Brisket in Coffee Brandy Sauce Recipe
Another brisket of mine with wacky ingredients that comes out to die for! Just ask all the guests that were at my Seder Demo last night: They were falling like flies! So sorry about indulging in some un-ladylike swagger!
This star was recently born when I was tinkering with coffee, molasses and bourbon, a frequent combo in barbecues and short ribs, as a possible base for my brisket sauce, and I know it sounds like it would put some more hair on the chests of lumberjacks; but lo and behold, the results were fork-tender meat, and a wonderfully dark, balanced and unctuous sauce, much more toned down than the seemingly reckless sum of its parts.
To adapt the dish for Passover I simply substituted honey for the molasses, and brandy for the bourbon, and it worked just as gloriously. Go for it! PS: Please don’t believe anyone who will tell you first-cut brisket is not as moist and tender as its second-cut fat an unappealing slab of a counterpart: they will never say that again after they taste this!
Ingredients:
2 large onions, sliced very thin
1 brisket. 6 to 7 pounds, first cut. Rinsed and patted thoroughly dry
3 tablespoons instant coffee powder, decaf OK, mixed with 2 cups warm water
1/3 cup brandy (year-round: Bourbon)
1/3 cup honey (year-round: Molasses)
¼ cup vinegar
½ cup olive oil
1 tablespoon ground pepper
Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Scatter the onions in a pan just large enough to fit the meat. Place the brisket on top of the onions. Combine all remaining ingredients in a bowl, and pour the mixture evenly over the meat. Cover tightly with foil, and bake 2 hours. Turn the brisket over, and bake uncovered 1 more hour. Transfer the brisket to a cutting board and wait about 10 minutes before slicing. Meanwhile strain the cooking liquids into a small sauce pan, pressing hard on the solids (and discarding them), and reduce on a high flame to about 2 ½ cups. Let the brisket cool slightly. Slice thin against the grain. In places where the brisket is very long, cut across first before slicing. Pour the gravy on top.
Filed under: Brisket Recipes, Coffee, Gluten Free Recipes, Jewish Holiday Recipes, Jewish Recipes, Kosher for Passover Recipes, Kosher Recipes, Meat Recipes, Passover Recipes
for brisket in coffee brandy sauce, what type of vinegar do i use?
OMG Ricki I apologogize: you are absolutely right, the recipe includes vinegar. Any vinegar. I was doing half A dozen things at a time when you called, and I couldn’t thing straight! So sorry about that! How is your lovely daughter, whose shower I gave a cooking demo for? Have a great holiday!
Oy!!!! I prepared this for Seder night, and it was a disaster……. The meat was dry, tough and hard, and had none of the flavour of the sauce. What went wrong?????? It had to keep from the beginning of chag until the meal. Could the meat have overcooked (but then it would have been too soft??) Advice please? Very emabarrassing (my wife’s family were the guests).
Oy is right! Please believe me: My recipe is 100% tried and true, and has been included in several major cookbooks. I can tell you this now the disaster has been averted at my table as well, just this once out of countless times I have made it. Thursday, the day before I wanted to serve it, I saw the cooked brisket and sensed it didnt feel right, I took a bite and … it was a shoe sole. I called the butcher and told him since my recipe has NEVER let me down, I am blaming the piece of meat for my fiasco, and he said yes, it was not first choice, he should have told me the cut he gave me was tougher and needed much longer cooking. So 3 hours baking turned into 5 hours, and guess what? That did it! It was nice and tender. Still I must tell you I was not happy! I paid very good money for 1st cut brisket, I want 1st cut brisket!