Beef Brisket with Gravy

This is a very simple way to prepare brisket, and it produces a tender and tasty dish. It is my adaptation of my mother's adaptation of the Joy of Cooking recipe. If you have an electric knife, it will be easier to prevent the meat from falling apart when you slice it -- it is that tender! Cut against the grain. But, if it does fall apart, who cares? It still tastes just as good!

Any potato dish and a green vegetable are good with this. I usually do boiled new potatoes (tossed in butter, parsley, and salt & pepper) and boiled or steamed green beans (tossed in butter, salt, white pepper, and a tiny bit of grated onion or onion juice -- just enough to balance the sharp flavor of the beans). You can also add boiled new potatoes to the beef for the final cooking stage (see below). But a baked potato, scalloped potatoes, or mashed potatoes would be good. And any vegetable or vegetable combination could round it out. Or sliced tomatoes...If you decide to serve the beef with its own juices instead of gravy, scalloped tomatoes would be good (see following post), and the scalloped tomatoes provide a starch as well as a vegetable if you would like to leave out the potato.

6 cups water
3 lbs lean boneless brisket
dash of celery salt
2 or 3 cloves of garlic
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 400.

Bring water to a boil. Place meat in a large pot and cover with boiling water. Add celery salt and garlic. Cover tightly and simmer for about 3 hours, or until tender. Remove meat and place in a shallow pan, skin side up. Score several times across the top, and season with salt and pepper. Place in oven and cook for 20 minutes, or until browned (at this point you can also add cooked potatoes to roast with the juices).

You can serve the sliced beef with its own juices or any gravy. The recipe below is from Joy of Cooking :

1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup chopped onions
2 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons freshly grated horseradish, or dollop of prepared horseradish to taste
salt
vinegar or lemon juice
(sugar)
chopped parsley

Degrease 2 cups of the cooking liquid from the beef.
Melt the butter and lightly brown the onions. Stir in flour until blended, then slowly stir in the degreased stock. Season with horseradish, salt, vinegar or lemon juice. Taste to adjust the seasonings, and add a little sugar if the flavor is too harsh. Ladle gravy onto each serving of beef and top with a little parsley, or sprinkle the parsley onto the gravy in a gravy boat to be passed at the table.