Real Recipes From Real Home Cooks ®

mama's brisket

(1 rating)
Blue Ribbon Recipe by
Stuart Grifenhagen
Rockmart, GA

This is the way my mother taught me to cook brisket. And I have been doing it this way for years. It is not, however, barbecue brisket. I do that on the smoker. But that's for another day.

Blue Ribbon Recipe

Stuart's mother taught him how to bake a brisket very well! Cooking this brisket low and slow makes the meat tender and it just falls apart. The flavor is really good between the onions and rubbing the meat down with the onion soup mix... so yummy. The juice poured over the meat and veggies is perfect. A great family meal!

— The Test Kitchen @kitchencrew
(1 rating)
yield 6 serving(s)
prep time 30 Min
cook time 3 Hr
method Roast

Ingredients For mama's brisket

  • 6-8 lb
    beef brisket, with or without deckel, your choice
  • 4
    beef bouillon, cubes, crushed into a powder (or use the equivalent powdered bouillion)
  • 4-5 c
    water
  • 4 lb
    red or yukon gold potatos, quartered
  • 2
    white onions, large and coarsely chopped
  • 5
    carrots, cut in 1-2 inch pieces
  • 2 pkg
    onion soup mix (like knorr, liptons, or campbell)
  • 1 pkg
    mushroom soup mix

How To Make mama's brisket

  • 1
    Preheat the oven to 375. Rinse off brisket and pat dry. If there's too much fat on the meat, trim it. But be careful not to remove too much. Remember, fat adds flavor.
  • 2
    Combine the two packages of soup mix in a bowl. Coat the brisket with oil or spray with cooking spray. Then, rub the instant soup mix liberally into both sides of the brisket, using it all.
  • 3
    Place the chopped onions on the bottom of a large dutch oven and put the meat directly on top. Add cut up carrots, and potatoes to the dutch oven. Add enough water to the dutch oven to come up almost to the top of the roast.
  • 4
    In another sauce pan, boil 1 1/2 cup of water. Once boiling, add the bouillon. Keep stirring until dissolved. Add mushroom soup mix. Then add to dutch oven.
  • 5
    Cover the pot and put in the preheated oven to cook. Cook at 375 for 3-4 hours. At 2.5 hours, check the liquid level in the pot - you want it to reduce, just not gone. Add more water or beef stock as needed. At 3 hours, check the meat for tenderness. When the brisket is done, it will come close to falling apart. Remove from oven. Take the meat out. Let it cool in the fridge. It cuts better when its cold. When you're ready to eat, reheat the "gravy" in the pot and ladle the heated liquid over the sliced meat. If the meat isn't hot enough, you can reheat it in the oven or microwave. Just be mindful of how long its been cooking.
  • 6
    Serve everything together in a big serving pot or platter and enjoy. This is particularly good served open faced on top of some good Jewish rye bread. As I mentioned in step 4, if you want to slice the brisket, its best to prepare it the day before, cool it in the fridge and slice it cold. It slices much easier and better when cold. Then put it back in the pot with the potatoes, etc. only to reheat when ready for supper. Doing it this way, also gives you a chance to remove some/most of the fat from what was left in the pot.
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