Grandma’s Friend Ethel’s Brisket
We often ate a very heavy meal on erev Yom Kippur. I guess the idea was that indigestion is preferable to hunger? Grandma had several brisket recipes she used, this being one of them. I didn’t realize it came from one of her closest friends, Ethel Hellman, until I was picking through the recipe boxes. Its spattered and illegible state is testament to the fact that it was clearly one of my grandmother’s favorite versions of brisket.
Ingredients
- a brisket
- 2? onions
- Salt & pepper
- Garlic powder
- Paprika
- Sage powder
- Thyme powder
- 1 tbsp flour
- Powdered beef bouillon
- Kitchen bouquet (probably herbs de Provence?)
- Water
Method
(Braise) brown [the meat] first on both sides with a little oil. Remove from pan. Fry the onions sliced thin and quartered. Brown lightly. Salt, pepper, garlic powder, paprika, sage powder, thyme powder dusted on all sides. Put in pot covered tight and cook for 1 - 1 ½ hours. Remove from heat and let it cool. Use an electric knife and slice against the grain, ¼” slices or less. Put it back in the pot. Add 1 cup of water and 1 tsp of beef soup powdered bouillon seasoning and cook until tender, approximately 1 hour. The liquid should cover the meat, but if it doesn’t, add more water and soup seasoning in the same proportion - do NOT use plain water. [After this second cooking,] add a maximum of ½ cup water + 1 tbsp flour and ½ tsp of kitchen bouquet and pour over the meat. Warm through about 10 more minutes.
ALWAYS cook covered.
