Name: Braised Brisket with Thirty-Six Cloves of Garlic
Yield: Yield: 8 Generous Servings
Cuisine: United States
Ingredients: 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest; Salt and freshly ground black pepper; 2 fresh rosemary sprigs, plus 1 teaspoon chopped leaves; 3 or 4 fresh thyme sprigs, or 2 teaspoons dried leaves; 3 cups chicken broth, preferably homemade, or good-quality, low-sodium purchased; 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar; A first- or second-cut beef brisket (about 5 pounds), trimmed of excess fat, wiped with a damp paper towel, and patted dry; 3 tablespoons olive oil; About 36 fat, unpeeled garlic cloves (1⅔ to 2 cups) or an equivalent amount of smaller cloves, plus 1 teaspoon minced garlic

Preparation info

Yield:
8
Generous Servings

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

Jewish Holiday Cooking

By Jayne Cohen

Published 2008

About

In my take on the French classic, chicken with forty cloves of garlic becomes brisket with thirty-six cloves. All that feisty garlic turns sweet and mellow with gentle braising; when pureed, it forms a seductive gravy, which is finished with a zing of chopped raw garlic and lemon zest.

Why thirty-six cloves? Beginning with aleph, which equals one, each letter of the Hebrew alphabet stands for a number, and so every word has a numerical value. All multiples of eighteen, the nu