The Post that May Finally Get Me Kicked Off the Masthead: Atlanta Brisket

As some of you may remember I recently reviewed one of America’s Test Kitchen’s latest cookbooks: The Make-Ahead Cook. When I last reviewed it I’d only made two dishes but had been impressed with the range and simplicity of recipes. Since the first post I’ve made two more dishes from the book and I remain incredibly impressed. So far I’ve had a 100% success rate. That’s unusual.

The Slow-Cooker Texas-Style Chili was packed with flavor, and while it had a few more ingredients than many of the book’s recipes, it was easy to assemble.

However, I want to talk about the recipe I made for our holiday dinner–an Atlanta Brisket. I was tired of the same old traditional ham or turkey and I needed an option that would allow me to “set and forget” the main dish; brisket fit the bill. The recipe couldn’t be simpler and I’m going to tell you about it, but I must warn you–it’s simple, home-cooking, and it contains copious amounts of ketchup. (Erik, please turn away now.)

Basically, the sauce consists of an extremely generous amount of fresh onions, some onion powder, ketchup and…cola. Sound disgusting? Yeah, it’s not sophisticated. But the ketchup/cola/onion/juices from the meat cook down to what is essentially a BBQ-adjacent (perfectly cooked, tender) brisket…with a very sweet, tangy sauce. It was a huge hit with the fam.

And with that I will bid you all adieu!