America's Test Kitchen

-Today, on "America's Test Kitchen," Julia and Bridget unlock the secrets to a showstopping braised brisket. Adam reveals his top pick for twist corkscrews. And Dan makes Julia the ultimate duchess potato casserole. It's all coming up right here on "America's Test Kitchen." -I like big cuts, and I cannot lie, especially brisket. Really love to barbecue it. Don't have a lot of luck with braising it, and that's because it always turns out dry and tough. And that's inexplicable because it's been braising in liquid for hours. So Julia's here, and she's gonna show me what I'm doing wrong. -Mm-hmm. -

Laughs

Where did I go wrong? -Actually, for years, all briskets have been dry. We've just gotten used to it. But today, we're gonna solve the problem once and for all. -All right. -And we're gonna start with buying the right cut. So here is a whole brisket, and here is one that is cut into two pieces. So this is usually what you find at the store. But this is just to show you what it looks like when it's put together. -Gotcha. -So this side is obviously nice and evenly cut. This is called the "flat cut." This is called the "point cut." And you can see the point cut actually has some lovely intramuscular fat... -Sure does. -...which means it's well marbled. But it's a wonky cut. It's thin on this side, thick on this side, hard to braise evenly. So we're going with the flat cut. -All right. -So this is a four-to-five pound piece of meat. And you can see it has a really nice fat cap on the top. We're gonna keep that fat cap, but we're gonna trim it back to just a 1/4 of an inch. And this actually looks pretty good. You don't want to bite into a big piece of fat, but you definitely want to have it there to provide moisture during the cooking time. -Actually, that looks pretty good. -Right off the bat, I'm gonna do something unusual. I'm gonna cut this down into two pieces because they'll cook more evenly, and they'll cook a little bit more quickly. So I'm cutting it right down the middle. That's with the grain. So there we have a nice two pieces. And we're gonna salt the meat, which is something we do a lot 'cause salting changes the protein structure, so that it's actually able to hold on to more moisture while it cooks. So I'm gonna take a skewer. I'm gonna poke each of these 20 times all the way through. That's gonna give the salt something to penetrate. And 20. All right, so 20 on each side. Now we're gonna sprinkle some salt all over the meat. We're gonna salt it overnight. And this is five teaspoons of kosher salt. And any salt that hits the board, I really just kind of wipe the meat all over the board to make sure all that salt gets on the meat. The meat is nicely poked and salted. Now I'm gonna wrap each piece in plastic wrap and put them in the refrigerator for at least 16 hours. You really have to have enough time for that salt to do its job. But you can leave it in there for up to 48 hours. All right, so the meat is perfectly salted, and it's time to get cooking. -Okay, then. -But because of the size of the meat and the fact that we like the surface area for a sauce reduction, we're just gonna use a roasting pan. -Makes sense. Otherwise, you try to shove it into a Dutch oven, it's curling up the sides. -Mm-hmm. That's exactly it. So in here, I have 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil, and I'm heating it up over medium heat. You can see it's just starting to shimmer. So I'm gonna add two chopped onions. We're just gonna saut them till they're nice and soft. And to help that along, I'm gonna add a special ingredient -- a little baking soda. This is 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda. It's gonna help speed up the softening of the onions. Just gonna sit here and cook these again for about five minutes. All right, so those onions are looking pretty good. -Something happened. -

