boiling beef / Jewish method (shin to be precise)

I know my Mum always used to cook brisket of beef (from a Jewish butcher) in a pressure cooker, and it was delicious. We never had traditional roast beef. I would imagine cooking it in a slow cooker would be a good alternative.

I've been buying shin recently, slices rather than a whole lump. I've cooked it in the pressure cooker, 25 minutes like any other stewing beef. It's been fine.

It would probably be better slow cooked to soften the connective tissue more, but what I've been doing has been OK. It's not at all tough. Certainly no scum...

Slow cooker for me every time

You don’t get a scum if you fry the meat of first to seal it then add veg and whatever stock you are using. Slow cooker long and slow
Delicious

I regularly eat at my Jewish friend's cafe .
Not only is she a fantastic cook but her beef is wonderful .
I know that it takes at least four hours to cook very slowly.
My mother used to braise beef and it one of the few dishes that she made well .
It didn't take four hours though !
I'm going to have a Google.

My Jewish friend calls it salt beef .Her dish is soft and pink .I gather that preserving salt keeps the beef pink .
When I see her I'll ask her .
Meanwhile Jamie Oliver's recipe looks good .
Mum's wasn't pink and she flavoured the brisket with carrot and onions plus mixed herbs .
It was nice though and delicious on a cold day with mashed potatoes .
I think that I'll add garlic ,sea salt ,ketchup and mustard when I have an attempt at making it .
Mashed potatoes with slices of gherkin would be yummy with it .

Salt beef is made with brisket, not shin.

You will get scum if you boil the shin but you will with most meats.

Back in the day mince would be boiled and then skimmed.

I thought I knew most techniques of Jewish/Eastern European foods but I can't say that boiling beef shin is one of them!

I asked my Jewish friends about this dish .
They are not all orthodox : some don't buy kosher meat because it's so expensive and it means ordering it from a source which isn't near.

It has to be brisket never shin .
It's called brust or chazel in Hebrew and is more popular with Ashkenazi Jews .
It can be eaten with noodles or matzo balls .
The one that I eat regularly doesn't have a sauce and is served with gherkins , salad and sourdough bread by my friend , who is non orthodox and eats pork .

Well I must admit I've never heard of chazel (which sounds more Yiddish than Hebrew) or brust. Nothing on google, nor in any of my cookery books.

Cholent is a slowly cooked stew made with shin or brisket which traditionally was made on the Sabbath and then eaten after the evening service. Judaic law states that you can't make a flame on the sabbath hence the long slow cooking of the cholent. Maybe it's this?

I think you're talking about salt beef that you eat with gherkins (or traditionally large pickled cucumbers) usually served on rye, but difficult to get old fashioned rye bread these days.

As I said above salt beef is brisket or sometimes silverside. It was traditionally brined for over a week but I doubt many do that now. In kosher or "hamishe" (Yiddish - roughly translated as homely, unpretentious) restaurants, you will often be asked how much fat you want on your salt beef - fat is flavour and that's how salt beef should really be eaten but it's cholesterol junction!

We eat salt beef with pickled cucumbers, latkes (potato cakes) and sometimes sauerkraut. Rye bread or challah bread. And mustard. It bears no resemblance to the pre-packed "salt beef" sold in some supermarkets.

Jaxjacky

Slow cooker for me every time

Yes.

Hi Ferry ,
As I'm not Jewish , I have to rely on my Jewish friend's knowledge .
I think that brust means breast and I don't know exactly what chazel means .
My friend from London speaks some Yiddish , but not Hebrew .
She must mean salt beef and not cholent , which is slow cooked and has a sauce .
Either way - it"s delicious !

Shin and brisket are slightly different cuts. tbh I love shin in a casserole, the connective tissue in a slow cooked dish gives a lovely thickened gravy and the meat becomes tender with a lovely flavour. I cook brisket slowly as well but in one piece rather than diced over a bed of vegetables with a tight seal so the meat steams. I've never made salt beef but it's brined for about a week and then slow cooked.

ferry23

Salt beef is made with brisket, not shin.

You will get scum if you boil the shin but you will with most meats.

Back in the day mince would be boiled and then skimmed.

I thought I knew most techniques of Jewish/Eastern European foods but I can't say that boiling beef shin is one of them!

