mazel tov ... and my finger got bris-ed

I didn't know this, but apparently brisket is a favorite dish of Jewish holiday seders.  Who knew?  I just enjoy eating the delicious nommy meat.  Sorry.  Catholic.

Anyhow, I decided that I was going to make a brisket yesterday.  So I wandered in to Mosley's for one of my usual trips, and said "gimme enough brisket for four people and some leftovers."  $16 and five minutes later, I had me a brisket.

And then ... the scouring of the interwebs for a good recipe began.

Here's what I came up with.  I used my crock pot, because I was going to be home all day.  After the bris of my finger, I opted to just leave the fat on it.

Mmmm, look at that delicious slab of beef!

I put it fat-side-down in my crock pot, and then prepared a delicious rub for the brisket.  Here's what I stirred together and put on the meat side (didn't touch the fat side):

1 teaspoon Kosher salt
2 teaspoons dry (ground) mustard
2 teaspoons paprika
3 cloves garlic, put through the press
ground black pepper to taste

I sprinkled the mixture all over the meat, and rubbed it in with my good hand (not the one with the gashes on it).  I made sure I got it all over the sides, too.  It was almost like a crust on the meat.  I tried to decide ... put water in?  Let the fat render down?  Dump some wine in there?  The mind boggled.  I opted for letting the fat do its thing, and didn't put any liquid in.

So I put it on low for 8 hours. And of course, this happened while I waited for the brisket to cook:

I love my Coco puppy.  

And here's what the brisket looked like when it was done:

In hindsight, I think I'd have taken it out after 6 if I had put some liquid in there.  It was so very tasty ... but it could have been tastier, I think.  I paired it with mashed Yukon Gold potatoes and handmade pan gravy.  I'll post about that separately, because I've got some great tips to reduce / eliminate lumps.

My family gave this brisket recipe a solid (but not perfect) four "Go Away Cats, This Is Tasty"'s out of five.