Bountiful brisket
My husband was a huge fan of buying a large piece of meat and eating it in different forms every night of the week. It provided a way for us to buy less meat and still give us a different meal every night if we wanted. We made sure the grocery list included whatever we needed to make it different ways. This week, Mom suggested I do it again and Cox Cashsaver had a meat sale last weeknd so we picked up a big brisket.
My husband was a huge fan of buying a large piece of meat and eating it in different forms every night of the week. It provided a way for us to buy less meat and still give us a different meal every night if we wanted. We made sure the grocery list included whatever we needed to make it different ways. This week, Mom suggested I do it again and Cox Cashsaver had a meat sale last weeknd so we picked up a big brisket.
Brisket was one of his favorite pieces of meat to use in this fashion. Brisket is a breast piece of beef. The beef brisket is one of the nine beef primal cuts, the original cuts made by a butcher after slaughter. The brisket muscles include superficial and deep pectorals. Cattle do not have collar bones so these muscles support about 60% of the weight of cattle. This means there is a significant amount of connective tissue in these muscles. The resulting meat must be cooked correctly to tenderize the connective tissue otherwise the meat will be tough.
The key to a tender brisket is low and slow. The connective tissue will gelatinize with low temps and a little water, although cooking with soda will help break that down too. Larry would put on a brisket the night before on 250°F and just leave it alone until morning. The only problem with that was waking up hungry in the morning! It was always tender by the time we were ready to eat it though. He often just seasoned with salt and pepper or Head Country Seasoning. This way there was no war of flavors when we wanted to make something else out of it. Nowadays, I use the slow cooker to make it even easier.
Brisket comes with what is called a fat cap. If the fat cap is thick, cut it down to about ¼” thick. Don’t cut it all out though, some of your flavor comes from that cap. We always cooked ours in the large turkey roasting pan if using the oven, but use what you have that it will fit in best. In the slow cooker, it will most definitely have to be cut to fit, but mine is large enough I can just stack the pieces to fit with no problem.
This weekend, after you cook your brisket, look for new ways to use it. I thoroughly enjoyed this week’s meals, but you can also try quesadillas, nachos, a casserole or pasta. There are so many options! Pick up a few ingredients or check the pantry to use up some older foodstuffs. Then, meet me in the kitchen for a few different ways to use this large piece of meat.
