Customer Reviews

The Brisket Book: A Love Story with Recipes

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I don't know why anyone thought the world needed an entire book about brisket, dripping with anecdotes, theories, recipes and memories.

Brisket is, after all, a very simple matter.

Just use my recipe.

Four pounds of brisket from the supermarket --- the less you spend, the better. On a burner turned up fairly high, brown the beef in a Le Creuset 5 1/2 Quart Round French Oven. Add a bottle of red wine. Two large chopped onions. Three or four diced carrots, celery stalks, tomatoes. A tablespoon or two of tomato paste. One or two crushed garlic cloves. Salt and pepper. Set in a 350-degree oven for 3-4 hours, turning the brisket over once or twice and adding water, as necessary.

Ah. Just like Mama used to make.

Here's the problem: Your mother used another recipe.

And as someone wise has said of brisket, "With most foods, there's a right way and a wrong way. With brisket, there's only my way."

There were so many "my ways" --- including her way --- that Stephanie Pierson wrote "The Brisket Book: A Love Story with Recipes." It turns out to be a really excellent book, or should I say, a very tasty book.(There is only one clinker in these pages: a chapter about wines that are good partners with brisket. Unnecessary. There is only one. It's called Diet Coke.)

Home cooking is the big idea here. ("Rarely has a truffle ever gone into the making of one," Pierson writes.) And slow cooking. ("Time and the brisket are friends.) And love. ("I say: a brisket in every pot, in every Crock-Pot, on every Weber, in every barbeque joint, on every Passover platter, in every deli, at every butcher, in every food truck, on every TV food show, food site, food blog.")

Brisket's the ultimate comfort food. Which means many people want to comment. Butchers. Restaurateurs. Experts ("As you cook, two important things happen. Collagen breaks down and forms gelatin, while muscle fibers tighten up and squeeze out moisture into your cooking liquid, flavoring it.")

The heart of the book, of course, is the recipes. Some are eye-popping. Lipton dry onion soup mix? Oh, dear. And, from the assistant to the rabbis at New York's Temple Emanu-el, a recipe calling for two cans of jellied cranberry sauce. And this woman calls herself a Jew!

Brisket with ginger, orange peel and tomato. With tangy peaches. With Korean chile. A brisket burger. Barbequed. And many more worth trying. Yum. Eat these words.

I have been cooking brisket for years. I grew up in a brisket famiy and we have a cherished family recipe. But now I feel like I have 30 more great recipes thanks to The Brisket Book. There are so many delicious sounding dishes - from French citrus brisket to Joan Nathan's to a brisket coup from Chef Anita Lo to a sweet cranberry glazed brisket. I don't think there are enough holidays in the year to make them all! Besides being full of delicious recipes there is a history and interviews and cooking tips and butcher wisdom. And there is humor in it too! It's a terrific gift!

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. You'll find everything from Temple Emanu-El Brisket (page 91) to Aunt Gladys's Brisket (page 92) to Barbecue Green Chile Brisket (page 124) plus a great many more, and you'll want to try every one.

There's a list of 50 Things About Brisket That People Can Disagree About, and suggestions for what to read when you're eating brisket. There's even a listing of suggested wines (high and low in price) for each brisket. Nothing has been overlooked!

Now that we're speaking of wines, Pierson recommended Frog's Leap Rutherford Merlot - superb pairing! This is a marvelous wine with tempting notes of rich black berry and traces of cocoa powder. There is a rumor of ripened red berries and cherries abetted by a tad of mocha, herbs, and spice. Find it at [....].

It goes without saying that in order to achieve optimum results with any of these recipes you must have the best brisket to be found. Again, we followed Pierson's advice and found Brandt Beef ([...]). Amazing quality! As noted by a Manging Partner of the Master Chef's Institute, "When tested against competitors in their specific category, Brandt Natural Beef's line rated highest in the flavor, texture and tenderness categories." We'll second that! Unlike past briskets, and we've had quite a few, Brandt's brisket is vastly superior, ultra flavorful, juicy and fork tender.

We're always delighted when a cookbook includes sources and recommendations - we especially appreciate the above two that certainly added to our dining pleasure.

Until reading The Brisket Book I never realized how many people thought they had the best brisket recipe in the world - do believe they're all here. One of these days I want to meet the fellow who said, "I gave up meat years ago, and I can honestly say that my mother's brisket is the ONLY thing I miss."

