The Best of All The Beef Brisket Recipes

The best of all the beef brisket recipes has to be my Grandma's.

Most of us can remember walking into Grandma's house and smelling something really good cooking - for me, it was her beef brisket recipe.

And the best part of it was the gravy that came from cooking the brisket with ketchup, onion soup and ginger ale. There are not a lot of ingredients, but the long, slow cooking blends everything perfectly.

If you've never cooked a beef brisket before, this recipe would be a good one to start with.

The Best of All The Beef Brisket Recipes - My Grandma's

3 pounds beef brisket, first-cut
1 cup ketchup
1 can (12 ounces) ginger ale
1 package (1 ounce) dried onion soup
3 large carrots, peeled and cut into chunks
1 large onion, cut into chunks

Preheat the oven to 350F.

Whisk together the ketchup, the dried onion soup and the ginger ale. Put the beef brisket in a roasting pan with the fat side up and pour in the mixture. Roll the brisket around in the sauce, making sure that all surfaces are well coated. Return the brisket to the fat side up, and arrange the carrots and onions around the meat.

Cover the pan with aluminum foil and bake the brisket for 2 hours. At the end of that time, remove the foil and baste the brisket with the pan juices. Cook for 1 more hour, uncovered, or until the meat is fork tender.

Remove the brisket to a cutting board and let is rest for about 10 minutes.

During that time, pour off all the pan juices into a small container and skim the fat from the top.

Slice the brisket into long thin slices against the grain and put them on a warmed serving platter. Arrange the cooked carrots and onions around the sliced brisket. Pour some of the pan juices over the meat and serve the rest on the side.

Serves 6 to 8

Food For Thought - You can make this an even more substantial meal by adding potatoes with the other vegetables. I like using whole baby red potatoes, but peeled and cut up russets or Idaho potatoes work just as well. Just before the meat is finished, add some thawed out frozen peas. All the vegetables soak up some of the pan juices, which just add to their flavor.

On Your Own - If you would like to try some other ingredients, think about using a small can of tomato paste instead of the ketchup. We have substituted dried mushroom soup for the onion soup, and if you are a 7-Up fan, by all means use that instead of the ginger ale.