Well, the brisket has always been the centerpiece of our Passover table. I try to get one that still has lots of fat on it although lean brisket seems to have gained a market in the last few years and it's becoming harder to find a nice fatty one.

Anyway, a couple of years ago, Bon Appetite had a recipe in their Passover/Easter edition that sounded wonderful! I make mine the same way all time - a little old lady from Pikesville's recipe (it's that smell on Fridays when you enter a Pickwick apartment building that makes you go "oh what is that wonderful smell?")

So, I used every pot and pan in the house and took the entire day making the Bon Appetite brisket. My family said, "it's ok but we like the regular brisket better". The moral of the story is you can't make the same thing for all of eternity and THEN decide to get creative!

The Rolling Pin Bakery on Long Island has the best chocolate covered matzoh! It has an additional layer of caramel that sets it apart from the rest!

I just took a short break to catch up on emails and read your blog..I have been cooking since 7am this morn..I made my homemade matzoh ball soup first..then moved on to making my infamous orange chicken, roasted potatoes, broiled assorted veggies. The sedar plate had to be arranged as well as the order of everything needed for sedar. The planning began weeks ago and the table has been set for a week.
We enjoy going around the table and reading passages from the Haggadah (the passover telling of the sedar book)and singing songs like "Frogs Here, Frogs There" and "Dayenu"...this is a very family oriented holiday and lots of work..but in the end, having the family together and forgetting about all that's going on in the world today..even for a little while..is worth it.
I will now go get the gefilte fish and horseradish ready and the Charoses, which is apples, nuts and a bit of wine drizzled in which is used in the sedar. Happy Passover and even though there are so many Kosher for Passover wines now available..we always have the memorable Manischewitz nearby.

Back in the middle ages, when I was at college, our (then) college president invited all the Jewish students to her house for a reception to mark the beginning of Passover.

She served bagels and jello in the shape of a menorah.

Passover is a great family meal, but now that our children are older, the celebration is smaller. This year, we're flying north to visit our daughter in college, and want to bring her some food from the seder. But we face a problem: With the security regulations, can we bring a juicy piece of brisket, or charoset (chopped apples, nuts and wine) on the plane? If not, how can we pack it safely?

Lissa, jello (at least, Jell-O brand) isn't kosher, is it?

When I was in college I dated a Jewish girl who invited me to her family's seder. I, being the polite guest, started to help clear the table until my girlfriend dragged me back down into my chair so that I would stop interfering with the maid.

When we first moved to Baltimore more than 15 years ago, my Gentile wife convinced me we should have a seder. She carefully studied recipes (from the old Settlement House cook book) while I refereshed my knowledge of the exodous. The only unusual thing about this Seder was that of some 20 people around the table, only myself and one neighbor (Hannah Feldman, who would later become Food Editor of Baltimore Magazine) were Jewish. But everyone got in the spirit, the gefilte fish was almost edible, the pot roast was spectacular, the singing was rousing (thanks to a couple of pals from the Baltimore Opera) and everyone, even me, came away with a richer sense of Jewish lore.

Claude, no, Jell-O brand isn't. Most jello isn't. This was a few years before the installation of the kosher/halal kitchen on campus, so anyone keeping kosher was not going to come to our college, but this was still a notable entertaining fail.

Why is this night different from all other nights? Becuase tonight I'm SUPPOSED to play with my food!!

For those of you who don't know, we get to stick our fingers in the wine/grape juice to make dots on our plates representing the 10 plagues God brought upon the Egyptians.

Oh, and charosets is one of the best reasons to be Jewish.

As a Protestant, I want to be very careful what I say here, but that salmon up there puzzles me. My son reports that for Passover, his in-laws are all about the brisket.

Eve, most people are all about the brisket because it takes all day to make and so therefore they don't have it much. But there's no Judaic law on entrees for Passover. I've made salmon and brisket back in the day when we were entertaining the masses. But, I live with a brisket loving crowd. If they didn't care for it, I'd make something else.

It's actually more about the seder (the ceremony that accompanies the meal which is the re-telling of Exodus), the matzoh, and how clever one can be without using levening.

