Pleasant House

For months I’ve been looking for an excuse to prepare Bruce Aidells’s recipe for brisket braised in porter, from Bon Appetit‘s October 2009 issue. Brisket is one of my favorite cuts of beef; though I don’t often eat it nowadays, it conjures many fond memories from my years growing up in Kansas beef country. Because the recipe insists that the brisket will taste best if braised on the day before it is to be eaten–and nevermind the nearly four hours of braising time alone–it’s not the sort of recipe that lends itself well to last-minute plans.

As luck would have it, both Art and I came down with a bit of a cold late last week. So the only items on our agenda this past weekend were staying at home and nursing ourselves back to health. Since good food can cure just about anything, and with 48 hours to spare, we decided to feed our colds with a four-course meal–with the brisket as centerpiece.

I should point out that during the last of those aforementioned years in beef country, and the nine years that followed, I was a vegetarian. Before this weekend, I hadn’t actually cooked a brisket, though I have worked with a variety of other cuts and meats since I fell off the wagon. That Art was at home from work and able to instruct me on how to butcher a whole brisket was an added bonus to the process of making and eating this delicious meal.

A restoratively good stew it was, complete with sweet from carrots, onions, mushrooms, and prunes; earthiness from thyme, bay, and sage; sour-tart from mustard, porter, and malt vinegar; and rich, fatty, robust meatiness from an especially flavorful cut of beef. Served with braised leeks, it woke up our taste buds and knocked out a few germs along the way.

Hint: It’s even better on the third day. After tonight’s leftovers, the brisket may be gone, but so are our colds.