Sous Vide Your Brisket in Mustard and Wine

Until yesterday, I cooked exactly one (1) giant brisket in my life. It was a Hanukkah dinner that my then husband and I had, and it was, if I remember correctly, quite excellent. Unfortunately, apart from a very large piece of cow, I don’t remember any of the ingredients I used (and the blog I wrote about this isn’t posted anywhere else). But I remember cooking it all very low (about 200 ℉) and very slow (about 15 hours).

It was a hit, but it was the last and only time I cooked brisket, mainly because my husband and I got divorced and I am no longer related to anyone who celebrates Hanukkah. But I still love brisket stew, and given the past success of my slow and slow brisket, I’ve been playing with the idea of ​​sous video for many years.

Well, I finally did it. And, as you may have guessed (because I am writing about this), I am very happy with the results. (Well, I was very happy. Now the brisket is completely gone. I ate it and am now unhappy that it is gone.) Cooking the slices in a circulating water bath at 185 degrees for 18 hours resulted in predictably tender brisket. it all fell apart at first sight, but it was a different stuff that I put in a sous vide bag with brisket that took it to a really special place.

I’m a pretty nutty person from the northern Mississippi, and I didn’t grow up eating a ton of braised brisket. So I didn’t have a favorite recipe that could be adapted for sous vide. Fortunately, I knew a person who knew. Our video producer Joel Kahn, who calls himself “very Jewish,” took some pictures of his favorite brisket recipe (Michelle Bernstein’s Mustard Brisket from her cookbook, Cuisine of Latin America ) and sent them to me. I knew right away that this was what I was looking for: Mustard, Worcestershire sauce, red wine, and Lipton’s onion soup mix were the main flavor players, along with regular onions, garlic, carrots, celery and bay leaves. All ingredients are good but mustard was the star. This gives the dish a spicy, slightly pungent flavor that balances the juiciness of the meat and makes even the fattest portions of the cuts delicious. And while sous videotape doesn’t crust, it creates a very flavorful (and tender) piece of meat with an incredible sauce.

Except for using a completely different cooking method, I didn’t change the recipe much, although I used a smaller piece of brisket (increase if necessary), replaced celery with fennel (because I hate celery), and reduced the amount of mustard from two cups to one. I also burned a third of the onions to hell to give the dish the deep brown hue that you often sacrifice when you cook meats in sous vide. (If you’re new to sous vide cooking, check out this introductory guide here .)

I’m very happy with how it turned out and I hope you are too. To make it you will need:

• 6 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped
• 3 cups chopped onion, divided into 1 and 2 servings
• 5 tablespoons canola oil or vegetable oil, divided
• 3 small carrots, cut into 1/2 inch coins
• 1 small fennel onion, cut into half moons
• 1 3 lb brisket
• 1 cup whole grain mustard (I used horseradish flavored whole grains)
• 1/3 cup Worcestershire sauce
• 1/3 cup red wine
• 2 envelopes Lipton soup mix
• 1 bay leaf

Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large saucepan over medium to low heat and sauté the garlic until lightly golden and aromatic, being careful not to burn it. Transfer it to a tall walled mixing bowl or container that can hold the head of a hand blender. Set aside.

Raise the heat to medium, add 2 cups of onions to the skillet, season with a couple of pinches of salt and cook until translucent and lightly browned around the edges. Transfer to a bowl and set aside.

Raise the heat to medium-high (but closer to high) and add another tablespoon of oil and the remaining cup of onions. Cook the onions until they are browned , but will still soften in places. They should look something like this (except that your onion is going to be diced):

Remove the burnt onion from the pan and add it to the garlic measuring glass.

Add 2 more tablespoons of oil to the skillet, then add the carrots and fennel. Season with a couple pinches of salt and cook until they are brown and bubbles on the outside, but tender. Transfer to a bowl with translucent onions. Add bay leaves to bowl and stir. Pour the vegetable mixture into a sous vide bag (or freezer bag).

Fry the fat side of the brisket until golden brown and place in the bag with vegetables. Add bags of mustard, Worcestershire sauce, wine, and onion soup to the bowl to mix with the scalded onions and garlic, and chop everything together using a hand blender (this can also be done in a “regular” blender). Pour the mixture over the meat and use your hands to spread it over the entire brisket. Close the bag with a vacuum sealer if you are using vacuum bags; If you are using freezer bags, place them in two bags with a second one, pour out the excess air using the water displacement method , and attach the top of the bag to the edge of the tub. Cook the brisket for 18 hours in a water bath at a temperature of 185 ℉. (Cover the tub with plastic wrap to keep the water from evaporating.)

After the cooking time has elapsed, remove the brisket from the tub and decide if you want to eat it right away or serve it later. If serving later, place the entire bag in an ice bath to cool to room temperature, then refrigerate until ready to serve.

If you’re going to eat it straight away, transfer it to a serving dish or skillet and cut into thin slices against the grain. This may seem difficult given how tender the brisket is; don’t worry too much about it. Pour the rest of the bag into a colander to separate the sauce from the vegetables. The vegetables will be quite soft – I like to lay them on buns and grind them into a bunch of chips, but you can also keep them pureed in gravies and sauces to thicken them.

Pour the sauce over the meat just before serving and garnish with chopped garlic or parsley. If you’ve chilled the brisket and need to heat it up, cut it as described above, place it on a baking sheet, pour the sauce over the meat and heat it in a 350-degree oven until it’s completely warmed up. Serve with fried potatoes and plenty of rolls (for soaking up the incredible mustard juice).

Updated 01:25 PM EST on 10/12/2020 to include the amount of garlic in the ingredient list.