Beef Brisket

A friend came over around Thanksgiving and we shared in the task of making a meal together. Actually, my kitchen is pretty small and I don't play nicely with others, so she made her course (soup) beforehand. Here's what I made:

First, you'll notice some apples, challah and honey. We also missed Rosh Hashanah, so we had to catch up on those two staples. You can also see the leak and potato soup my friend brought. It had cumin and cheddar cheese in it. It had a good flavour, but I would probably opt for a different cheese next time because the cheddar melts in a curdled-like consistency.

I was really excited about the cherry tomatoes. When I grow a garden again, I'll be planting lots of these.

The salad included mini bocconcini and some of my window sill basil.


This salad is on my top 10 favourite discoveries (or Caprese salad in general) of 2008 (yes, I'm behind).

But the best part of the meal was the brisket. As I mentioned, I love horseradish. On occasion, I look for recipes that will be good with horseradish. Brisket is one of those recipes. Not to mention that it's hard to screw up and tastes great. This time, I used a Noreen Gilletz recipe.

Marinated Brisket

3-4 onions
4-5 lb brisket
2 tsp salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 tbsp paprika
1 tsp dry mustard
4 cloves garlic
½ cup soya sauce
2-3 Tbsp honey or maple syrup

Slice onions, place in bottom of a large roasting pan. Rub brisket on all sides with salt, pepper, paprika and mustard. Place in pan

Drop garlic through feed tube of processor or mince by hand, add soya sauce and honey and either process 2-3 seconds or mix together. Pour mixture over brisket and rub into meat on all sides. Cover pan with tinfoil. Let marinate at least 1 hour at room temperature (or overnight in fridge)

Bake covered at 325 F. Allow 45 minutes per pound, or until meat is fork tender. Uncover for the last hour and baste occasionally. Let stand 20-30 minutes before slicing. Reheat for a few minutes in pan gravy.

Part way through cooking the brisket, I decided that I should also make potatoes. So, I added a bunch of potatoes to the roaster along with about 2 cups of water and a beef bouillon cube.


Delicious! With a 4 lb brisket, we had about 8-10 portions - which made for great leftovers. I also shared this recipe with a colleague who made it with a more tender cut of beef. It ended up more like pulled beef, but was a hit with her family.

I'm sending this recipe to World Food Day - Thanksgiving event being planned by Ivy and Bellini Valli.


The purpose of this event is to continue bringing awareness to hunger problems that exist around the world and which seem to be getting worse day after day. Ivy would like for us to talk about why we are thankful for what we have.

I really like the way Peanut Butter Boy put it a while ago. He said, "We are a lucky bunch indeed, we even have sophisticated electronic devices that can fit on your lap so we can talk about food with each other - it's pretty incredible". My main concern when it comes to food is - what to make for dinner. Never - where am I going to find the money I need to buy food to eat for dinner.

I am also very thankfully to have loved ones to share this food with. Here's a closer look at the flowers on the table. R gave them to me on my birthday. With the exception of the gerberas (my favourite flower), the flowers are still going strong on my table (almost 3 weeks later).