Brisket in the beef cut chart. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I have always thought that meat should be completely thawed before cooking. So when I needed to whiz up a delicious Sunday roast for friends and family I popped to my friends and picked up a delicious Black Aberdeen Angus 1.4kg beef brisket – that was frozen solid.
I panicked for a bit, then did some research – there are a surprisingly large number of time savy (or badly organised) people out there who cook their beef from frozen.
I was dubious and tried it yesterday afraid it would all go horribly wrong. Well I can safely say – it didn’t.
Brisket is a cut of meat from the breast or lower chest and being a major muscle needs a long slow cook to break it down. So I would always recommend that a brisket is cooked in the slow cooker for a several hours. You won’t regret it.
Difficulty – Unbelievably easy
Ingredients
– 1.4kg beef brisket (Aberdeen Angus or otherwise)
– Half a bottle of red Merlot (or like us non drinkers any red wine you have received at Christmas)
– 200ml of beef stock
– Handful of roughly chopped carrots
– 2 tablespoons of cranberry sauce
– Salt and Pepper
Method
1. The night before your guests arrive pop your beef brisket and all the other ingredients into your slow cooker. In total I gave my beef 14 hours and from a frozen block it had transformed into the most delicious, moist, fall off the fork, beef. The red wine had given the beef the most delicious deep flavour that was not overpowering but definitely detectable.
You can use the juices and the vegetables to whizz up a lovely gravy. Saucepan ready, I scooped out all the veg and some of the stock (minus the fat), added more red wine and 2 tablespoons of cornflour made into a paste with some cold water. Then bubbled it all together and with a hand blender gave it a whizz to bring it all together (I don’t have time to strain things).
Served with tonnes of lovely fresh vegetables and roast potatoes this is one substantial and wonderfully flavorsome dinner.
Note – You can of course do all of this with a thawed piece of meat.
Related articles
- Sweet-Tangy Crusted Brisket (cookinglikeyourmom.wordpress.com)
- “Not Too Salty” Crock Pot Corned Beef (foodiecitymom.com)
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