1. I made Mark Sisson's brisket, and it was better than everything. Better than sex, better than peppermint bark, better than the two-hours-after-Crossfit high, better than Jane Austen. Just on the basis of this brisket, Mark is now my third favorite person after Aaron and Livy.
2. Here's a link to Ansley's YouTube, where she posted a video of me that you should all see. If you want to sum me right up, this video is it.
6 comments:
Your post prompted me to stop at the store on the way home, and I made the brisket last night. Very good.
The only bad part was that I made it in my cast iron skillet that I had carefully seasoned over the past months, and the vinegar + tomato acid worked perfectly in completely stripping the non-stick seasoning coating. Ugh!
I'll be using a casserole dish next time.
C.--I just got a "pre-seasoned" cast iron skillet. Any tips for seasoning it up proper?
Mine is/was pre-seasoned as well -- a cheap Emeril brand one from Bed, Bath & BEYOND!!!!. (but it's just a heavy iron skillet so I'm thinking getting an expensive one would be a giant waste) But the pre-seasoning was crap. After a few uses I could see it starting to rust.
I don't remember where I saw it, but someone did some detailed home experimenting about how to properly season a pan and make it nearly non-stick. The gist was that they picked a good oil with a high smoke point, coated the inside of the pan, and stuck it in the oven -- upside down to avoid pooling -- at 450 for an hour. And then did that a few more times.
Actually, what they did was much more labor intensive than that, but it's what I took away from it. I used coconut oil -- which has a higher smoke point than olive, but really isn't quite high enough for this either as the smoky smell in the kitchen indicates -- and after two rounds the pan was really well seasoned. Oh, and here's a tip. A 450 oven makes the skillet 450, and if you slip and let your hand touch it, you might get a bit of a burn. Just sayin'.
The acidic nature of the brisket dish killed it though. Stripped it clean. So this morning I did an initial re-seasoning with coconut and it worked well. I'll do a couple more rounds before using the pan again, and then I won't cook this dish in it again.
Oh, and if you do try to season it, I'd suggest trying to get rid of the pre-seasoned stuff, whatever it is. It would probably mostly come off with an abrasive sponge and soap. And then after you season it for real, never let soap touch it again.
Ha! Glad you liked it. Next on the menu: Goat.
Did you do the oven or the slow cooker? I'm making this for Christmas!
I did it in the oven in a covered clay pot.
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