Beef / Veal / Lamb

...for crockpot and not

My grandmother makes this recipe; it's a family favorite. You can make the meatballs small-sized for an appetizer, or larger for a main dish. DON'T serve them over spaghetti, its not Italian, its Ukrainian!

I mentioned smoked Brisket on another fora and was asked to post the recipie here. It is an original, so feel free to re-do the spices to meet you taste. This can be done on a smoker or in the crock-pot.

I really can't help you on the number of carrots, sorry. It is a lot, though. They cook down quite a bit. Also, she doesn't mention it, but she cut the beef into chunks, perhaps an inch and a half to 2 inches on a side.

I have no doubt my grandma knew exactly what she meant by this. I’m just going to spitball for an interpretation, but as you can see from the photo, I basically had an ingredient list to go on, so I could be very very wrong.

We often ate a very heavy meal on erev Yom Kippur. I guess the idea was that indigestion is preferable to hunger? Grandma had several brisket recipes she used, this being one of them. I didn’t realize it came from one of her closest friends, Ethel Hellman, until I was picking through the recipe boxes. Its spattered and illegible state is testament to the fact that it was clearly one of my grandmother’s favorite versions of brisket.

I’ve had a heckuva time reading this spattered piece of paper. I’m pretty sure this is a quick and dirty version of cabbage borscht with lamb shank. But it might be less of a soup and more of a main dish with that flavor profile. I assume large can = 28 oz and a “small can of sauerkraut” is a typical 15 oz. can.

This is such an emotional dish for my husband. He was very close with his grandmother, a lovely lovely woman, and she made these for him often because she knew how much he loved them. The recipe is imbued with the love in their relationship.

The origin of this recipe is from my aunt's favorite cookbook - a Sephardic cookbook made by the sisterhood of a synagogue in Atlanta, GA. I have modified their recipe to the point that it's unrecognizable, so decided to write it down rather than rely on my pencil notes. If you look at a variety of Jewish cookbooks featuring the cuisine of the eastern Mediterranean and Middle East, you will find variations on this dish of ground meat and eggplant. It is the kosher version of moussaka. Because of the prohibition of mixing milk and meat there is no bechamel sauce or cheese, and as a result these kosher versions invariably have a slightly different, lighter taste. The use of cinnamon and nutmeg in a savory dish still imparts the characteristic complexity to these dairy-free moussakas. It is a two-step cooking process, first step on the stove, second step in the oven. This recipe makes a large quantity. Use a 6 quart skillet if you have one. Be warned that a regular 9 X 13 lasagna pan is too small to hold this.

What is it about putting things in the crockpot that make them seem more wholesome? This definitely does not need to be done in the crockpot. The only advantage is that it's ready whenever... and well, it seems more wholesome.

Yosemit3 posted the recipes, and Anuta converted them for kashrut. These used to be printed on the same page, but have now been separated into two separate recipes.