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-They're yellow. -They're yellow. That's the baking soda. It helps browning, of course, and it helps alter the color of the onions. To this, I'm gonna add six cloves of minced garlic. I'm just gonna give that about 30 seconds to saut. Now I'm gonna add some new flavors. Here, I have anchovies. This is four minced-and-rinsed anchovies. Now, it's not gonna add an anchovy flavor, as you well know, but it is gonna add a nice, hearty background to the sauce. Moving on, I'm gonna add a tablespoon of tomato paste. This is a tablespoon of cumin. 1 1/2 teaspoons of cardamom. And these warm spices are really delicious in the sauce. 1/2 teaspoon of black pepper. And just a little bit of cayenne -- 1/8 teaspoon. Just a little kick. You just want to give those spices just about 30 seconds to a minute or so to really bloom their flavor. All right. Next up, flour. Now, this is gonna help thicken the sauce. This is 1/4 cup of all-purpose flour. And, as it goes into the pan, it's gonna mix with some of the fat that's left over in the pan and make a roux. So we're gonna cook this for about two minutes or so until it has changed color and there's no floury pockets left behind. You can see that is a nice, sticky roux. And now goes the liquid. And this is pomegranate juice. -Oh, I thought it was red wine. -I know. No, it's very unusual. But the flavor is fruity and a little acidic, and it pairs so well with that rich cut of beef. And, again, it's just another modern twist on the classic. All right, I'm also gonna add some chicken broth, and this is 1 1/2 cups of chicken broth. I'm gonna add three bay leaves. I'm just making sure I got all the brown bits scraped up and there's no more clumps of flour left behind. -Looking good to me. -Last but definitely not least, I'm gonna add some gelatin. -Hm. -So this is 2 tablespoons of powdered gelatin. And, you know, the one thing we found about brisket is it contains a ton of gelatin. But unlike other cuts where the gelatin melts and leeches into the sauce, that doesn't happen with the brisket. The gelatin just softens. It doesn't get into the sauce and help it thicken, so adding a little gelatin just gives it a boost. We're just gonna bring this up to a simmer before we add the beef. So for most braises, we braise at a temperature between 300 and 325. But when you do that with brisket, it takes about five hours, and the meat comes out incredibly dry, as you well know. -That's what happens to me. -So then, we tried using a lower temperature, around 250, and it never got tender. And actually gelatin, as you know, melts at 180 degrees. But in a 250 oven, it never got above 165, so it was super chewy, but it was moist. -Yeah. -So what we're gonna do is we're gonna mix those two methods. We're gonna start in a 325-degree oven. That's gonna get the meat jump-started up to that melting temperature of 180, and then we're gonna turn the oven down, so it has a nice, slow, easy finish, so the meat doesn't dry out. So this is at a nice boil. Time to add our beef. As with any braise, the sauce only comes up about halfway in the meat, and that is perfect. So I'm gonna turn this off. Obviously, there's no lid for a roasting pan, so we're just gonna use a piece of foil. Get it as tight as you can because you want to trap all that moisture inside. All right, that looks pretty good. So, again, 325 for the first hour and a half. And then I'm gonna turn the oven down to 250, and it goes for two to two-and-a-half hours after that. -Well, since brisket takes a long time for it to turn tender, we thought that cooking it in a low oven the whole time would be a perfect plan. Turns out physics had another idea for us. In a 250-degree oven, the meat's temperature rises to about 165 degrees, and just stays there. Moisture on the meat is turning into steam, and that transformation requires energy. The evaporating water uses almost all the heat the oven is putting out. Raising the oven temperature to 325 degrees provides enough heat to both evaporate the water on the brisket's surface and to get into the meat itself. So, in order to get the brisket to the temperature we wanted, we used a hotter oven to overcome the evaporative, cooling effect. -All right, let's take a peek here. -Mmm. -Ooh. -Whoa. -They shrunk up quite a bit, huh? -They sure did. -Let's take a good look and see how tender they are, using a dinner fork. If I can pick it up and I can actually raise the meat out of the pan, it's not done yet. -And those are done. -Those are perfectly done. Now I'm gonna take them out of this liquid. Cover these with foil, so that they stay nice and warm. So let's talk about this sauce. It is a little on the watery side. So we need to reduce it. I'm just gonna give it a quick strain to remove any of those bits into a nice, wide container. Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap to get it to come through. Ooh, that is some good, glossy sauce. I'm gonna let this sit for about 10 minutes, let the fat collect on top. Then we're gonna spoon it off, and I'm gonna put it back into a 400-degree oven to evaporate. All right, so that's the last of the skimming I need to do. You can see that's quite a bit of fat. That would just make the sauce too greasy. -Too greasy. -Now I'm just wiping any of the little schmutz out of the bottom of the pan, any of those solids. Pour this back into the roasting pan. So this is gonna take about half an hour or so in the oven. Again, it's a 400-degree oven. I'm gonna go in there every once in a while and give it a good stir. Oh! Ho! Ho! That has reduced, definitely. -Mmm. Follow the trail of goodness. -

