Crockpot Brisket
From sitbynellie 13 years ago
- 11 hours to make
- Serves 10
It’s summer and it’s not really meat and taters weather…. but I was in the supermarket and saw some nice meat at a good price, and since brisket freezes really well, I thought to salt some away in the freezer against the coming of the cooler weather. Read more In my enthusiasm I started cooking as soon as I got home in the early evening but of course I forgot it would take about 10 hours to cook, so by the time I faffed around and got it underway, I had to set my alarm for 4.30 am to switch it off. Can you tell this was the first time I cooked brisket in the crockpot? See less
Ingredients
- 3 tbsps. olive oil shopping list
- 2 large pieces brisket, 3 ½ - 4lbs. each shopping list
- 8 heaped tsps. beef gravy mix (I used Bisto Best, Roast beef gravy granules– this is what I had on hand) shopping list
- 2 pts. boiling water shopping list
- ½ 14-oz. can chopped tomatoes - again, this is what I had shopping list
- a generous glug of mushroom ketchup shopping list
- 1 large onion, chopped shopping list
- 1 tsp. salt shopping list
- 1 tsp. black pepper shopping list
- 1 tsp. garlic powder shopping list
- ½ tsp. mild paprika shopping list
- 1 tsp. onion powder shopping list
- ½ tsp. dried oregano shopping list
- ½ tsp. dried thyme shopping list
- 2 carrots, roughly chopped shopping list
- a few oz. swede (rutabaga), roughly chopped shopping list
- 1-2 stalks celery, sliced shopping list
- ½ large leek, white and light green parts only, thickly sliced shopping list
- ½ large onion, chopped shopping list
- 4 small-medium new potatoes, scrubbed and cut in thirds shopping list
- vegetables of choice, to serve shopping list
How to make it
- In a large sauté pan, heat the oil over medium-high heat.
- Put the meat in and brown on all sides. See Photo
- Meanwhile, make up the beef gravy. I made 2 pints, but reduced the amount of granules to give a much thinner gravy than given by the pack directions. Of course if you have good beef stock you should use that, but I hadn’t any to hand.
- Add the chopped tomatoes and the mushroom ketchup and stir well in. If you wanted to, you could sub some of the liquid with red wine, and use Worcestershire sauce if you haven’t any mushroom ketchup. Some yeast extract or miso would work well too, I think. Adjust the seasoning to your taste – I was fairly conservative here.
- Place meat and vegetables in a large crockpot (I think mine is 6 quarts) on HIGH. See Photo
- Pour in some of the hot gravy, about ½ pt.
- To the sauté pan, add the onion, salt, black pepper, garlic powder, mild paprika, onion powder, oregano and thyme. See Photo
- Stir to coat onions with the seasonings and remaining oil and meat juices. Cook very gently about 10 minutes until softened.
- Add some of the made-up gravy, about ½ pt. Cook on a little.
- Add the onions and spices to the crockpot, then tip in the rest of the beef gravy mixture. See Photo
- Cover with lid. (I cooked it on HIGH for 2 hours, then turned it down to LOW and cooked for another 8 hours. However, it was a bit overcooked – next time I do this I will just let it have 10 hours on LOW.)
- Switch off the crockpot and let the meat cool in the gravy. When the meat and gravy are cool, lift the meat out and put on a carving surface.
- Cut off the string or whatever it's rolled in, and scrape any fat bits off of the meat – it’s not nice. See Photo
- Carve up the meat. As I said, I overcooked this so it was a little bit too ‘fall-apart’ but hey, it’s going to fall apart a lot more once it’s being eaten. See Photo
- Strain the liquid through a sieve into a large jug and lift out the potatoes. You could put them back in after the pureeing step below, but this would be too rich in carbohydrates for me. They also drew out a lot of the salt from the gravy mix, so I just discarded them. See Photo
- Skim as much fat off the surface as possible – I used kitchen paper to blot it away.
- Put the vegetable mush into the processor and purée. Mix the purée into the gravy.
- Put the meat back into the gravy, reheat gently and serve with any vegetables you fancy.
- Or, refrigerate until it’s needed. Like a lot of meat dishes it’s better the next day.
- On this occasion I divided the meat into five two-portion packs (using washed-out containers from the Chinese take-out) and chilled it before labelling and freezing. See Photo
- That’s five nights in the future that I won’t need to cook.
Brown the meat
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Cook onions and seasonings
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Add veg to the meat
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Pour in the hot liquid
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Remove string and fat
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Carve up
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Strain liquid and puree veg
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Divide into freezer packs (optional)
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