Eve, not everyone can eat brisket for 8 days straight.

Our seder contains alot of commentary, discussion and opinions. But, I can't change the menu. I mentioned to a few of the "regulars", I was thinking of making something other than brisket, and these otherwise adventurous eaters, resoundly said I couldn't change the traditional menu of gefile fish, eggs, homemade chicken soup with matzoh balls, etc. I made approximately 17 lbs. of charoses on Sunday for several seders, for our attendees who demand to take some home (regardless of whether or not they are Jewish), plus I bring it into work where it is expected. So, this morning, our lunch room has matzoh, butter, charoses and someone brought in hot cross buns. We are an ecumenical group.

I could eat the beef brisket at Outlaws BBQ for 8 days straight. That is the best brisket I've ever had. And with some Alabama white sauce, mmmm.

My wife blogged about our Seder. Here is a link

We were going to make Rockies (rockfish cakes) but the Wegmans fish stand was closed, and rockfish were not available frozen. We ended up using traditional cod, and I was actually rather pleased with it.

Oh, *I* could eat brisket for 8 days straight, PCB Rob. Twice that, really.

Accoding to my son, his in-laws Seder is populated by 4 or 6 families that have been celebrating Passover together for over 30 years. They started out as young, small nuclear families and now number about 60 people who talk about things he doesn't know from and people he has no clue who they are. Small children run screaming everywhere. The brisket is, for him, the only part, especially since his wife believes in eating chicken pretty much every evening and appears unimpressed that he is descended from a long line of Beef Guys. (My mother's stepfather raised cattle) I wouldn't want to be there the day he sits down to Seder and gets salmon.

Lissa,
If you could try the brisket from Outlaws, you'd be hooked. Sliced almost paper thin and piled high, whether on a roll or on a plate. Very smoky and juicy as all get-out too.

PCB Rob, is this Outlaws brisket something I'd have to go to Florida to get? Because it sounds divine.

Right now I'm at half time of the second night seder. The brisket was better tonight, but for some strange reason I decided I needed to add BBQ sauce to it. The only BBQ sauce I had open was a bottle of Hank Williams Jr. "Family Tradition" BBQ Sauce. It is not the best BBQ sauce; however, it is probably the first time Hank Williams Jr. has been on a seder plate.

probably the first time Hank Williams Jr. has been on a seder plate.

I'm sure Hank has passed out in some Jewish houses.

That is a very appealing photo of the salmon above, except that the article says that the peppers are roasted, and those peppers look pretty uncooked to me. Truth in food photography, please!

Anonymous,
It is divine. They have great ribs, pulled chicken and pork, and other stuff too.
I think they might have another location or two, but they'd be in Alabama.
Next time I'm in there, I'll find out.

Well, since I serve brisket for Rosh Hoshanah as well (not to say it doesn't elicit rave reviews), it does not stand out in my mind (other than the $11.99/lb price) as the centerpiece.

It has to be the gefilte fish and the charoset (Sephardic-style with dates, figs, raisins, walnuts, pistachios (almonds this year), and honey). Then there was the discussion of the Shop-Rite brand white horseradish that cleared everyone's sinuses. The closest to homemade from a jar that I have found. We even did a taste test against Tulkoff's extra hot, and found it to be hotter.

I make an almost bbq sauce for my brisket, it's a combo of cranberry sauce, brown sugar and red wine vinegar (or lemon juice or whatever I have in the house). When it bakes, it gets pretty thick and it's kind of sweet but not sickening sweet.

As for prepared bbq sauce I don't recall if we've ever discussed that here, but I like Sweet Baby Rays.

Normally, when it comes to BBQ sauce, I use the sauce I picked up at Ridgewood BBQ in Tennessee; however, there is probably a 50% chance I've dropped some pork in that jar, so I really can't use it for Passover.

I am not Jewish and have never attended a seder. However, WETA in Wash. D.C. ran the most delightful program last week called the Gefilte Fish Chronicles about a family in upstate New York preparing for the big event. Delightful - funny and I learned a lot.