Janice Makes Baby-Sized Braised Beef Brisket

My husband has this odd thing he likes to do—he loves to trim and cut up large hunks of meat and package them in small portions for the freezer. (He also loves to debone a chicken—even 2 or 3 at a time—weird, I know, but handy for me!) So I had one of his 2 pound brisket portions in my freezer from his last big butcher party with a humongous brisket, and decided to use that for this recipe.  However, I no longer had that big hunk of fat on top the brisket, as hubby really likes to trim lean, so there was not much of that fat layer left. 

I was unable to locate the beef consume, but I found beef stock, so used that instead. I didn’t put the stock in the marinade, however, but rather added it just before baking.  I wanted to marinade in a zip lock baggie, so that I could turn the meat over every few hours so all side would sit in the liquid. I thought the beef stock would make too much liquid for my baggie. I marinated for 24 hours, then poured the brisket and liquids into my pan and added some of the stock. Since my brisket was much smaller than PW’s, I just kind of guessed at the appropriate amounts for the marinade.  

I cooked my small 2 pound brisket for 2 hours, then let it sit covered for another 30 minutes before slicing. (PW suggests about 40 min./pound.) Hubby was really hanging out in the kitchen cause it smelled really, really good…so he took over the slicing (so he could nibble!).

My meat was very tender, but did not fall apart as much as PW’s.  I wondered if that was because it had almost no fat on it. It also seemed to need a lot of salt at the table, and I wondered if that had anything to do with the fat-free meat too…

The leftovers are going to be very good…I will probably get 3 more meals out of this meat…I think some of it will wind up in some BBQ sauce for sure.