Saint Patrick's Day Dishes

[Addie]

I make my own. The tricky part is finding brisket. It's easy and doesn't take much work. It does take about a week, but most that time is letting it sit in the fridge. Maybe I'll try some other cuts of beef or even pork.

My first husband was a pro chef. One job he had was in a Jewish Deli next door to us. One of his jobs was to go down into the basement and in a couple of those huge wooden casks or barrels, (like the kind they put whiskey in) they would be filled with the brine and other seasonings. I remember one time I went down there to tell him something, and he had a huge electric needle and took out a brisket, jab it with the needle and pump some of the brine into the pieces of meat. Then he would toss that piece into the next barrel over. Every so often he would tell me to come down with any phony excuse and return home with a freshly made brisket. So while he worked there, we would have a brisket dinner at least twice a month.