Click here for the Thyme and Garlic Beef Brisket recipe!
Ah, the 80’s! I recall being invited to attend my now-husband’s cousin’s Confirmation ceremony and gathering. Afterwards, his mother served a delicious spread of food for lunch. She had made this dish that I fell in love with, each bite was flavorful and had so much depth. It was the start of my love affair with red wine sauces and it was all due to her wonderful, at the time, unknown dish.
I had never tasted anything like that before. I absolutely adored the rich flavor and tender texture of the meat, the beautiful sauce with the lovely mushrooms. I don’t remember if I overheard conversation or if I asked my future mother-in-law what the dish was, but eventually, I found out that it was Beef Burgundy (Beef Bourguignon). It is still one of my favorite dishes and I do not make it often enough!
I enjoy indulging in a delicious red wine, and incorporating it into my cooking is always a delightful experience. The “problem” is you rarely use the whole bottle in your dish, so that means you need to rescue the rest of the bottle before it turns to red wine vinegar! Oh sure, you could use the old wine for cooking, and if it goes to the vinegary side, in a recipe that calls for red wine vinegar. However, I prefer to drink a newly opened bottle. So, why bother saving it?
There are many recipes that use wine in a sauce, I have an awesome pot roast recipe that uses the depth of a red, a pork recipe that has a beautiful white wine sauce, and a great chicken recipe that uses a sweet marsala. I love to use wine and beers in my cooking. Different varieties give a unique depth of flavor and can really enhance an otherwise dull and ordinary dish. It can make it fancy and exciting to your tastebuds! If you don’t drink alcohol, there are many options of alcohol free wines and beers. You could also choose to use a complex broth or stock in the wine or beer’s place. Experiment! You’ll be surprised at the flavors you can produce.
As I often do, I was in the freezer looking for something to spark my interest and give me a creative cooking outlet. I found a small 3 pound brisket that was originally bought to be smoked, but I wasn’t feeling the smoking vibe. I didn’t want to be out with the grill (heat and wildfire smoke – yuck), so I decided I would do something with it in the oven. Years ago, I had seen Ina Garten do an oven brisket on her show that looked amazing. That sparked an interest!
I made my way over to Pinterest (always my first recipe stop, you can find anything there!) and started researching oven briskets. Most of them were similar to what you would do grilling. Ina’s looked amazing, but seemed like it would be too close to my pot roast recipe. I started looking for something with a red wine and tomato base for the sauce. Eventually I stumbled across this Thyme and Garlic Brisket recipe. It looked delicious!
I did change the recipe a bit to suit what I had available (I didn’t want to make a grocery run again). I used dried thyme instead of fresh (1 teaspoon is equal to a sprig), a vidalia onion instead of the shallots, and a 28 ounce can of Cento San Marzano whole tomatoes. If you have not tried a true San Marzano tomato – do it! It is worth the extra cost for importing them from Italy! The San Marzano tomato has a sweeter and more tomato-y flavor with less seeds. And the color – these photos have not been touched up! Look at that gorgeous color – it is just a beautiful tomato! Make sure you are getting the real thing, a DPO certified San Marzano grown in the valley of the Sarno in Italy. There are a lot of imposters, I urge you to try the real thing at least once.
I also opted to make this a one pot meal and added potatoes and carrots. I did not baste the meat as the recipe suggested, I just let it bake and the first time I checked for tenderness, I flipped the meat over to baste itself in the juices. Thickening the sauce is a must, don’t skip it! By thickening the sauce, it clung to the meat and vegetables and was a mouth-watering bite.
When we had all gotten our fill, there were still vegetables left and that gorgeous sauce. But alas, no brisket for leftovers. So the following day, I found a package of boneless country style pork ribs and had this thought for a revision. I put the pork in a crockpot with the sauce on low for about 5 hours, then flipped the meat, added the leftover vegetables and let it cook about an hour more so the vegetables would warm up. It was just as tasty the second time as the first. You will have to thicken the sauce again!
This is a great recipe if you are looking for a way to use a brisket differently. You could substitute a pot roast and get a very similar dish as well. And – Oh! In case you were wondering… Yes I rescued the wine!
