The History of Brisket - From Jewish Tradition to BBQ (2024)

FAQs

What is the history of the Jewish brisket? ›

Brisket became popular among Ashkenazi Jews due to its low cost; farmers would sell the expensive cuts and keep the cheaper ones. Ashkenazi Jewish refugees brought shtetl cooking with them, and introduced brisket to the general American population.

Jewish immigrants were the first to smoke brisket in the United States. By the early 1900s smoked brisket appeared on Jewish deli menus across Texas.

The most accepted is that German and Czech immigrants (non-Jewish) to Texas simply adapted the native land methods of smoking pork to readily available inexpensive cuts of beef cattle.

Down South brisket is usually slow cooked over indirect heat, with basting and smoking often involved. The brisket here is from the Jewish camp, with the meat being braised in the oven for a long time. It's a pot roast, essentially.

Brisket roots back to 18th-century Ashkenazi Jewish communities in Eastern and Central Europe. It was—and still is—commonly eaten on holidays like Rosh Hashanah, Passover, and Hanukkah because it is meat from the breast of the cow, making it kosher.

But if you smoke or slow roast something, like a brisket, then the collagen breaks down and melts. While melting, water gets into this collagen, and creates gelatin, basically giving you meat jello, which makes your meal tender, juicy, and flavorful. Triglycerides, or meat fat, are saturated fatty acids found in meat.

Brisket was and is still used as a special cut of meat on Jewish holidays such as Hannukah, Shabbat, and Passover. The cut of beef was decided to be celebratory and important due to its location. Brisket is found in the cow's front breast, making it kosher for Jews to consume.

I'm saying that brisket is the king because it's the best BBQ recipe. It is the king because when it comes to big hunks of meat, a well smoked brisket is the most challenging, tiring as well as rewarding cut that you can tackle.

Brisket contains a lot of connective tissue, which can make it tough. The type of connective tissue in brisket is called collagen. Cook the meat quickly and you get tough, dry meat. Cook a brisket slowly, with some liquid, and the collagen turns into gelatin.

Can you overcook a Jewish brisket? ›

Can you even overcook a brisket, a cut known for being super tough? (Yes, I've since learned, you definitely can.) A staple dish in many Jewish families, brisket was something we'd never actually made at home.

What Are the Different Types of Brisket? There aren't different types of brisket, but there are two components: point (or deckle) and flat. The point is attached directly to the rib cage and is a thicker cut with dense meat and large hunks of fat. The flat has some fat but is mostly meat and connective tissue.

ANSWER: They are both beef, but not the same thing. Fresh beef brisket is like a big roast. Corned beef starts out as beef brisket and is brine-cured first. The brine-cure is what makes it corned beef and that curing process is where it gets its color from.

Etymology and origin

Pastrami was introduced to the United States in a wave of Jewish immigration from Bessarabia and Romania in the second half of the 19th century. The modified "pastrami" spelling was probably introduced in imitation of the American English salami.