March 30, 2013
Author: yudicle
My mother gave me this recipe. I don’t know where she got it from, but my husband and kids love it. It’s not necessarily old world and not fancy. But it is delicious. Mom was first generation American, born in 1915 in Passaic, NJ. Bubbe came from Lithuania. Usual story – steerage with two little ones in tow to meet her husband who had come first to America. Bubbe had long gray hair by the time I knew her. Always in a long braid curled on her head. I saw her once with it down – I think it embarrassed her.
Mom told me that one of the reasons Bubbe came here was that she disagreed with the tradition of cutting a woman’s hair and wearing a wig. Otherwise, she was strictly Orthodox in her observances. We’d visit on Saturdays at the apartment my mother grew up in, and we couldn’t turn the lights on until the sun had set. If we visited on Sunday, she’d slide a dime across the kitchen table to us, and she’d tell my mother in Yiddish that we should take it to the convenience store down the street to buy a treat. Usually some Hostess snack – it was the ’50′s. I barely ever spoke to her directly as she spoke no English. A quiet, sweet non-conformist who wouldn’t cut her hair just to please her folks. Who knew when I was growing up? I miss both of them.
Ingredients
2 onions
1 can condensed tomato soup
1 cup ketchup
2 tbl brown sugar
2 tbl lemon joice
brisket (whatever size is needed though generally a min. of 2 lbs)
Preparation
Saute 2 onions until golden.
In sauce pan, add onions to tomato soup, ketchup, brown sugar and lemon juice and stir.
Heat and set aside for the sauce.
Brown brisket on all sides in frying pan or Dutch oven large enough for meat to lay flat. Add 1/2 cup water, cover and simmer 2-2 1/2 hours.
Take out brisket, slice. In a baking dish – anything from 8×8 thru 9×12 – whatever fits.- spread some sauce in the bottom of the dish. Place sliced brisket in the dish and smother with remaining sauce.
It can be baked immediately. HOWEVER – it is best if prepared as above a day ahead and put in the refrigerator overnight. Bake (the next day) at 350 degrees, 45 minutes.