What with St. Patrick’s Day coming up in less than a month, the grocery stores and meat markets here on the Jersey Shore are already loading up the meat cases with corned beef briskets and rounds.
Texas A&M Aggie Ring ’84 usually takes care of the brisket and he typically cooks it in the pressure cooker or slow cooks it in the crock pot. While we were heading into the seafood department this afternoon, A&M College of Texas Ring ’42 noticed a particularly nice corned beef brisket in the case and told me, “You know we should really try out a new recipe for corned beef this year and we can give it a trial run today in the “new” 1940s Griswold No. 8 Tite-Top Cast Iron Dutch Oven that we bought at the antique store.” It sounded like a good idea to me so I threw the brisket into the grocery basket and stopped by the produce section to buy some baby potatoes, onions, celery and carrots.
Once we got home and into the kitchen, A&M College Ring ’42 bellowed out, “Let me loose, I’m taking charge here!” This, of course, meant that he wanted me to take him off of the leather strap he usually wears around my neck and free him up to let him get “hands on” with the preparation and cooking of the brisket. The first thing A&M College Ring ’42 had me do was take the brisket out of the packaging and put it in a large bowl of cold water to soak so he could get as much of the salt brine out of the brisket as possible. He had me soak it for several hours and change out the water frequently while he supervised.
After the brisket had soaked for a couple of hours, A&M College Ring ’42 then had me put it on paper towels and blot it dry. When he was satisfied that it was sufficiently dry, he had me fire up a large cast iron skillet to med-high and add a tablespoon of oil to the pan. When the pan was good and hot, he directed me to sear the meat on all of the sides for a minute or two. “This,” said A&M College Ring ’42, “will seal in the delicious flavor and moisture.”
Now that the brisket was nice and seared on all sides, Aggie Ring had me put it into his “new” cast iron dutch oven with the fat cap on top. Then, he meticulously had me thinly slice a lemon and remove the seeds. He had me cover the fat cap with the lemon slices and a variety of spices and peppers and a bay leaf or two. Hell, Aggie Ring even had me throw in a handful of dried red peppers. I asked him if he was sure he wanted to use the peppers and he just replied, “I’m Aggie Ring damnit. I can do whatever I want and this is how I roll! Grab your equipment ‘Camera Boy’ and take a photo of me and ’84 on top of this beautiful piece of culinary art.”
After we’d spiced the brisket, Aggie Ring had me pour in two pints of Guinness to bring the level of liquid in the dutch oven to the top of the brisket’s fat cap. Now, this is where things got strange today. At the liquor store which was next to the grocers, I was just going to get two cans of Guinness because I knew that would be more than sufficient for cooking the brisket. When Aggie Ring ’42 saw that I was just going to just pick up two cans from the shelf he became annoyed and shouted out, “Hey! Dumb Ass… Get the 8-pack!” “But…” I replied, “Two cans is all we need.” Aggie Ring scoffed at this and said, “I want to be safe, just get the 8-pack so we don’t ‘run out.’” I did as he asked because no one wants to be around an angry Aggie Ring. As we were heading out of the liquor store, I thought to myself, “If only our former Texas A&M Waggie friend Martha C. Langford were here with us. She has family counseling experience and would certainly be able to help Texas Aggie Rings and I out with liquor store decisions.” Just as we were about to go out the exit, Aggie Ring ’84 noticed the big Tito’s Vodka display and yelled out, “Whoop! Hey Tito, stay sexy!!!” You need to understand that both Tito’s Vodka and Aggie Ring ’84 were made in Austin, Texas at nearby factories.
Aggie Ring ’42 decided that, for this brisket, we were going to cook it long and slow in a very low 175° oven for anywhere for 8 to 12 hours. After I put the cover on the dutch oven and transferred it into the oven, Aggie College Ring ’42 looked at the remaining six cans of Guinness and said, “Well, dumb ass… I guess you were right. We did only need two cans of stout. Then, Aggie Ring ’42 paused for a moment or so and said, “That Guinness isn’t going to stay fresh in those cans forever, now you’re going to have to drink your mistake!”
And thus, another day in the life of a couple of typical Jersey Shore Aggie Rings goes by.
#aggiering #texasaggie
Posted by flickr4jazz on 2016-02-20 22:50:37
Tagged: , Shrewsbury , New Jersey , United States , US
