Back to Aunt Florence’s Brisket in 2026

After Thanksgiving this year, Danny told me that he wants me to go back to my old, old recipe from 12 years ago, which was my Aunt Florence’s recipe. So yesterday, I bought a beautiful 5 lb. piece of brisket from McCaffrey’s in Princeton, and I set about making my own retro recipe. One of the things that aided me was my purchase of a new Lodge 7 1/2 quart porcelain coated dutch oven. I think this pot made the whole process much, much easier. By the way, 12 years ago, I could buy the brisket on sale for $1.99 a pound, so the meat would cost about $10.00. Yesterday, I payed $82.00 for the 5 lbs. of brisket. Now that’s what I call inflation.

Here’s exactly what I did:

1. I seasoned the meat well with kosher salt, ground black pepper, and garlic powder on both sides.
2. I peeled and quartered about 2 lbs. yellow onions, and then in 2 batches, put them in the Cuisinart with the metal blade, and pulsed pulsed pulsed until I basically had minced the onions fully.
3. I took 2-3 carrots, peeled them, cut each carrot into 3 pieces, and then cut each of those pieces into extremely skinny sticks.
4. I coated the bottom of the dutch oven with about 1 tablespoon of sunflower or light olive oil. I dumped all the onions in the pot evenly distributed, and then I placed all my skinny carrot sticks on top of the onions.
5. I carefully placed my brisket fat side up. (Next time, I’m going to try fat side down.) I added about 1 cup of room temperature water around the edges of the brisket so I wouldn’t wash all the spices off my meat!
6. I put the cover on and the flame on medium. I cooked about 1 hour.
7. I took the top off now. I saw the onions looking pretty anemic and there was lots of liquid.
8. I put the flame on medium heat, and I just watched the pot. It only took about 15 min. for all the liquid to boil off.
9. Within about 5 min., I could smell the onions and meat were browning, and I could see that the onions were now a medium brown. I took the meat out with 2 wooden spatulas and put it on a large plate.
10. Using a wooden spatula, I stirred the now browned onions well, I added about 1 cup of water, I mixed well, and I now had medium to dark gravy and onions. I put the meat back in fat side up, I covered the pot.
11. I put the pot into a preheated oven of 300 degrees for about 3 more hours. I actually put the oven on 200 degrees, because I had to leave the house for about 2 hours. If I were home, I’d just keep the temperature at 300 degrees.
12. I took the pot out every 1/2 hour (except when I was out) until a fork went into the meat very easily. There was a really good amount of very, very dark gravy.
13. I took the meat out of the pot, using 2 wooden spatulas, and placed it on a large platter. I let it sit uncovered for about 2 hours till it was cool. I covered it with aluminum foil and placed the meat in the fridge overnight.
14. In the morning, I divided the gravy into 2 tinfoil containers. Then, I sliced the meat against the grain with a very sharp knife into slices about 1/4 inch thick. I divided the slices into the two containers. I froze one container, and I used the other for dinner tonight for Benji and me.
15. Benji actually said he preferred my more recent version to this this version. My other standard recipe includes all the same ingredients, except that I sprinkle the meat with paprika as well as the other spices, and I schmear the top of the meat with about 1/2 of one small can of Contadina tomato paste, I also add 1 envelope of Lipton’s Onion Soup. I’m not sure which one I like more; it’s a close contest. One thing I did notice was that the gravy for this retro (Aunt Florence’s recipe) needed more salt. Next time I make this, I’ll salt the meat more heavily!