Cooking With Wine: Wine-Braised Brisket

This wine-braised brisket will let you flex your culinary skills while pleasing even the pickiest palates. Keep reading for a delicious recipe in this chapter of Cooking with Wine.

 

There’s just something about a hearty beef dish in the fall that brings people together. Just imagine–crisp autumn mornings, leaves crunching underfoot, and when you come home from work you smell the rich, savory aroma of a slow-cooked, perfectly seasoned brisket. If that description has you sighing with longing, we’ve got your back. In fact, we’re making this dish even more mouthwatering by adding red wine to the ingredient list. Trust us, cooking with wine isn’t nearly as intimidating as the professionals make it look.

Read on and discover a surprisingly easy way to flex your culinary skills while pleasing even the pickiest of palates with our Wine-Braised Brisket recipe.

Need to brush up on your Wine Terminology? Click here to use our glossary!

 

The Basics of Cooking With Wine

If the thought of attempting a recipe that includes wine seems a bit overwhelming, you’re not alone. At one point or another, we’ve all looked at a complicated recipe and just decided to drink the wine instead (no judgment). While the pros might make it seem like a skill best left to the professionals, the truth is that cooking with wine is surprisingly easy. 

If you want all the ins-and-outs of cooking with wine, make sure to read our blog about it here. However, if you’ve got a can-do attitude and a sense of adventure, here’s a shortlist of tips to help you master the art of cooking with wine…

• Avoid “cooking wines” and only cook with wines you enjoy drinking. 
• Unless the recipe requests a splash of wine towards the end, it’s best to add your wine earlier so there’s enough time to cook out the alcohol.
• If the recipe does tell you to add a splash of wine at the end, use a wine that you already enjoy. Since you’ll be tasting it more prominently, it should be delicious.
• If the recipe doesn’t specify what type of wine to use, opt for younger wines that are dry and have fruit-forward flavors.

Obviously, there’s a lot more to learn about cooking with wine. However, these tips will help you get by with most simple recipes.

Cooking With PALO61, Toscano Rosso IGT No.07

Speaking of wine, let’s talk about the wine we chose to use for this recipe. We selected our PALO61 Toscano Rosso IGT No.07 for this particular dish, and we were not disappointed. This wine has a luscious red color, distinct cherry flavor, and its soft tannic structure and mild acidity makes it delicious with or without a meal. When cooking with this wine, it’s spicier notes of black pepper lend a subtle savory element to any dish. This makes it an excellent choice for red meat dishes.

This fan-favorite is produced from Ciliegiolo grapes (pronounced cee-lee-a-jo-low). Also known as “cherry grapes,” they’re grown in our low-yielding vineyard on the hills of Tenuta Santa Lucia in Pisa, Tuscany. This area is nestled between two valleys where warm sea breezes and cool air from the valleys mix to create a unique winegrowing area. The local plants end up exchanging aromatics with the grapes which creates a unique richness of flavor not found anywhere else.

Each five-ounce glass of our Toscano Rosso contains 0.26 grams of carbs, 0.26 grams of sugar, and 116 calories. While this recipe calls for an entire bottle of wine, don’t let that scare you. This recipe has 10 servings (or 5 if everyone decides they want a second helping). That means each serving of brisket will only have about half a serving of wine in it. Plus, the cooking process will reduce most of the alcohol and sugar from the wine anyway.

Wine-Braised Brisket

Alright, it’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for. Or maybe you didn’t bother waiting and you skipped everything else and immediately scrolled to the recipe. Either way, let’s get to the details of this savory, brisket recipe!

Ingredient List

• 1 five-pound untrimmed flat-cut brisket
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 large onions, sliced thinly
• 3 celery stalks
• 5 smashed garlic cloves 
• 6 thyme sprigs
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 28-oz. can whole peeled tomatoes
• 1 tbsp tomato paste
• 1 750 ml bottle red wine (medium or full-bodied)
• 4 large carrots
• Salt and pepper to taste

Recipe Instructions

• Start by preheating your oven to 350°. While you’re waiting for the oven to get to temperature, go ahead and start seasoning the brisket with salt and pepper to taste.
• Using a large ovenproof pot, heat the olive oil over medium-high. Place the brisket into the pot and occasionally turn it until it’s been browned on all sides. This should take roughly 10 minutes, and afterward you’ll want to transfer it to a plate. Discard the extra fat from the pot (or keep it and use it for an additional recipe).
• Without scraping the pot at all, add your thinly sliced onions, chopped celery, smashed garlic, thyme, bay leaves, tomatoes, tomato paste, and wine to the pot. Add salt and pepper to taste and stir the ingredients.
• With the fatty side of your brisket on top, place it into the pot and cover with the lid.
• Braise the brisket in the oven for 3 to 3.5 hours, but don’t forget to check it every thirty minutes. When you do that, spoon the juices and vegetables over the top of the brisket to ensure it stays moist and to infuse it with flavor.
• Once the meat is fork-tender, chop your carrots into your desired size and place them around the brisket. Leave the pot uncovered and continue to cook until the carrots are tender, the brisket has browned and become crisp on top, and the sauce has thickened. This should take roughly 30 minutes.
• Fat will have risen to the surface of the sauce, so skim it off and discard it.
• Remove the brisket and let it rest on a plate for five minutes before slicing. When you do slice, make sure you’re slicing against the grain and then serve immediately. 

Cooking is About Community

We would recommend serving this with a side of fluffy mashed potatoes or even a keto-friendly mashed cauliflower dish. Plus, after slaving away in the kitchen for this dish, don’t forget to treat yourself to a celebratory glass of wine to top it all off 😉

One of the reasons we constantly talk about food (other than it being delicious) is that food, just like wine, brings people together. Recipes can be passed down from family members, shared among neighbors, and they can be a way to try something new. Cooking, especially cooking with good wine, is all about community.

We hope you enjoyed this recipe and that it helped you bring together your friends, family, or community! Don’t forget to stock up on all your favorite cooking and drinking wines, and definitely tag us when you post that perfect food picture on your Instagram. We’re all about community, so we’d love for you to be part of ours!