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Kosher Dinner serves beef

Brisket draws crowd to Temple Beth Shalom

The brisket is slow-roasted in a mixture that might surprise some people: a combination of chili sauce and cola.

Cooks at Spokane’s Temple Beth Shalom prefer Coca-Cola Classic. They’ll go through about 64 liters on Sunday – and that’s just for cooking the fork-tender cuts of meat.

“That’s the only moisture we add other than the chili sauce,” said David Williams, 55, who orders the beef from a kosher butcher on Long Island. “It gives it a sweetness.”

During the 74th annual Kosher Dinner, that cola-cooked brisket will be the star of the show. In all, guests will consume some 1,000 pounds of beef at the traditional Jewish feast.

At least 2,000 people are expected to attend the event, Temple Beth Shalom’s largest community outreach. The dinner also features live music, other entertainment and a bake sale.

“We love the whole thing. It’s a just fun time,” said Ethel Grossman, who makes the honey-lemon sauce for one of the popular side dishes: tzimmes, a sweet combination of carrots and prunes.

Sides also include potato knish, a potato mixture wrapped in crust and – like the brisket – ordered from a kosher food producer in New York. Also look for challah, a soft braided egg bread; spiced apples; and apricot kuchen, a coffee-cakelike dessert.

But those who drink coffee with dinner or dessert will have to take it without milk or cream. Mixing dairy products and meat at the same meal isn’t kosher.

Kosher is Hebrew for “fit” or “proper.” The term refers to a method of food preparation and dietary laws governing its consumption. These laws dictate what foods can and cannot be eaten, what foods can be eaten together and how the animal is killed.

“It has to be humane,” said Mike May, 54. “The beef is also prepared in a way that drains the blood. It’s deveined, rinsed, soaked, salted and rinsed again.”

May serves as kitchen captain for the kosher dinner. He oversees the cooking of the brisket, which includes organizing a crew of about a dozen volunteers to take turns slow-roasting the beef during the course of 30 hours.

Each hunk of meat weighs 3 to 5 pounds and takes 2 ½ to 3 hours to roast. Three or four fit into a pan. “We have a spreadsheet,” May said.

The key is to be organized – as well as patient. “Low and slow. That’s the trick to cooking brisket,” May said. “It’s a tough piece of meat.”

Because of that, brisket used to be – in the late 19th and early 20th centuries – a cheaper and less desirable cut of meat.

“It was a big cut of meat. And it was a piece of meat that people didn’t want,” said May, noting he’s heard it referred to in more recent years as “the holy grail of Jewish food. It’s really become a staple of Jewish celebrations.”

The cut became popular with Jewish as well as Irish and other immigrants. It’s the same cut used for corned beef as well as pastrami. May said he loves the flavor.

Naturally, taste-testing is one of his favorite parts of his volunteer job as kitchen captain.

“You don’t want to overcook it,” May said. “You don’t want it to turn to mush and fall apart, but you want that cut-with-a-fork tenderness. You know instantly when you put your fork into it if it’s done. If it resists, it goes back in the oven.”

Brisket isn’t cheap.

“They’re $15, $16 a pound,” said Grossman, 79. “But that’s the best quality. We know now to order the first cut. There’s less fat.”

She isn’t a fan of cooking the dish with cola.

“That drives me crazy,” she said. “You could just use fruit juice or water or beer or wine – we’re not against alcohol – anything that enriches the flavors. It’s a European tradition to use wine and beer in meat. It really builds the flavors in a natural way. Coca-Cola is pretty sweet. But I know it’s easier. I would use something like apple juice, nothing with citric acid.”

Temple members like Grossman, May and Williams do much of the dinner’s food preparation and serving. But they have help from outside kosher bakers. That’s due to the sheer scope of the event. Organizers expect to serve more than 3,000 potato knishes and 350 pounds of carrots.

“The younger kids aren’t working in the kitchen, but they’re helping run take-out orders,” May said. “Then they graduate to filling water or dishwashing. Almost everyone in the temple is involved in some level in volunteering for the dinner.”

About 200 families belong to Temple Beth Shalom. When the dinner started, it served about 200 people.

“There’s a camaraderie about it,” Williams said. “It brings the community together. It helps to give people some idea of our tradition, whether it be music or whether it be food.”

Organizers expect to see 600 to 700 take-out orders. The rest of the guests will dine at the temple. Most aren’t Jewish.

“It’s an outreach,” May said. “It’s not just designed for the Jewish community.”

In fact, May said, “People often stop on their way home from church. The fun part is getting people that aren’t familiar with Jewish traditions and Jewish foods.”

Those who don’t take their coffee black needn’t worry. Nondairy creamer will be available, Williams assured.

Traditional Jewish-Style Brisket

From Temple Beth Shalom, which adapted the recipe from “Jewish Cooking in America,” by Joan Nathan

1/4 cup dried onion flakes

2 tablespoons low-sodium beef bouillon granules

1/4 teaspoon onion powder

1/4 teaspoon parsley flakes

1/8 teaspoon celery seed

1/8 teaspoon paprika

1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 cup chopped onions

1 cup chopped carrots

1 head of garlic, peeled, divided into cloves and gently smashed

12 ounces cola

8 ounces chili sauce (or ketchup for a milder flavor)

2 to 3 tablespoons vegetable oil

5 pounds beef brisket

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix dry seasonings in a small bowl, then set aside. Combine onions, carrots, garlic, cola and chili sauce in a medium bowl. Stir dry seasoning mixture into the carrot-cola-chili mixture, then set aside. Heat oil in a roasting pan over medium-high heat. Add brisket and brown on both sides. Transfer brisket to preheated oven, fat side up, and roast uncovered, for 20 to 30 minutes. Add seasoned vegetable mixture to the pan, cover and continue roasting until very tender, about 3 to 4 hours, and the internal temperature of the meat reaches a minimum of 145 degrees.

Yield: About 8 to 10 servings

Note: To save time, a 1-ounce packet of dry onion soup mix can be used instead of the dry seasonings listed above.