The Brisket Book

A Love Story with Recipes
by Stephanie Pierson

Price: $29.99
ISBN-13: 9781449406974
ISBN-10: 1449406971
Size: 7 1/2 X 9 in.
Page Count: 224 pages

“There’s no longer a need for frantically searching for the best brisket recipes. Stephanie Pierson, author, food writer and brisket lover, has written a cookbook filled with only the best brisket recipes, accompanied by illustrations, poems, cartoons and musings. The Brisket Book has a recipe for everyone, and it’ll turn you into the star of any potluck.” –The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles

“The Brisket Book is subtitled “a love story with recipes.” It literally had me laughing out loud with its cartoons, jokes, stories and more. If you are Jewish, Irish, or even a Texan, brisket is your soul food. The book pays homage with recipes, wine pairings, poems, and everything you need to know to make a version that will make you fall in love.” –Cooking with Amy

“Packed with history, wit, and expert opinions (including a list of 50 things about brisket that people disagree on), this book presents one of the world’s great comfort foods in all its lovable, chameleonlike glory, with recipes for corned beef, smoked brisket, Korean brisket soup, brisket burgers, and myriad Jewish braises, including Nach Waxman’s supposedly “most-Googled brisket recipe” of all, smothered in onions and virtually no liquid. It is undoubtedly, as the subtitle claims, “A Love Story with Recipes.” –The Philadelphia Inquirer

“This book will put you passionately over the moon for a meat cut that is often taken for granted…full of colorful, lively and sometimes surprising images; the pages are a joy to leaf through for their energetic mix of images, photos and text.” –Chicago Tribune

“Stephanie Pierson wants to knock pork off its pedestal, and THE BRISKET BOOK: A Love Story With Recipes (Andrews McMeel, $29.99) even has a flirtatious heifer on the cover. Pierson, a funny writer (and contributor to the food coverage at TheAtlantic.com), clears up the heifer-steer distinction and many others, but mostly gives many recipes and techniques, going to the experts — a long day with Christopher Kimball for a perfectionist brisket — to help explain how “a flaccid four-pound, gray-brown piece of beef, shaped roughly like the state of Tennessee” can “inspire Proustian prose, evoke the deepest pleasure, create indelible memories.” The answer, of course, is that everyone grew up eating it and it’s easy to cook. “With some food,” a friend of hers says, “there’s a right way and a wrong way. With brisket there’s only ‘my way.’ ”” ––The New York Times

“It is a cookbook. There are recipes here – 30 of them, in fact — many of which are curious innovations to the tried-and-true barbecued brisket, Jewish roast beef, or corned beef. But mostly, it is not a cookbook. It is, however, a collection of everything you can possibly brainstorm related to all things brisket. … But, the meat of any cookbook (pun intended) is the recipes therein, and Pierson has gone straight to the experts for her tidy collection of the same. The all-star list of beef wranglers who offer traditional and newfangled brisket recipes includes restaurateur John Besh (smoky New Orleans brisket), NYC’s Kitchen Arts & Letters bookshop owner Nach Waxman (Jewish brisket), Bill Niman of Niman Ranch (“branding brisket”), Chris Kimball of Cooks Illustrated (onion-braised brisket), and Jewish cooking maven Joan Nathan (brisket with ginger, orange peel, and tomato). Other recipes describe outré dishes like brisket in tahini, Cuban Creole stew, brisket noodle soup with Korean chile, and a “brisket burger.”” ––Stlmag.com http://bit.ly/rXoXOA

“Subtitled “A Love Story with Recipes” this collection of recipes and observations is so much more than that - it’s an enthusiastic guide to the best in briskets, rich and juicy with recipes, stories, humor and tips. … Brisket reigns supreme in this 208 page volume enlivened with dozens of photographs and illustrations. With this book author/journalist Stephanie Pierson has brought us the first and only book entirely devoted to brisket, and she’s done it with rare attention to details plus robust good humor. Enjoy!” ––Devine Caroline http://bit.ly/tQAw3X

“Stephanie Pierson doesn’t just love brisket. As Woody Allen would say she lrrrrrrvs it. She loves brisket so much it takes her almost 17 pages of clever brisket pontification in her new cookbook, “The Brisket Book: A Love Story With Recipes,”  before we get a glimpse of our very first recipe. … The Brisket Book is a cute book with more schtick than a Catskill comedian. And on page 90 we get our first real recipe! By now we know everything there is to know about the lowly brisket. It’s history. It’s location on the cow (sorry to my vegetarian friends). How to buy it. How to cook it. How to cut it. Tools. And rubs. And brines. And we’ve even been treated to a shot of man’s naked butt! … I did enjoy reading the recipes and looking for one that I could cook given my limitations at the time. Firstly, it was Yom Kippur and I wanted to make something that would cook all day while I was at Temple and be ready when I got home. Secondly, my oven is broken so I was going to have to use a crockpot (we put it on the deck so the smell wouldn’t tempt our fasting family). And lastly I didn’t want to sort through a lot of ingredients first thing in the morning before cooking the brisket. So I picked “Slow Cooker Brisket”. … I have to say this is one of the best versions I’ve done. It turned out perfectly! I recommend it.” ––TCJewfolk.com http://bit.ly/rNS7ev

Serves 8–10

Quivering cranberry slices that melt into the meat and slowly caramelize give this brisket its lovely character. Even better, it takes so little effort for this sweet alchemy to work. Roberta Greenberg, the long-time assistant to the rabbis at this well-known New York City synagogue and the keeper of this recipe, suggests reducing the sauce on the stove after reheating it if you prefer it thicker. It is good enough to make you convert.

