Wait, a pig celebrates Passover?

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Let’s get to it, clock’s tickin’!

Passover Edition

This is a big meal in our house. We usually do a combo with Easter - think dyed eggs on the seder plate and lamb cake for dessert - but the calendar is a little off this year so it’ll be more straight down the middle. Here are some highlights.

• My Family’s Brisket (make a day ahead)

  • Make thick onion slices and layer them in bottom of your pan. The idea is to get the meat up off the bottom.

  • Slather (there’s no other word to use for this process) your brisket with Heinz 57 Chili Sauce.

  • Put the meat on top of the onions, pour in water to come about 1/3 up the side of the meat - go light on the water if in doubt. Cover with foil.

  • If you’re not into a long cook, stick into a 300 degree over for about 45 minutes per pound.

  • Pull the meat out, wrap in the foil, dump the liquid and onions into a container and let it all rest overnight in the fridge.

  • Next day, an hour or so before you want to eat, set the oven to 200 or so, slice the brisket against the grain, lay it in your pan and pour over your liquid (which you’ve pulled the fat cap off of), cover in that foil and put in the oven to warm through while you do everything else.

• For Matzo Ball soup, I make chicken soup and then, per my grandma, “just use packaged mix for matzoh balls, it’s good.”

  • The only trick I believe in is to take some foil (and yes, on this holiday I use more foil in a day than I do the rest of the year) to cover the boiling pot and then slam the lid on top. That way you get something resembling a seal and, at least in my mind, your matzo balls have a better texture.

• To brighten things up I make a raw Carrot Salad. This recipe is close to what I make, which is in this book, but not available online.

  • The biggest difference is that I like to slice them super thin on a mandoline and serve it raw. It actually brings some flavor, color and acidity to an otherwise fairly heavy meal. Make in the morning and it’ll be good to go once it’s time to eat.

• We also have lots of hard boiled eggs, dyed as per the above. They’re a good snack for people who are antsy in that interlude between the hagaddah (even a short one) and actual food.

  • If you have an instant pot try this method to easily make a perfect batch.

• We round things out with some roasted vegetables, usually a bean salad of some sort (white beans, minced garlic, diced peppers and onions, lemony dressing, plenty of cilantro and parsley) and a jello thing I love to have on the plate alongside my brisket… but it freaks out people who didn’t grow up in the midwest! Email us if you want some guidance on that one.

We have a rotating cast of other “big meal” stuff, but those are the standbys.

I always have someone else make the charoset, and my wife does dessert, so you’re all on your own for those!

Project Time

• If you’re feeling more ambitious, and less traditional, get a whole brisket and smoke it… then let us know how it turned out!

Let us know what you tried (just reply)! More soon.

Your Salt Pig Pals