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Look at that. Now, notice I'm scraping up all this goodness on the side of the pan. -Oh, yeah. -That is serious flavor, so you definitely want to get as much of that back into the sauce as you can. And actually, I'm gonna use the sauce to kind of go up there and scrape that fond back in. -Just deglazing it with the actual sauce. -That's it. -Yep. -We're gonna let this sit, and we're gonna turn our attention to the meat. It's been resting patiently over here. Now I'm just gonna slice it into thin slices, about 1/4 of an inch thick. Notice I'm doing it crosswise. That's gonna help make it seem extra tender. -Going right across that grain. That's always a good idea with any cut of meat, but especially cuts of meat that have a very, very visible grain. It just shortens the strands of the meat to make it feel even more tender. That looks plenty tender on its own. -I'm just gonna use the handy slicing knife to help me get the meat right onto a nice platter. Now we're gonna take this gorgeous sauce. We're just gonna pour it down. -Yes! -That sauce is just gorgeous, isn't it? -It is beautiful. and it's thick enough that it's really clinging to the meat. You're not ending up with brisket soup there. -So I'm just gonna top it with a few more really interesting ingredients that you don't often see with brisket. This is 3 tablespoons of chopped fresh cilantro. Again, it goes with those warm spices and that pomegranate juice. -Lovely. -Last but not least, some pomegranate seeds. -Using the other parts. -And, again, this just helps gussy up the meat because when you really look at it, brisket in a brown sauce isn't always the most beautiful. So a little color goes a long way, and also the juice in these fresh seeds will really brighten up that sauce. We have a nice, big piece. Get a little more of that sauce for you. -Thank goodness. -Mm-hmm. Oh, oh, oh, oh. -Mmm. -Mm-hmm. -I love the richness and the tartness of that sauce. -Right? -Oh, it's beautiful 'cause it really cuts through. So tender, so juicy. It is perfection. Thank you so much. Well, if you'd like to take this new approach to braised brisket, cut a flat-cut brisket in half, poke with a paring knife, season, and refrigerate. Create a sauce with sauted onions, savory anchovies, tomato paste, and spices. Stir in flour, then deglaze with broth and pomegranate juice. Braise the brisket in the sauce until tender. Reduce the sauce. Slice the meat and serve. So from our test kitchen to your kitchen, an updated, improved, and woken-up braised brisket. Wine was stored and shipped mostly in barrels until the 17th century when the glass bottle and cork stopper were widely introduced. Since then, there have been dozens, if not hundreds of patents filed for a better corkscrew. And you may know this one -- the waiter's corkscrew. Well, what if you're not a waiter? Well, you call in Adam who's gonna show you another version that might just be easier. -

Laughs

Well, you know, that waiter's corkscrew, Bridget, takes a lot of practice. This different type that we're gonna talk about today -- these are all twist corkscrews. And there are two types of twist corkscrews. -Mm-hmm. -These four here are continuous-turn corkscrews. These five are winged corkscrews. Why don't you try that winged corkscrew right down there? You probably know how that one works, right? -I know this very well. I think this was my very first corkscrew. Aww. -So, you know, you center that over the top of the bottle, and when you screw the worm into the cork, those two wings rise up... -Yes, they do. -...on either side of the bottle, and then when you get to the top, you just press them down, and out comes the cork.

Cork pops

-Boop. -Second type -- I'm gonna have you demo that one, too. That's this. That's called continuous turning. -All right. -That one, you put right on top of the bottle, and you just turn and turn and turn and turn and turn. That will drive the worm into the cork. -Oof. -And you keep turning, and it pulls the cork up... -Uh-huh. -...and out. -There you go. -There are nine different models here, and the price range was $8.90 up through $24.95. Now, testers used these to open 20 bottles of wine. 10 of them had natural corks. 10 of them had synthetic corks, which are a little tougher, a little denser, a little harder to pull out. And all of these bottles opened were timed, so we knew how fast people could pick this up. -Ah! -Now, at the end of the testing, with the top and the bottom model of each style, the testers opened five bottles of older Bordeaux. One was a 2009, one was a 2011 that had longer corks that had grown a little bit drier, a little bit brittle over time, to see how gentle these things were. -Sure. -By and large, the testers found that these twist corkscrews were a lot easier to use than the waiter's type. In fact, of the first 200 bottles opened, 199 were opened without incident. -

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-That was a great record. -I don't even want to ask about the other one. -No.

