashes
- 2-3 carrots, cut into chunks
- 3 tablespoons beef tallow (how to make beef tallow)
- 2 onions, halved and thinly sliced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tablespoon salt (where to buy salt)
- 1 teaspoondried oregano
- ¾ teaspoon freshly groundwblack pepper
- ¼ teaspoon ground cayenne
- 1 tsp mustard seeds
- 2 tablespoons homemade ketchup (how to make ketchup)
- 1 cup strongly brewed coffee
- ¾ cup apple cider vinegar
- ¾ cup maple syrup, Grade B or dark
- ½ cup beef broth (how to make beef broth)
Directions
Preheat oven to 350°.
Heat up the beef tallow in a large roasting pan or Dutch Oven over medium high heat. Sear the brisket until browned on both sides. Remove from the pan to a plate and season with salt and pepper.
Add the onions to the now empty roasting pan and cook until soft – about 10 minutes – and scrape off any browned bits. Add in the garlic, salt, and the rest of the spices and cook for 1 minute. Add in the homemade ketchup and cook for another minute. Add in the coffee, apple cider vinegar, maple syrup and broth and bring to a boil.
Add the brisket and the two smashed garlic cloves and the carrots to the roasting pan and bake for 30 minutes.
Turn the oven down to 300 degrees and cook for about 3-4 more hours or until the brisket is easily shredded with a fork. Once the brisket is done, slice the meat across the grain using a sharp knife. Place the sliced meat back into your dish you cooked it in and cover and put in the refrigerator overnight. The next day, about 1 hour before you want to have dinner, remove the fat from the surface of the sauce. Cover the pan, place in the oven and bake for 30 minutes at 350. Remove the cover about 10 minutes before serving to reduce the sauce.
This post is featured on Monday Mania, Fat Tuesday
The recipe looks great, but I don’t see a handy “print” button, which consolidates the recipe and takes out some of the photos. Just makes printing a whole lot easier.
on the brisket. Is it a grocery store brisket or is it one that hasn’t been cured? I ha 2 un-cured ones from our steer and have been looking for a way to cook them. Thank you.
This recipe is for uncooked uncured brisket. So you are good!
This looks good, but I was just wondering if you have a real food alternative for the traditional onion soup mix brisket recipe? My family loves that, but I definitely would love to see a recipe that tastes the same without the MSG and chemicals.