Everyone has a memory tied to a sound, a smell or a taste. My grandma raised her family in the 50s and 60s. Cooking, however wasn’t her strong suit. But when it came to the holidays, she always made Beef Brisket.
Beef Brisket
This was her “fancy” dish and as the day progressed the house would smell more and more of the sauce she cooked the brisket in! My grandma stopped cooking brisket many years ago and we moved on to our own traditions of holiday food, which didn’t include beef brisket. But the other night when I pulled my recipe box off the shelf in lieu of clicking on my Pinterest app on my phone, I knew exactly what recipe I was going to make, Grandma Bev’s Beef Brisket. Now, Grandma would have been a little disappointed in me, because I didn’t warm up a serving platter, place the meat on it and garnish it. This was very important back in the day. Instead, I served it out of the baking dish (gasp!!), but with 3 kids, a busy husband and spending most of the day putting the garden in as a family, there wasn’t sufficient time or reason to plate it and make more dishes!! I’m pretty sure Grandma is looking down and smiling at the fact that I still use her recipe and she may be a tad embarrassed that I’m sharing it with everyone here on our blog! She was always worried about things not being good enough for others, but with that in mind, I can assure you, this is a delicious recipe, especially when made with our tender, grass-fed beef brisket. As our 2-year old said at dinner, “more meat, more meat!!!” …enough said. Enjoy friends 🙂
Grandma’s handwritten recipe card
Recipe for: Beef Brisket
From: Grandma Bev
First step: 4-hours, final heating 40-minutes
Serves: 12
Ingredients:
6-pound brisket of beef
1 large onion sliced ½-inch thick
1 or 2 bay leaves
16 whole cloves (or ground cloves)
1 clove garlic cut in half (Grandma used the “powder form”)
2 Tbsp. brown sugar
2 Tbsp. dry mustard
2 cups catsup
¼ cup Worcestershire sauce
Put meat into large saucepan (to boil meat, I used my dutch oven pan, as it is my largest!), cover with water, add next 4 ingredients. Cover and simmer (4 hours until tender). Cool in liquid – drain and trim off excess fat. Refrigerate boiled meat several hours or overnight.
Cut meat across grain into very thin slices. Place slices and stand on edge in large, shallow baking dish. Pour a mixture of remaining ingredients over meat.
Heat in a 350 degree oven for 40-minutes, basking occasionally with sauce.
Arrange overlapping slices on heated serving platter and garnish (I don’t bother to heat platter usually!)
**Can be made ahead ~ **Can be frozen
