Brisket is a popular Ashkenazi Jewish dish of

braised Braising (from the French word ''braiser'') is a combination-cooking method that uses both wet and dry heats: typically, the food is first browned at a high temperature, then simmered in a covered pot in cooking liquid (such as wine, broth, c ...

beef

brisket Brisket is a cut of meat from the breast or lower chest of beef or veal. The beef brisket is one of the nine beef primal cuts, though the definition of the cut differs internationally. The brisket muscles include the Pectoralis major, superficial ...

, served hot and traditionally accompanied by

potato The potato () is a starchy tuberous vegetable native to the Americas that is consumed as a staple food in many parts of the world. Potatoes are underground stem tubers of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'', a perennial in the nightshade famil ...

or other non-dairy

kugel Kugel ( , pronounced ) is a baked casserole, most commonly made from lokshen ( ) or potato ( ). It is a traditional Ashkenazi Jewish dish, often served on Shabbos and Jewish holidays. American Jews also serve it for Thanksgiving dinner. Etymo ...

latke A latke ( ''latke''; sometimes romanized ''latka'', lit. "pancake") is a type of potato pancake or fritter in Ashkenazi Jewish cuisine that is traditionally prepared to celebrate Hanukkah. It is commonly eaten in Israel and the Jewish diaspor ...

s, and often preceded by

matzo ball soup Matzah balls or matzo balls are Ashkenazi Jewish soup morsels made from a mixture of matzah meal, beaten eggs, water, and a fat, such as oil, margarine, or chicken fat. Known as knaidel in Yiddish ( pl., singular ; with numerous other translit ...

. It is commonly served for

Jewish holidays Jewish holidays, also known as Jewish festivals or ''Yamim Tovim'' (, or singular , in transliterated Hebrew []), are holidays observed by Jews throughout the Hebrew calendar.This article focuses on practices of mainstream Rabbinic Judaism. ...

such as

Hanukkah Hanukkah (, ; ''Ḥănukkā'' ) is a Jewish holidays, Jewish festival commemorating the recovery of Jerusalem and subsequent rededication of the Second Temple at the beginning of the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid Empire in the 2nd ce ...

Passover Passover, also called Pesach (; ), is a major Jewish holidays, Jewish holiday and one of the Three Pilgrimage Festivals. It celebrates the Exodus of the Israelites from slavery in Biblical Egypt, Egypt. According to the Book of Exodus, God in ...

Rosh Hashanah Rosh Hashanah (, , ) is the New Year in Judaism. The Hebrew Bible, biblical name for this holiday is Yom Teruah (, , ). It is the first of the High Holy Days (, , 'Days of Awe"), as specified by Leviticus 23:23–25, that occur in the late summe ...

, and

Shabbat Shabbat (, , or ; , , ) or the Sabbath (), also called Shabbos (, ) by Ashkenazi Hebrew, Ashkenazim, is Judaism's day of rest on the seventh day of the seven-day week, week—i.e., Friday prayer, Friday–Saturday. On this day, religious Jews ...

. It is commonly found in Jewish communities worldwide, though it is most commonly associated with Jews in the United States, where it has been considered the most important and iconic Jewish main course since the early 20th century.

Overview

In traditional

Jewish cooking Jewish cuisine refers to the worldwide cooking traditions of the Jewish people. During its evolution over the course of many centuries, it has been shaped by Jewish dietary laws (''kashrut''), Jewish festivals and holidays, and traditions centr ...

, brisket is most often

slow cooked Low-temperature cooking is a cooking technique that uses temperatures in the range of about for a prolonged time to cook food. Low-temperature cooking methods include sous vide cooking, slow cooking using a slow cooker, cooking in a normal oven wh ...

in an oven for many hours at a low temperature, which helps tenderize the otherwise-tough meat. Brisket is especially popular as a holiday main course, usually served at

, and on

. For reasons of economics and

kashrut (also or , ) is a set of Food and drink prohibitions, dietary laws dealing with the foods that Jewish people are permitted to eat and how those foods must be prepared according to halakha, Jewish law. Food that may be consumed is deemed ko ...

, it was historically one of the more popular cuts of beef among

Ashkenazi Jews Ashkenazi Jews ( ; also known as Ashkenazic Jews or Ashkenazim) form a distinct subgroup of the Jewish diaspora, that emerged in the Holy Roman Empire around the end of the first millennium CE. They traditionally speak Yiddish, a language ...

