Food Thread: A Tisket, A Tasket, The Brisket's In The Basket*

Apparently I decided to make a brisket for the Passover Seder. I have no recollection of this decision, and in the only conversation I can recall, I was confident that I decided upon a tenderloin roast (The married men among the readers will understand how that came to be).

So brisket it is! And really, it's not a bad choice, particularity since my local Wild Fork Foods carries very nicely trimmed whole briskets. I really like using a whole brisket, in part because there is enough fat, and in part because the texture of the flat and the point are different, and add some nice complexity to the dish. I also get to render some of the trimmed fat so I don't have to panic when I want to make Yorkshire Pudding.

The only issue is searing the brisket...it's pretty big, so I have to use my largest roasting pan. It's not perfect because it's not particularly heavy, so I have to be attentive, otherwise I will get burned spots. The solution is to buy a very heavy and very expensive roasting pan, and because I am a cheap bastard I will choose being attentive every time!

The recipe itself is simple. Sear, then remove it and brown a ton of mirepoix, then return the meat to the roasting pan, along with a lot of red wine, some tomato, some ketchup for the sweet teeth among the guests, and some herbs. Cover and roast for a few hours, until it is nice and tender.

That's it! Easy and delicious.

I make it the day before so I can chill the brisket, slice it, and return it to the defatted mirepoix (which I blend into a thick sauce). For a big group it's a great choice, especially because I have a few relatives who are whiny little snots when it comes to rare beef, so that tenderloin would be more of a production.

I might not serve them my famous Chicken Tartare if they keep up the squawking about underdone meat!

*My apologies to Ella Fitzgerald and the real rhymers in the readership.

He is 100% correct. If you don't like secondary prices and allocated bottles, then don't drink them. But if you complain about other people buying them, you are nothing more than a Booze Karen, and deserve to be mocked and criticized.

A good meatloaf is a fine thing indeed, and I have written about Ina Garten's wonderful version before. But I haven't made it in a long time, and I feel silly! It is one of her easier and better written recipes, and it's just delicious. Individual Meat Loaves is absolutely worth a try, and I will bet that once you make it you will think more highly of Garten, who can be an out-of-touch little rich girl sometimes. Well...most of the time, but she partially redeems herself with this dish.

They were so good I made them again the next night! And yes, fresh, hot Hush Puppies go very well with burgers!

Tough shit. You don't want our money with restrictions? Get a job, make your own money, and buy whatever the f*ck you want.

Never heard of it before I saw it in a wine shop, and I probably won't see it again. And that's okay, because there are many hundreds of small champagne houses that make their own champagne rather than selling their grapes to the big houses.

That was a delicious champagne for significantly less than the big guys charge. The small houses are wonderful because they don't have the size to make the same champagne year in and year out by blending many years into each release, so they make each year based on the vagaries of the growing season. Sometimes the champagne is rich and buttery, sometimes it is crisp and austere, but it is always different, and that is part of the pleasure of seeking out the small growers.

Rumor has it that the Bourbon Bubble is bursting. I have seen no evidence of decreasing prices, but maybe the bursting started somewhere else! I think the sweet spot is $40-$60 for excellent and interesting bottles, and bumping that to $100 gets you an incremental improvement in quality, but nothing mind-blowing. More than that and I think you are paying for hype and rarity, which may look good in your liquor cabinet, but doesn't translate to more quality in the bottle.

The problem...or the solution...is to buy lots of bourbon, take tasting notes, and eventually arrive at your favorites! It should take forty or fifty years, but it is worth it!

posted by CBD at 04:00 PM

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