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!

- Gail Cooke

This book is wonderful, an entertaining mix of history, anecdotes, information and a huge range of recipes. Beautiful graphics as well! A really great book to have around and a perfect gift to give.

Here is a fascinating, unusual book that is much more than a cookbook. If you are vegetarian or vegan, forget about //The Brisket Book//. Pure, unadulterated, meat-rich recipes are the basis of this book (except for one vegetarian recipe). But it is also filled with interesting reading, photos, sketches and interviews. Stephanie Pierson's love affair with brisket will rub off on you, and it is not likely you can resist trying at least a few of her collected brisket recipes. Brisket is a tough and most flavorful part of the beef, and if you into quick-fix meals, this book is not for you. All three brisket cooking methods--braising, barbecuing and brining to be corned beef--are slow until the fork tender stage. You can choose from 28 selected brisket recipes and many other recipes that complement brisket. Pierson collected and tested these recipes from professionals and home cooks, re-written them to be uniform and cook-friendly. They are easy to follow and laid out carefully for the cook's convenience. The many stories related to brisket (a full 80 pages worth) are very well written and a pleasure to read. The index is good and well cross referenced.

"The BRISKET Book: A Love Story with Recipes" by Stephanie Pierson is indeed that. A love story. Definitely not for the vegetarian, the book features quotes and observations by cooks from all over the country and delves into the background of brisket. Amazingly, brisket is a multi-cultural dish that tends to convey feelings of home and warmth to its consumers who eat it in a mind-boggling variety of dishes. There are definite opinions about the origin of the meat, the way it is packaged, the method of preparation and the method of cooking, the sauce or lack thereof and the side dishes which should accompany the meat and the author does an entertaining job of presenting various opinions in an easily read format. Regional and cultural differences are detailed and analyzed with plenty of asides from the author and direct quotes from a wide variety of chefs. Wonderful hints about essential tools and techniques are interspersed with mouthwatering pictures of brisket, its side-dishes and wines or other libations to accompany the masterpiece. A description of versatile cookers such as the Big Green Egg or Weber's more purposeful Smokey Mountain Cooker as well as websites to consult for sauces, techniques or meat sources are also detailed. Then there are the recipes that "made the cut"....from basic to braised to corned beef...yum!

A mouth-watering tribute to an unassuming piece of meat that features prominently in the fond memories of many people as their favorite comfort food. The author wants it pointed out that while a brisket is a `pot roast' since it is a roast cooked in a pot, a pot roast is not necessarily a brisket and stewing is not braising. A wonderful melange of anecdotes, trivia, facts, suggestions and recipes paying tribute and homage to brisket!

© Night Owl Reviews

I have to confess that I have more cookbooks and recipe files that I can use. So why pick up another cook book? Well for one, this book is laugh out loud funny. For another, my love life is doing fine but my brisket was getting a little pedestrian and a lot tough. I was in a rut of using the same recipe my inlaws taught me 20 or so years ago along with my mother's habit of turning the leftovers into brisket hash two days later.

As the book explains, a good brisket should fall apart at the fork, so slow cooking is a must. Start low and start early. Use lots and lots of onions. Pre-browning appears to be optional, and the book recommends a number of flavourings, the most basic being to cover the brisket in a tomato based sauce, but simmering in wine or stock works as well. Add root vegetables or squashes - one Cuban variation recommends plantain! Feel free to amalgamate ideas..

So far I've tried about a half dozen of the variations but in terms of technique Nach Waxman's approach of slicing the meat mid process to create a greater surface area for browning does an excellent job of enhancing the flavour inside. End pieces are a favourite with my crowd - another suggestion is to turn the oven on broil for about 15 minutes to blacken the outside just a bit, and then return to low temperatures for the rest.

Admittedly the number of recipes is not large and half of these are for people with smokers. Maybe when the barbeque needs replacing. And yes there are barbeque recipes too - but the kind that uses wood chips and coal - mine is gas. However that Big Green Egg sure sounds interesting.

It's a good book to have or at least read through, even if only for the interviews with the brisketeers which will bring a smile your lips. These people, and there are brisket cookoffs represented here as well, know their brisket.

And the best part - I no longer have leftovers for brisket hash. Mmmmmmm. :-)

Very cute and clever book with lots of great recipes....Also many pics and ideas. One of the cleverest and informative "cook" books I've ever read.