Ina Garten-Inspired Brisket
You can cook a brisket perfectly for four hours and ruin it in the ninety seconds it takes to carve.
A brisket is not one muscle. It is two — the flat and the point — and their grain runs at roughly a right angle to each other. Carve the whole thing in one direction, as almost everyone does, and you slice one half correctly and the other half along the grain, producing long tough fibres from meat that was cooked exactly right.
Separate the two at the fat seam that divides them, turn each one, and slice each against its own grain. Nothing else about the recipe matters as much.
Jump to the recipe ↓Ina Garten-Inspired Brisket
Serves 10 · Main
- Prep
- 20 min
- Cook
- 4 hr
- Total
- 4 hr 20 min
Involved9 steps, 12 ingredients, a technique that commonly fails, over two hours
Ingredients
- 2.5 kg beef brisket, fat cap trimmed to 5 mm
- 2 tbsp kosher salt
- 1 tbsp black pepper
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 3 onions, sliced
- 4 carrots, chunked
- 6 garlic cloves
- 400 ml passata
- 400 ml beef stock
- 150 ml red wine
- 2 tbsp tomato purée
- 2 bay leaves
Method
- Salt the brisket and leave it uncovered in the fridge overnight if you can. Note which way the grain runs on each half.
- Heat the oven to 150°C (130°C fan).
- Sear the brisket hard on both sides in oil, then set it aside.
- Soften the onions and carrots in the same pot . Add garlic and tomato purée and cook 2 minutes.10 minutes
- Add wine and reduce by half, scraping the base.
- Add passata, stock and bay. Return the brisket, fat side up.
- Cover and cook , until a fork twists freely in the meat.4 hours
- Uncover for the last to reduce and darken.30 minutes
- Rest . Separate the flat from the point, then slice each against its own grain.30 minutes
Find the grain before it goes in the oven
Once brisket is braised and dark you cannot see the fibres. Look at the raw meat, note which way the lines run on each half, and if you think you will forget, cut a small notch at one corner to mark the direction. Every barbecue cook does this and almost no home recipe mentions it.
Low and covered, then uncovered
Brisket needs a long stretch above 70°C for collagen to melt into gelatin, and it needs moisture to get there without drying. Four hours covered at 150°C does the conversion; the last thirty minutes uncovered reduces the sauce and darkens the top.
Cook it the day before
Brisket carved hot shreds and falls apart. Chilled overnight in its liquid, it firms up enough to cut clean slices, the fat lifts off the top in a solid sheet, and the flavour settles. Reheat the slices in the sauce at 160°C.
Storing
Four days in the fridge in its cooking liquid, three months frozen. Never store it sliced and dry — it must sit in the sauce or it goes leathery.
Questions people ask
Why is my brisket tough after four hours?
Either it needs longer — briskets vary and it is done when a fork twists freely, not at a set time — or it was carved with the grain.
Which way do I slice it?
Against the grain, but the two halves run differently. Separate them at the fat seam and slice each on its own.
Can I make it ahead?
It is better made ahead. Cook, cool in the liquid overnight, slice cold, reheat in the sauce.
Do I have to sear it?
Yes. That crust is most of the colour and a good part of the flavour of the finished sauce.
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