Cooking

1/12/2013

Cooking

Today is Curried Chicken day so you'll have to forgive me for not wanting to join in the huge celebration that I know is going to take place all over the country today.  Or not.

What I am going to do this weekend is cook brisket.  Okay let me rephrase that - I'm going to cook my FIRST brisket - this weekend.  This particular slab of beef happens to weigh more than a small child and for defrosting purposes I'm using a cookie sheet and it fills it completely.  Get the picture?  I'm sure you do.

Now all you sane folks out there are probably wondering why Jeff and I are in possession of a slab (notice the use of the word slab because piece just doesn't do the size justice) of brisket.  It was one of those purchases we bought on an empty stomach and spur of the moment.  Maybe not good decisions on our part but the "cow" still needs to be cooked.

Confession.  I have never cooked brisket before and don't even know where this particular piece of meat is located on the cow.  You know saying that you're going to eat a shoulder or rump roast needs no further explanation.  Those two places on an animal don't need further identification.  Same can be said for tongue, liver, heart, well you get the idea.

Trouble is I've never cooked brisket before but it always looks so good on those cooking shows.  So as a novice brisket cooker I have turned not to a recipe book (that is so yesterday), nope I'm off to the internet to get some guidance.  And I'm sure I'll find plenty.  

Just for research purposes I typed in just now "brisket recipes" and received - hold on to your hat - 3,220,000 results.  That's a whole lot of brisket.  From that staggering amount of help, I will whittle down my search to something more like - brisket cooking for idiots - or - my first time with a brisket.  Okay for giggles I just typed in the new search criteria and here's what I got.  For the idiots' cooking search I only got 45,700 results. For my first time with brisket search netted me 1,850,000 results.  Seriously?  If I change the word idiot to stupid I still get 1,220,000 results.  

Super duper brisket recipes (the truth) gave me back 157,000 results.  Apparently, finding the right (i.e., simplest) recipe for cooking brisket may be more difficult and/or challenging than the actual cooking!  It appears that I can make hash, jerkey, brisket fried rice or stuff ravioli with it.  

Sometime today I will again search looking for a quick, simple and yummy recipe to try.  I know that you are all hanging on with eager anticipation to see how I do - so there will, of course, be an update.  

Have a fantastic Saturday.  

P