Sprinkle both sides of the brisket with the garlic powder, paprika, and salt and pepper. Tightly cover the brisket with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 days.

When you’re ready to finish the dish, preheat the oven to 500°F.

Unwrap the brisket, place it in a roasting pan, and roast for 20 minutes on each side. Remove the pan from the oven and decrease the temperature to 350°F. Place the onions under and around the brisket, then cover the top of the meat with the cranberry sauce slices. Tightly cover the pan with heavy-duty aluminum foil and cook until fork-tender, about 3 hours.

Remove the pan from the oven and allow the brisket to cool. Transfer the brisket to a cutting board, trim the fat, then slice the meat against the grain to the desired thickness. Return the slices to the pan, overlapping them at an angle so that you can see a bit of the top edge of each slice, cover the pan with foil, and refrigerate overnight.

The next day, remove any congealed fat from the top of the sauce. Heat the brisket, covered, at 350°F for 20 minutes, then, uncovered, for another 20 to 30 minutes, until hot and the sauce has reduced a bit. Serve with the sauce.

1 (4- to 5-pound) beef brisket
2 teaspoons garlic powder
1 teaspoon paprika
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 large onions, peeled and cut into eighths
2 (14-ounce) cans jellied cranberry sauce, sliced

Adapted from a recipe by Zak Pelaccio and Robbie Richter of Fatty ’Cue, Brooklyn, New York

Makes about 1 pint

Here is the secret to the brisket sandwich New York Magazine called “fiendishly good” when they named it Sandwich of the Year in 2009. Sam Sifton, reviewing it in The New York Times: “Deckle deliciousness from psychedelic Texas.” This sandwich’s sauce—”so thick it’s more like jam,” says Fatty ’Cue’s pit master Robbie Richter—is way more than a supporting player. We have adapted it to the closest possible approximation. But if you don’t feel like going on a scavenger hunt for ingredients, just set your GPS for 91 South 6th Street in trendoid Williamsburg, Brooklyn. And don’t expect it at dinner. Their brisket sandwich is only on their lunch and late night menus.

Heat the oil in a large sauté pan over medium heat, then add the shallots, chiles, garlic, galangal, and the dried shrimp. Cook, stirring occasionally, until fragrant and slightly softened, about 5 minutes. Remove the mixture to a small bowl lined with a paper towel and set aside.

Wash the pan, then add the palm sugar and smoked tomatoes and turn the heat to medium. When the palm sugar has dissolved, add the tamarind and belacan and cook for 2 to 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. If the mixture starts to burn or gets really thick, simply reduce the heat.

Stir in the reserved shallot mixture and cook until warmed through. Allow the mixture to cool slightly in the pan, then purée in a blender or food processor. Stir in the fish sauce. The chile jam keeps in a tightly covered container in the refrigerator for about 1 week.

2 tablespoons canola oil
1 cup sliced shallots
½ cup destemmed, seeded, and sliced long red chiles
¼ cup sliced garlic
¼ cup peeled and sliced galangal (see Notes)
¹/8 cup dried shrimp
¼ cup palm sugar (see Notes on page 147)
¼ cup smoked tomatoes, peeled and seeded (see Notes)
¹/8 cup tamarind (see Notes)
¼ teaspoon belacan, toasted (see Notes)
¹/8 cup fish sauce

A well-cooked brisket is so meltingly tender and deliciously satisfying that every country, every community, every culture, every family seems to have a brisket recipe. Finally, this cross-cultural wonder is getting the love and attention it deserves: The Brisket Book: A Love Story with Recipes by Stephanie Pierson. It’s the first and only book entirely devoted to brisket.

Braised or barbecued, this humble cut of meat is easy to warm up to—no wonder everyone loves it. When you get right down to it, brisket has to do with life: remembering it, sharing it, celebrating it. Families pass brisket recipes down like heirlooms. It wouldn’t be a holiday without Aunt Gladys’s brisket. Chat rooms are full of foodies giving passionate opinions about their briskets—and each one claims to have the best recipe ever.

“Some foods will improve your meal, your mood, your day, your buttered noodles,” Stephanie says. “Brisket will improve your life.” Stephanie had no idea that her year-long quest to find great brisket recipes would turn into a love story of sorts. But every time she asked someone whether he or she liked brisket or had a good brisket recipe, the response usually included the word “love”: “Oh, I love brisket!” or “I have the best recipe ever, and you’re going to love it!”

The Brisket Book offers everything from cooking advice to chef interviews to butcher wisdom to the remarkable history of brisket in a lively format full of mouthwatering color photographs, illustrations, cartoons, graphics, and truly the best brisket recipes ever—from a Brisket Noodle Soup with Korean Chile to Brisket with Fresh Tangy Peaches to a Scandinavian Aquavit Brisket to Brisket Burgers. There’s even a veggie-lover’s Seitan Brisket (even people who don’t like meat love brisket)! The recipes come from notable chefs, including Daniel Boulud and Anita Lo; from cookbook authors, including Joan Nathan and Colman Andrews; as well as from Top Chef’s Richard Blais, from cowboys, pit masters, and gifted home cooks.

If brisket does indeed improve your life, then The Brisket Book promises to be the ultimate life-affirming resource for anyone who has savored—or should savor—this succulent comfort food.