HI,

I never really thought about the dynamics of what is involved in braising a whole brisket until the last week.

Regards,
CAthy2

We're heading out later for a Passover seder and we offered to bring a potato kugel . . .


Mise En Place & Sakai Takayuki, Ryky Tran Edition Blue #2 Gyuto, 240mm
Yellow onions, russet potatoes, salt, black pepper, eggs and schmaltz. This was mostly a food processor affair. I didn't feel like box-grating 2 onions and 5 pounds of potatoes. Peeling them all was plenty of work. So, I used the knife mainly to cut the peeled onions and potatoes down to food processor-friendly size.

It had been years since I last made this. Perusing the internet to refresh my memory, a lot of recipes/methods call for evoo but somehow, that just didn't seem appropriate. I decided that the rendered chicken fat was the way to go. I think that's how I used to do it.

As experience kugel makers will so often remind us, technique is really important here. Many say it's best to cook it in a glass baking dish, so the top, bottom and sides get really crispy, and so its brownness can be easily monitored as it bakes. The goal here (at least imo) is an ultra-crispy exterior and a naturally creamy interior. Some of the fat schmaltz (or fat of choice) goes into the baking dish and is preheated in the 425F oven until it's very hot. More fat gets heated on the stove top and is added to the mixing bowl with the grated potatoes/onions and eggs. If you do this right, the the bowl will sizzle when the melted fat is added (and you have to work fast to prevent the grated potatoes from oxidizing and turning brown). Mix it all together well and from there, the mixture gets dumped into the hot, schmaltzified baking dish and returned to the 425F oven for 60-90 minutes or until it looks something like this . . .


Potato Kugel
For some groups, this might be considered a bit "well done." For ours, I think it'll go over quite well.

=R=

Looks good Mr. Suburban.

Here is a news story about the Maxwell House Haggadah in case anyone is interested.

Cathy2 wrote:

EvA wrote:I just wrestled -- not an exaggeration -- with my prime brisket to get it browned and into the oven. It does appear to have a great deal of fat. I don't think I've made a prime one before, so we'll see what we think.

The Emeril Lagasse passover brisket began with broiling the brisket for 10-12 minutes per side. I thought this was in response to having a large brisket to deal with.

Regards,
Cathy2

Emeril's brisket recipe is outstanding. Served it last night. Leftovers are on tonight's menu. Possibly sneaking some for lunch today.