Oven Brisket

I had my book club here on Saturday, and originally, John was going to make us fajitas and then take the kids and get out go have some playtime with them. This ended up not working out, so I had to do lunch on my own. I've made Ree's brisket before, and I love it, because it's so stinking easy! I've modified it a little, so here's the new recipe. (Click on the link above for the original, and scroll down until you find the brisket)

Oven Brisket
by Ree, modified by Brea

2 cans beef consume
1 c soy sauce (I use the low-sodium kind)
1 bottle Shiner Bock
1/2 c lemon juice (juice of two large lemons)
5 cloves garlic, minced
2 T liquid smoke
1 brisket*

Mix the first 6 ingredients together in a large roasting pan (I love using those huge disposable ones, because cleanup is great!), then add your brisket, fat side up. Spoon some of the liquid over the top, then cover tightly with foil. Stick it in the fridge, and marinate at least 12 hours, up to 48 hours.

Turn your oven to 300, and put the whole pan as-is in the oven, and cook 45-50 minutes per pound of brisket. Or maybe more. It takes a while.** The goal is this: when you pull the foil up the check the brisket (being very, very careful about the steam and all that hot liquid, of course), you should be able to take a fork or tongs and easily pull a piece of meat off. This is the most tender recipe I've ever made, if you cook it long enough.

When it's done (and this is best made a day before your event), pull it out and let it cool on the counter for a few hours. Put it in the fridge overnight. Please don't attempt to cut this while it's hot, or even warm, because it'll just fall apart. Wait till it's cold, and then cut that big hunk of fat off the top. At that point, you can either slice it into thin slices, put it into a smaller baking dish, add lots of the jus, cover with foil, and heat it back up in the oven. Or, you could chop it up really fine, add some good b-b-q sauce, and make about a zillion chopped beef sandwiches. Or do a little of both. It all freezes really well, too.

*Let's talk brisket. There are four basic kinds you can buy, from what I've observed at my HEB. 1) A small one, completely trimmed. Don't buy that one. You want the big hunk o' fat. 2) A smaller, somewhat trimmed one. I usually buy this one, because I have a small oven, and it gets pretty tricky to get a big brisket in there. These are usually 5-8 pounds each. 3) A bigger, less trimmed one. These are good for cooking on the grill, and good for the oven, too, if you can fit the brisket in the oven. I can't without quite a bit of difficulty. See above. These are 10-15 pounds. Mmm ... 4) A big ole' whopping untrimmed brisket. Fabulous for the grill. It's got fat all around it. Not good for this recipe.

**Please read this section three times, until you understand it very clearly. You do not want too much of the liquid in your pan. Brisket produces a lot of its own juices, so the liquid level will rise as you cook it. If it spills over the sides of the pan, the first thing to spill will be the liquefied fat. Then, you'll think to yourself, 'I'm going to wait until my oven is cool after this brisket is done, and then I'll spray that cleaner stuff in there and get all that gross stuff out.' Except that you'll forget, and then try to back a pizza three days later. Which has to be cooked at 450. Which is hot enough, apparently, to ignite all that once-liquefied and then solidified and now liquefied again fat. And you'll end up with a big fire in your oven. And your 5-year-old will be the one to notice it. And then he'll scare the crap out of his sister. And the very least of your problems will be when your husband calls and says, 'Hon, what's that noise in the background?' And because you're all stressed, what with the fire and all, you'll snap back at him and say, 'It's the smoke detector. I can't talk right now. Bye!' And he'll get really worried and call back a few minutes later and you'll be much calmer (from what he can tell, anyway) and be able to tell him everything is ok, but could he please just pick up at chicken on the way home from work, because the pizza thing isn't happening tonight. And to add insult to injury, this all will happen when it's about 38 degrees outside, and you have to open ever single window in the house to get the ridiculous amount of smoke out, and you'll just end up cold and hungry until your husband gets home. And as everyone knows, you hate being cold.

Ahem. Sorry. I got a little carried away there with that totally true purely hypothetical story. The moral is, if you start off with a lot of liquid in the pan, be sure to check it every few hours to make sure it doesn't overflow. Enjoy your yummy brisket!

The end.