Long & slow: A hunk of brisket cooked for 10 hours in a slow cooker. (Photo: Tony Jackman)
Derision. That’s what I usually hurl at a slow cooker. And have done for my adult life, which is considerable. My wife has always loved it but I have always denied it my good countenance. But I was wrong (ish). And I hereby (kind of) smile upon it.
These are my usual slow cooker frustrations: you can’t brown your meat or onions in it; everything cooked in it turns to mush; and the dish you eventually turn out in it is colourless. These are all things I want in a cooking vessel.
But, recently, I decided to hoik it out of the cupboard and use it for making Bone Broth, and the reason I chose the slow cooker is simple: this broth (stock) needed to cook for at least 30 hours. I chose to go for a full 48 hours, literally two entire days. Here’s the recipe for that.
Then, this week, I decided to get it out again and give it another opportunity to get into, and stay in, my good books. I cooked a thick joint of beef brisket in it, and it turned out wonderfully.
Just look at the colours in that photograph up there. Rich and dark and full of life. (Well, so to speak.) The hue says everything about the truth it holds: that this meat was deeply flavourful and a delight to eat. With polenta, as it happened, although mashed potato would have worked equally well, with rice as the third choice.
The key, you probably know, is that the meat does indeed have to be browned first, and not in a slow cooker. So, for me, a slow cooker (unless you’re making a broth of the kind described above) still requires you to brown the meat and onions in something else, and is not much good for anything other than keeping food warm while your dinner party guests are having their canapés and chitchat.
But, once I had braised the onions to give them colour and umami flavour (in a pan on the stove), and once I’d browned the brisket on every side, thoroughly, to ignite the caramelisation that a slow cooker can never give to its contents, that humble old-school vessel did come into its own.
The chief advantage of this creature is that it maintains that low heat constantly with very little evaporation. Even after 10 hours, that soup back there needed only a small top-up of water. That’s quite an advantage and I readily admit to having underestimated this implement.
I even deglazed the browning pan on the stove with water so that I could add that bit of flavour to the slow cooker as well. Anything that adds flavour should never be discarded.
What else went into the slow cooker with that brisket? Lots of sliced onion and crushed garlic cloves, chopped carrots, celery and leek; plenty of bay and thyme, and a litre and more of good beef stock.
Oh, and it was butter that I browned the meat in.
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Tony’s braised brisket and onions, slow cooker style
Ingredients
(Serves 6)
Butter as needed for browning
1.4kg brisket, in one piece
5 large onions, sliced and braised
5 garlic cloves, crushed
2 large carrots, peeled and sliced
2 celery stalks, diced, including the leaves
2 large or 3 or 4 small leeks, sliced
4 bay leaves
4 thyme sprigs
1 litre beef stock (or more, enough to cover the meat)
Salt to taste
Black pepper to taste
Method
Though the cooking is slow, the method is short:
Melt the butter in a heavy pan and brown the meat well on all sides. Season with salt on all sides and place in the slow cooker. Switch it on, on the high setting.
Braise the sliced onions in the same pan, until golden. Add to the slow cooker.
Add all of the vegetables and herbs. Pour some water into the pan on the stove, scrape up all over the bottom of the pan, and add to the cooker.
Pour in beef stock to cover. Season with salt and black pepper. Cook for at least 8 hours; I went for 10. Leave to cool, spoon off excess fats that rise to the top, and reheat. Serve with polenta, mashed potato or rice. DM
Tony Jackman is Galliova Food Writer 2023, jointly with TGIFood columnist Anna Trapido. Order his book, foodSTUFF, here
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