Jewish brisket is different from Texas smoked brisket. First of all, it’s braised rather than smoked. It’s cooked with carrots, celery and onions in a mixture of crushed tomatoes and wine and seasoned relatively simply with salt, garlic, pepper, thyme and bay leaves. While I think the smoked kinds are generally better sliced thin on a sandwich, a braised Jewish brisket is such a core memory of the Passover Sedar (the ceremonial meal described in the Haggadah) that I savor it in its own way. I’ve made em for Rosh Hashanah as well. All that’s to say, your milage may vary and so you might not find it to your liking.
BUT, the method is fairly simple.
Season a whole brisket with salt and pepper, brown it in a large roasting pan. Once browned, remove it and add in your aromatics (onion, carrot, garlic, celery, whatever you want) and brown those slightly too. Deglaze with wine, add in Dr. Pepper or cola, add in tomatoes and ketchup (use less if using soda). Add the brisket back in, your herbs, then roast low and slow at around 275°F to 300°F for 3 to 4 hours, should be fork tender. Once it’s cooked, pull it out, let it rest for like a half hour, slice it thin, put it back in the roasting pan with the juices, baste it, cover it, let it sit somewhere warm for another half hour while it soaks up the braising liquid.
Ideally you want a brisket with the deckle, but if you got a first cut brisket, don’t trim the fat, you wanna render that out during the cook. You can skim it off the resulting braising liquid after the cook if you’d like.
Also the recipe isn’t set in stone. Play with it! It’s supposed to be a bit sweet, so I’ve thrown in figs and apricots, seasoned the top of sumac and pomegranate, za’atar isn’t unwelcome here, if atypical.
I haven’t had an issue with this layer so I’m not sure what to tell you. It gets soft and juicy in the process, but you can keep cooking it if you want it more thoroughly rendered. Just be mindful that there’s enough braising liquid in the pan.