Both laugh

I saved it. We can drink it after the segment. But, in terms of the two styles, they found that the continuous-turning models were practically foolproof. Even people who had never opened a bottle of wine before in their lives could pick this thing up and use it without an issue. And that's because it's centered right on the cork for you, and there was just one motion. You just keep turning and turning and turning until the worm goes into the cork and the cork comes up and out of the bottle. Also you can see they're pretty lightweight and slim, so they're easy to hold in place, also makes them easy to store. Now, regardless of the type, there are a couple of issues with the worms that mattered. Our testers researched and found out that corks are not always the same length. They can vary. Some of them are as short as 1.5 inches. Some of them are 2 inches or longer. And that means that you need a worm that's 2 inches or longer. This one, for instance, was 1.5 inches -- too short to reach the bottom of the cork. Now, these continuous-turn models -- I can pull the whole thing out. These were all around 4.75 inches or even longer, so they can handle corks of whatever length you throw at them. -They can go through the bottom of the bottle if they want to. -They c--

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-You don't want that. You want to stop short of that. Also you can see that this one has a center post. -Mm-hmm? -And the spirals are arranged sort of like a drill bit on the outside. -Sure. -That's called an auger-style worm. Not favorable because they're a little rougher on the corks. Again, most of them had an open-helix worm... -Mm-hmm. -...which means that it's open. It's gentler on the cork. And testers, in fact, really liked them if they were coated with a non-stick coating because it just made for less friction, smoother entry, easier twisting. I am holding the winning corkscrew, and I want you to give it a try. -All right. -You have one right in front of you. This is the Le Creuset Table Model Corkpull. It's $19.95, and it is everything we could ever ask of a corkscrew. It's easy to use, it's light and slim, it has that nice, long worm at 4.75 inches. It's open helix. It's a great corkscrew. It's the last one you're ever gonna need. It might even beat that first one you ever had, Bridget. -That was dead simple. That was kind of amazing. -I think we need to drink to this, don't you? -I think you're right. -Can I have a whole bottle?

Both laugh

-Well, let me pour a little bit of my perfectly uncorked wine here. There you go. Just a taste of what's to come, Adam. -Fantastic. -There you go. -Thank you. -I think you have convinced me to, at the very least, put a second corkscrew in my drawer. -Excellent. To the Le Creuset. -There you go. Well, if you'd like to buy the winner, it's the Le Creuset Table Model Corkpull, and it retails for $19.95. -Duchess potatoes is a classic French recipe in which the potatoes are peeled, cooked, pureed, then mixed with rich ingredients like cream and yolks, fit into a piping bag with a star tip, and piped into gorgeous towers that are then baked just before serving so they're golden on the outside and creamy on the inside. And they're delicious, but they are a pain to make. -They're delicious. -And they're beautiful. They're beautiful, but they cool off really quickly. -Yep. -They're just not ideal for cooking at home. But the flavor and the texture are amazing. So we wanted to bring that into the kitchen at home and do a casserole version of it. -I like it. -Yeah. So we're gonna start with our potatoes, and we're using Yukon Golds for this, which are naturally really buttery and rich. We love that. They cook up nice and creamy. So I have 3 1/2 pounds of Yukon Golds, and I'm just gonna finish this one up here. So we're gonna cover a couple of really good rules around making any type of mashed potato. The first one is don't cut your potatoes into cubes. Cut them into slices. -Mm-hmm! -So cubes is old-school and classic and that's kind of what we're all taught to do. The problem with cubes is the inside takes longer to cook than the outside, and you have these kind of irregular pieces to it. Going with 1/2-inch thick slices means that the hot water is gonna hit it from all angles, and you're gonna get really even cooking. Okay, so I'm going over here. We have cold water, so that they heat really evenly. -Mm-hmm. -And you don't have the outside sloughing off before the inside is done. So these are covered by about an inch of cold water. I'm gonna bring them up to a simmer over medium-high heat. They'll cook for about 18 to 22 minutes. We're looking for a knife to go in and out very, very easily, no resistance. So while those come up to a simmer, we can focus on our enrichments. It's a classic French technique to add a bunch of richness at the end to a dish, and with pomme puree, a classic French dish, we would just be adding tons of butter, right? Butter, butter, butter. The thing about these potatoes is you actually want them to have some structure as well, and for that, we're gonna use some yolks. So I've got 2/3 cup of half-and-half here. I have three yolks. We tested using whole eggs, and the whites are really what contribute the egg-y flavor in an egg. We didn't really want that. We just wanted the protein to kind of give us that nice structure. -Mm-hmm. -We've got 1 3/4 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon pepper, and a pinch of nutmeg. A little nutmeg goes a long way. -

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I'll say. -

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-So I'm just gonna whisk this together. Okay, we'll finish up our potatoes over here, and then it's gonna be time to mash them and put it all together. All right, I think these potatoes are almost done. I'm just gonna check with my paring knife. -Mm-hmm. -Nice and tender. And that one even just fell apart. So it's time to drain these. We'll head over to the sink there. Okay, so I'm gonna set this pot over low heat, and what we're actually gonna do is rice directly into there... -Mm-hmm. -...help evaporate more moisture. You can see a lot coming off right now. -Yeah. -We want to get rid of all the water we can, so those are nice and rich. -I love using a ricer to make mashed potatoes. It makes the creamiest, smoothest texture. -I agree. I love it. And it's easy. It just makes it fast. There's something really satisfying about mashing, you know? -It's like a massive garlic press. -Yeah, it is. -

