Easy Brisket for Every Holiday

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Molly O'Neill is our Food Editor. She was the former food columnist for The New York Times Magazine. O'Neill is the author of three cookbooks, including the best-selling New York Cookbook (Workman Publishing, 1992), A Well Seasoned Appetite (Penguin, 1997), and The Pleasure of Your Company (Viking, 1997). She was the host of the PBS series Great Food, and edited the critically acclaimed anthology American Food Writing (Library of America, 2007). Her latest work, Mostly True: A Memoir of Family, Food, and Baseball (Scribner, 2006), recounts her childhood of growing up in a major league baseball family.

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by Molly O'Neill

This recipe, from Abbe Dubin, is adapted From Cooking Jewish: 532 Great Recipes from the Rabinowitz Family by Judy Bart Kancigor (Workman, 2007). This brisket can be prepared a day ahead.

4 to 5 pounds first-cut beef brisket
1/2 cup ketchup
1 envelope dehydrated onion soup mix
6 ounces (1/2 can) Coca-Cola

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

2. Place the brisket, fat side down, in a 13- x 9-inch baking pan (or one large enough to hold it) and add water to a depth of about 1 inch. Spread the ketchup evenly over the meat, using a spatula or a spoon. Sprinkle the soup mix over the ketchup, and use the spatula or spoon to press it into the ketchup. Pour the Coca-Cola around the meat. Cover the pan tightly with aluminum foil.

3. Bake until tender. The time will vary according to the thickness of the meat and your preference: Start checking after 2 1/2 hours. Three to 3 1/2 hours usually does it, although Abbe’s family likes it really falling apart, and she’s been known to cook it for as long as 5 hours. (You may want to remove the foil and roast the brisket uncovered for the last 20 minutes or so.)

4. Remove the pan from the oven and allow to cool. Then transfer the brisket and sauce to a nonreactive dish or container, cover, and refrigerate.

5. The next day, remove and discard the fat that has congealed on top of the sauce as well as the layer of fat on the meat. Slice the meat against the grain. Strain the sauce. Arrange the meat in a Dutch oven or other large heavy pot, add the gravy, and simmer until hot.

6. Serve hot, passing any extra gravy in a sauceboat.

Serves 8 to 10.