The options were overwhelming when faced with choosing a ‘Browns’ recipe to go with the Craig Saper interview. For decades the Browns traveled and collected recipes from Europe, South America, each of the 48 states and beyond.
The books are a bit more fun to read than to actually cook from – as many of the recipes are actually pretty simple, and some of the ‘exotic’ ones don’t appear very authentic to modern readers.
It is doubtless that the recipes had to be modified for their target audience, despite the Browns’ adventurousness and worldliness. As Saper’s Bob Brown biography points out “cookbooks represented, even epitomized, the bourgeois values that the Browns had spent three decades attacking and running from.” Nonetheless, the cookbooks provided a continuing line of work for the family while allowing them to pursue a genuine and passionate interest.
I ultimately chose this rather non-photogenic brisket recipe from The Browns’ most popular cookbook, “The Wine Cook Book.”
This is essentially our old friend Beef à la Mode right down to the claret. The Red Wine chapter of “The Wine Cook Book” offers some accounts of Shish-Kabob preparation in Constantinople, a plea for Americans to eat more olives, and even some recipes for game such as squirrel and snipe. Though the book lacks the humor of later Browns cookbooks, there is a wealth of knowledge and a glimpse into a well-traveled life spent admiring cooking techniques from around the globe.
Recipe:
- 4 lbs Brisket
- 1 dozen oysters, minced
- ½ cup minced bacon
- ½ cup minced parsley
- salt
- pepper
- flour for dredging
- ¼ tsp nutmeg
- 1 cup claret
- 1 dozen glazed onions
With a sharp knife, make holes in the surface of the roast. Insert oysters, bacon and parsley alternately in the holes. Rub the meat with salt and pepper, and dredge with flour. Sprinkle with nutmeg.
Lay in roasting pan and pour over heated claret. Cover and put in the oven. Baste occasionally, and when half done, turn over. The roast should cook slowly until very tender. Serve garnished with glazed onions.
Recipe Adapted from “The Wine Cook Book” by The Browns: Cora, Rose and Bob