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-Those look good already. -They look good, right? So you remember when I said that we weren't adding just tons and tons of butter because it wasn't pomme puree. We are adding butter. -Thank goodness. -Just not only butter. We're gonna add 8 tablespoons of melted butter. We're gonna add this first, and that's actually really important. If you add fat to the potatoes first and you stir it around, you can coat a lot of those starch granules. It doesn't get gluey. -Mm-hmm. -If you add your liquid first, there's more chance of it getting gluey. -Ooh. Those are really fluffy. -Aren't they? So now, I'm gonna stir in our enrichments that we prepared earlier. Okay. That looks beautiful. Time to go into our casserole dish. So I've got a greased 13x9 pan here. -It looks like it's greased with butter. -It is. Okay, so the goal here is to make an even layer on the surface. We're gonna do a nice, little decoration on top, but we want a flat base to work from. So now we're gonna get into our topping. Egg whites are absolutely necessary. So we're gonna add one egg white. There's a ton of protein in the egg white, which helps it brown, obviously, but it can make it kind of tough, if you've had a tough, egg-white omelette-type setup? So we found that we actually needed to cut that with a couple of tablespoons of butter. I'm gonna add just a pinch of salt so this is nice and seasoned. So now we're gonna pour this over the top. You know, you want to kind of spread it out as much as you can, but we're actually gonna tilt it. Just kind of tilt. Let it run into those corners. Beautiful. Now we're gonna do a little design on top. So we're just gonna use a paring knife here and make some lines. You really can get creative with this. You can do anything you want. -So you're using the flat side of the knife? -Yes, exactly. That's so I can get a little bit deeper of a channel there. After it souffls and bakes, you'll be able to see it a lot better that way. Okay, so I'm gonna do more lines this way, and basically just connecting these points to the corner here. You want to go about 1/2-inch deep and about 1/4-inch wide. To finish it off right there. -Very cool. -Beautiful, right? -I love it. -So now it's time to bake this. We're gonna go into a 450-degree oven on the middle rack until it is golden brown on top and souffls a little bit. We're gonna rotate it halfway through. Takes about 25 to 30 minutes. -Ooh-ooh-ooh. That looks beautiful. -Oh, man. This looks and smells so good. -That is gorgeous. -And the nice thing is it's gonna stay warm for a lot longer as well. So we're gonna let this cool for 20 minutes before we dig in, 'cause it is piping hot. All right, so these have cooled for 20 minutes. You ready to try these? -Mm-hmm. Now the souffl did sink a bit, but they're still gorgeous. -Oh, absolutely. This would look so good on a holiday table. Oh, man. These look so good. -Well, I love that you have this golden crust on the outside, but the creamy interior, because that's the hallmark of a good duchess potato. Mmm. -I think you get a better ratio of everything here, right? -Yeah. -It's not like too much exterior. You get that incredibly creamy, incredibly light interior. -Ooh. These are rich, but they're not eggy. -You could forget everything else on the holiday table and just eat these. -Great job, Dan. These are wonderful. -Thank you. -So turns out the key to making duchess potatoes is to make a casserole. Using 3 1/2 pounds of Yukon Golds, peel and slice them into 1/2-inch thick slices, and cover with cold water, and simmer gently until tender. Meanwhile, combine half-and-half with three yolks and some seasonings, also known as the enrichments. Rice the cooked potatoes back into the warm pot and stir in one stick of melted butter followed by the enrichments. Spread the potatoes into a casserole dish, cover with a mixture of egg white and butter, then create some texture using the flat side of a paring knife. Finally, finish them in a 450-degree oven for about 30 minutes. And there you have it. From "America's Test Kitchen" to your kitchen, a fabulous new recipe for duchess potato casserole. You can get this recipe and all the recipes from this season, along with our tastings, testings, and selected episodes at our website, americastestkitchen.com. I'm totally making this for the holidays. -Oh, yeah. -Let us help you with dinner tonight. Visit our website any time for free access to the newest season's recipes, taste tests, and equipment ratings, or to watch current episodes, log on to americastestkitchen.com.