On Sat, 10 Nov 2007 10:30:16 -0800, Sheldon > wrote:

>Andy wrote:
>> What's your best recipe? The one you're famous for?
>>
>> My best is flank steak and mashed potatoes and sauted onions.
>
>I would have guessed Andy is the bottom round type. (_<q>_)
>
>
>I'm famous for braised brisket and kasha varnishkas.
>
>Sheldon Groats

I am not from or in America and know absolutely nothing about braised
brisket and kasha varnishkas. The latter sounds Eastern European -
yes?

However, where I live brisket is regarded as a very low-cost cut and
corned to make corned beef, or is used for pet food. I have never
seen brisket as such in either the butcher's shop or supermarket. This
is true. No one I know has ever used brisket in any form whatsoever,
except that one always knew it was sometimes sold as corned beef which
one boils up for hours. And even so, the silverside cut (bolar I
think is its other name) is the preferred corned beef cut here
anyway.

Perhaps I am missing something. Maybe the American brisket is
different from our beef brisket (although we export beef globally).

Would you be good enough to describe this cut of beef comparing it to,
say, shin, chuck, sirloin, fillet, skirt steak or blade steak. I
have a feeling that some supermarket stores here might slice brisket
up fairly thinly and sell it off as beef schnitzel, but I have never
been game to ask! (I never buy this cut of meat because it requires
endless marinading in softening-type ingredients to enable one to cut
through it once cooked.)

Would you also be good enough to describe how one cooks brisket in
your country? Is it long and slow and braised - like we cook shin or
chuck and blade steak? Or is it flash grilled or barbecued like top
shelf fillet and sirloin cuts?

** Softening-type ingredients are baking soda dissolved in water (half
a tsp of soda to 3 tbs water and massaged into the meat) or a
combination of crushed pineapple and crushed kiwi fruit, left to
marinade overnight.







The Golfer's Wife