History

Brisket has been eaten by

in Europe for special occasions such as

, since at least the 1700s. Brisket is tough, but cheap, and if cooked for many hours at a low temperature it becomes tender. Brisket became popular among Ashkenazi Jews due to its low cost; farmers would sell the expensive cuts and keep the cheaper ones. Ashkenazi

Jewish refugees This article lists expulsions, refugee crises and other forms of displacement that have affected Jews. Timeline The following is a list of Jewish expulsions and events that prompted significant streams of Jewish refugees. Assyrian captivity ...

brought

shtetl or ( ; , ; Grammatical number#Overview, pl. ''shtetelekh'') is a Yiddish term for small towns with predominantly Ashkenazi Jews, Ashkenazi Jewish populations which Eastern European Jewry, existed in Eastern Europe before the Holocaust. The t ...

cooking with them, and introduced brisket to the general American population. Brisket then went on to become one of the most important foods in

Jewish cuisine Jewish cuisine refers to the worldwide cooking traditions of the Jewish people. During its evolution over the course of many centuries, it has been shaped by Jewish dietary laws (''kashrut''), Jewish festivals and holidays, and traditions cen ...

and

culture Culture ( ) is a concept that encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and Social norm, norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, Social norm, customs, capabilities, Attitude (psychology), attitudes ...

, especially in America.

Preparation

Brisket is prepared in a wide variety of ways by Ashkenazi Jews. Brisket is cooked for several hours at a low temperature and is cooked with a flavorful sauce and root vegetables. It is commonly seasoned or cooked with a sauce, such as

chili sauce Chili sauce and chili paste are condiments prepared with chili peppers. Chili sauce may be hot, sweet or a combination thereof, and may differ from hot sauce in that many sweet or mild varieties exist, which is typically lacking in hot sauce ...

ketchup Ketchup or catsup is a table condiment with a sweet and sour flavor. "Ketchup" now typically refers to tomato ketchup, although early recipes for different varieties contained mushrooms, oysters, mussels, egg whites, grapes, or walnuts, amon ...

, or even

Coca-Cola Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a cola soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. In 2013, Coke products were sold in over 200 countries and territories worldwide, with consumers drinking more than 1.8 billion company beverage servings ...

, and vegetables such as

onion An onion (''Allium cepa'' , from Latin ), also known as the bulb onion or common onion, is a vegetable that is the most widely cultivated species of the genus '' Allium''. The shallot is a botanical variety of the onion which was classifie ...

garlic Garlic (''Allium sativum'') is a species of bulbous flowering plants in the genus '' Allium''. Its close relatives include the onion, shallot, leek, chives, Welsh onion, and Chinese onion. Garlic is native to central and south Asia, str ...

, potatoes and

carrot The carrot ('' Daucus carota'' subsp. ''sativus'') is a root vegetable, typically orange in colour, though heirloom variants including purple, black, red, white, and yellow cultivars exist, all of which are domesticated forms of the wild ...

s are added and the brisket is then cooked for several hours in an oven. In modern times a slow cooker has also become a popular cooking method for brisket. One of the most common ways brisket is prepared in American Jewish cuisine is called a sweet-and-sour brisket and consists of a brisket cooked in a sauce containing crushed

tomato The tomato (, ), ''Solanum lycopersicum'', is a plant whose fruit is an edible Berry (botany), berry that is eaten as a vegetable. The tomato is a member of the nightshade family that includes tobacco, potato, and chili peppers. It originate ...

es, seasonings,

brown sugar Brown sugar is a sucrose sugar product with a distinctive brown color due to the presence of molasses. It is either an unrefined or partially refined soft sugar consisting of sugar crystals with some residual molasses content or produced by t ...

vinegar Vinegar () is an aqueous solution of diluted acetic acid and trace compounds that may include flavorings. Vinegar typically contains from 5% to 18% acetic acid by volume. Usually, the acetic acid is produced by a double fermentation, converting ...

, and beef or chicken stock. Another preparation of brisket is marinated and cooked with a sauce containing brewed coffee.

Uses

Brisket is commonly eaten on its own, or alongside

pareve In ''kashrut'', the dietary laws of Judaism, pareve or parve (from for "neutral"; in Hebrew , ''parveh'', or , ''stami'') is a classification of food that contains neither dairy nor meat ingredients. Food in this category includes all items tha ...

(

noodle Noodles are a type of food made from unleavened dough which is either rolled flat and cut, stretched, or extruded, into long strips or strings. Noodles are a staple food in many cultures and made into a variety of shapes. The most common noo ...

), or matzah ball soup. The leftovers of brisket are traditionally used in a variety of ways, such as in

cholent Cholent or Schalet () is a traditional slow-simmering Sabbath stew in Jewish cuisine that was developed by Ashkenazi Jews first in France and later Germany, and is first mentioned in the 12th century.Rabbi Yitzahk ben Moishe or "Zaruah" in his ...

, chamin, and other soups or stews, as well as in sandwiches.

References

{{Cuisine of Israel Ashkenazi Jewish cuisine Hanukkah foods Jewish American cuisine Passover foods Rosh Hashanah foods Shabbat food Jewish culture Beef

Overview

History

Preparation

Uses

See also

References