Dear Reader,
I’ve never cooked brisket in a pressure cooker before. I’ve only ever done it in a slow cooker.
If I can cook something in the slow cooker, why can’t I do something in the pressure cooker?
At first, I thought I might be my usual lazy self and dump the entire lump of meat into the autoclave and just let it rip. Then, I thought, since I’m in lockdown, why not be a little more creative.
So using a Japanese meat cleaver, because that’s how I roll, I cut the brisket into large bite-sized (if you’re greyhound) chunks and roll the beef in flour and then ‘brown’ the floured meat off.
To keep it authentically unhealthy, I used beef dripping in the skillet to brown the floured brisket.
During the next week, I will eat the leftover chunks of brisket for lockdown dinners.
Ingredients
- Beef brisket (1 kilogram)
- Flour
- Beef dripping
- Red wine (1 cup)
- Beef stock (1 cup)
- Potato (1)
- Brown onion (1)
- Barbecue sauce (½ cup)
- Worcestershire sauce (¼ cup)
- Pumpkin
- Cauliflower
Instructions
- Sharpen the meat cleaver and think about Proverbs 27:17 (Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another). A sharp knife is a beautiful thing.
- Slice the brisket and dice the meat into large chunks.
- Put some flour into a bowl and coat the pieces of beef one at a time.
- Place the floured meat into a tray.
- Heat a skillet and add some beef dripping until it’s hot.
- Add the floured chunks of meat and brown the surfaces. Be careful not to overcrowd the skillet. You want the surface of the meat to fry and not steam.
- In the pressure cooker, add the beef, brown onion, spud, and all the flavouring ingredients from the list apart from the pumpkin and cauliflower.
- Seal the pressure cooker and cook for 45 minutes.
- Rub some oil over the pumpkin and cauliflower and put them into a hot oven until you can penetrate each of them with a sharp paring knife and not feel any resistance.
- After the pressure cooker finishes, allow the pressure to equalise and open the lid.
- Remove the meat and place all of it into a container apart from a few chunks for dinner.
- Serve the brisket with cauliflower, pumpkin, and spud.
- Give thanks to the Lord and enjoy the meal while listening to a sermon podcast from a good preacher.
Final thoughts
The brisket tasted pretty good. It had a good mouthfeel and flavour. Cooking the meat in a pressure cooker was pretty easy. I think setting and forgetting in a slow cooker would be just as good.
What’s happened this week?
The biggest news is that Canberra went into COVID-19 lockdown. We have cases linked with the outbreak in Sydney, which has now spread across many regions in New South Wales.
The saddest news was reading about the death of my favourite teacher at school. If you have Facebook, you can read what I wrote here. I am pretty sad about the death of Mr Stephenson; he was a fantastic teacher. Good teachers are what we need for our young people.
If you want to connect with me on Facebook, feel free to send me a friend request.
The best things this week included dinner with friends from church and reconnecting with an old friend.
Stay safe, friends.
Beef brisket 
Brisket sliced with a meat cleaver 
Brisket sliced and cubed with a meat cleaver 
Floured cubes of brisket 
Beef dripping 
Beef brisket frying in beef dripping 
Beef brisket frying in beef dripping 
Browned beef brisket 
Roast Pumpkin 
Pressure cooker brisket with potato, pumpkin, and cauliflower. Pressure cooker brisket with potato, pumpkin, and cauliflower.
For years, I used a pressure cooker to cook corned beef. I’ve also done it stove top, roasted in the oven and in a slow cooker as well. Not only was the pressure cooker the fastest, I believe the meat was far more tender. I’m sorry about the loss of your teacher, he sounds like he was an inspiring one.
Thanks, Karen. He was a very good teacher. I think I will use my pressure cooker more and more for fast delicious food 🙂
You clearly have lovely memories of your teacher Gary. So nice to read your comments and I hope his family have the opportunity to read also.
Thanks very much, Sue. I recall clearly many interactions I had with him in school.
That’s a great tribute to your fantastic teacher.
Thank you very much
I love using my presure cooker to cook meats that usually take quite a few hours mainly because I’m so impatient but also because the light doesn’t stay around for long enough to take pics.
I’m so sorry to hear about your favourite teacher Gary. They really mean a lot to us don’t they?
Thanks, Lorraine. I think I’ll be using my pressure cooker more often now.
The brisket looks fantastic! So glad you can connect with friends–the little things matter–and I’m so sorry for your loss as well. Stay safe and healthy!
Thank you so much
Pressure cookers are an amazing invention. I know of a gal who popped a frozen chicken in one and it was ready for dinner in less than an hour! I admit to some skepticism, but she wasn’t one to tell stories. My sister won’t use hers, she says it is scary. I find frying in oil scary. Very odd. It is good to think about Proverbs throughout the day, it has a great many pithy bits of wisdom in it. However, I did think you might be musing on bandages and being careful! I’m still nervous around sharp knives and haven’t a clue how to sharpen the things. I didn’t do that activity in scouting, I let someone else conduct the boys in those lessons! On second thought, maybe I should also have listened…. As soon as I get another hunk of beef, I very well might do this instead of roasting it in an oven. It would definitely be a lot cooler in the kitchen!!
I’ve known of people who have had pressure cookers malfunction and have problems. I’m grateful so far I’ve been okay.
A whole chicken works well in a pressure cooker. I’ve not tried a frozen chook, but there’s no reason why it wouldn’t cook.
I like the feeling of sharpening a knife.
Sorry about your former teacher, Gaz. Stay safe too.
Thanks, Emma. I’m hoping we can contain the situation in Canberra. The local government will be cautious.