Cooking brisket….

When children, grandchildren and great-grandchild get together for Christmas Eve dinner, you need a substantial piece of meat.  Brisket, I think, is the perfect choice.  Several of our Thistle Hill customers report they also had wonderful meals this year, slow-cooking our grass fed brisket.

So I share Wooz’ “old family recipe”, which is certainly old if not family.  It’s from a cookbook published in 1958 with a Wooz twist.  Here’s her version:

Every once in a while a great recipe meets a great piece of meat and the result is pleasing to all.  This Christmas Eve we tried an old recipe with a perfect  brisket from our own Thistle Hill  Devon beef.  We doubled the recipe to fill up our grandsons, who have hefty appetites and it was good that we did!

This is the single recipe which you can multiply or cut back.  It’s very forgiving; there’s little you can do to ruin it.

Thistle Hill brisket: 

Mix 2 teaspoons salt, 3 tablespoons brown sugar, 1 cup chili sauce and 1 and ¼ cups vinegar. 

Pour over your five pound brisket  (one of ours was nine pounds and did just fine)  and marinate overnight.      Place meat in roasting pan and pour marinade over it.  Top with Italian seasoning, 1 cup chopped celery leaves and 2 sliced onions.  

Allow one hour per pound roast for five hours  at 325 degrees.  Baste frequently.  After three hours you may want to test with a thermometer and, if temperature is adequate (about 150 degrees), turn oven down to low until you are ready to serve.

We sliced it and  put the meat in a crock pot.  Pour strained marinade and pan drippings over  and  keep warm until guests are ready.     This recipe may be made ahead of time and reheated in the crock pot.  We added parboiled carrots and small potatoes to the crock pot before serving.  

I might add we were worried about serving brisket since our family is accustomed to chili before opening presents Christmas eve.  By their second or third time past the buffet, we stopped worrying.