Mum used to cook brisket in the pressure cooker, it was delicious.
I used to regularly buy salt beef on rye sarnies when I worked in Hatton Garden there were a couple of great cafes there.
Shin I don’t know about.

My late mum used to make salt beef ,she had to get one of the ingredients for the brine from the chemist and sign for it.Her birth family was raised amongst a jewish community in Glasgow in the mid 1920,s and 1930s My GF was a tailor and much of the local Jewish community were in the same trade .I. Haven,t thought of salt beef for decades .I,m off to find a recipe

Hi Ferry,
Brust and chazel are apparently terms for brisket probably in Yiddish ,but understood by some Hebrew speakers .
Something to be learned every day !
I haven't thought of making the dish for years now I shall !

Esmay

Hi Ferry,
Brust and chazel are apparently terms for brisket probably in Yiddish ,but understood by some Hebrew speakers .
Something to be learned every day !
I haven't thought of making the dish for years now I shall !

Well, who knew?

Strangely enough I've just a received a response to an email from a friend of mine who lived in Israel for many years. She said that some Israeli butchers refer to brisket as “bruit” and “chazeh". Although she said she's never heard it in this country.

You're right Esmay, we do learn something every day!

I'm still not convinced that the OP's reference to boiling beef shin is a particularly Jewish way of cooking it. Bringing it to the boil with veg and stock and then slowly simmering is a way of making a stew but don't think it can be attributed to Jewish style cooking.

What on earth has happened to everyone’s comprehension?

I’m dismayed that no one was able to answer my question, taking the thread off into another direction, from my
key word being FIRST, then proceeded to answer questions I hadn’t asked? then research on Jewish cookery consulting others. I have no interest in adopting Jewish methods of cookery, only asked if anyone had boiled shin beef (from the leg, for long slow cooking) not how to cook brisket.
So frustrating when a thread takes on a life of its own and initial question is ignored.

anyway, just in case anyone was tempted to boil shin beef/stewing steak FIRST -

Experiment results - boiling shin beef so you don’t need to

I had so much freshly cut in front of me shin beef cut up by
the butcher, I halved the amount, boiled up one half, omy goodness the scum, then cooked as usual, for a goulash in the slow cooker - it was ok, we thought the meat was slightly tougher and drier than it should be, served with mashed potatoes and green beans.

The other portion - I sealed the meat, cooked as usual in the slow cooker, slightly different ingredients, peppers and butter beans, was delicious, meat tender as usual, served with ribbon noodles, no one (seemed to) notice that we had shin beef casseroled twice in 4 days as the dishes were so different!
amazing.

result - no more boiling beef FIRST and stop experimenting

… and in future to shop alone

FrankandEarnest

I just cut it up, threw it all in the slow cooker with carrots, onions, swede and a leek, stock made from a cube and it was fine.
No scum and it was better than the ready cut up stewing beef.

Haven't made a goulash for ages, my SIL makes an excellent one.
When I reheated some last night I added some red wine for variation.

then research on Jewish cookery consulting others. I have no interest in adopting Jewish methods of cookery,

Perhaps it was because you mentioned your Jewish friend and her comments about cooking beef posters added their own thoughts.
Threads do meander.

When I post a question I'm always pleased when people take the time to explain things properly or post suggestions which can be really helpful and interesting.

In the end I guess we just stop trying to be helpful when it's thrown back in your face.

I agree ferry 23. What a rude, ungrateful response from the OP.

We used to have a dish called hash when I was a child. A sort of cross between a stew and a broth, with vegetables, and a traditional Yorkshire staple. That was made with shin and cooked very slowly on the hob - most of the day sometimes. I remember coming in from school in the winter to a cupful of the gravy to warm me up, and a slice of bread. Shin makes wonderful gravy.

ferry23

When I post a question I'm always pleased when people take the time to explain things properly or post suggestions which can be really helpful and interesting.

In the end I guess we just stop trying to be helpful when it's thrown back in your face.

your response was neither helpful nor interesting and far from ‘throwing it bck in your face’ I was exasperated that you had seen fit to describe brisket when I had never mentioned it

Aldom

I agree ferry 23. What a rude, ungrateful response from the OP.

not at all, I am no ingenue !