My grandmothers 'thread meat'

or Ben's Beef Brisket

Ben liked this so much that he forced me to write it up. So although this is my take on my grandmother's thread meat, it really is Ben's Beef Brisket. Key for this recipe is that you need to have plenty of time. It's real easy and doesn't take long to prepare but it needs a lot of time to cook. If done right the meat falls apart into little threads, with an absolutely glorious flavor. 

Materials

• Between 2 - 4 pounds of Chuck roast. It's important that it's nicely marbled. Your limitation with the amount of meat is the size of your pan! As always the better the quality of the meat, the better the outcome will be.
• A stick of butter
• Dry Red wine (decent box is fine for this)
• Freshly ground pepper and salt
• A large cast iron pan with a lid
• Vegetables for flavoring the jus. Options I like are red onions, portabella mushrooms, carrots. You can stick some yellow, red or orange bell peppers in, but it will give a slightly different more tangy taste to the jus and is better to experiment with when you have made this a few times. Tomato is another option. Avoid garlic for this dish as it tends to overpower the flavour of the meat.
• A bay leave
• Hungarian paprika powder (optional but especially good to add if you have put bell pepper in)
• Gas hob or an oven

Preparation

1. Cut the meat into big chunks. I mean big. The only reason to cut the meat is to make it easier to get all the pieces fitted in your pan, and it helps distributing the seasoning. With 4 pounds I usually have a max of about 10 pieces.
2. Get your favourite pepper mix out (I like a mix of red and black and white and green corns) and grind liberally over the meat. Get your sea salt grinder out and grind some salt over all the meat surfaces. I use quite a bit less of the salt than the pepper.
3. Put your butter in the pan and place it on your hob. On no more than a medium heat melt the butter. Brown the meat on all sides. I tend to do this in two batches for space reasons. Take out the meat and set aside.
4. Brown the vegetables that you want to put in the jus in the butter for a few minutes and lift them out.
5. Put the meat back in the pan, add the vegetables, the bay leave and pour several glasses of wine  over the meat. You can add about a teaspoon of the paprika powder at this point as well. Since you're going to cook it for a long time, the alcohol will well and truly disappear. The meat must be submerged. If that would take more wine than you like, you can go up to 50% water. 
6. Turn the heat down to the lowest you can set it to, on the smallest burner of your hob. Put the lid on the pan and go do something else for the next 8 hours whilst occasionally checking that all is well and enjoying the delicious smell.  If you don't have a gas hob, a good alternative is to use your oven. Once everything is hot in the pan, transfer it to a low heat oven that will just about cook things very slowly in it. Leave it be for the same 8 or so hours. Please check the liquid levels (and add water if they get too low), as the jus tends to evaporate more in the oven. 
7. When the meat feels soft when poked rather than hard and stiff it is ready. You can eat it immediately but it does taste much better if you let the dish mature. 
8. To mature the dish you let the pan cool down overnight on your hob, and stick it in your fridge the next morning for the entire day. When you heat it up the day after that it will be amazing!

This recipe works really well when served with good homemade potato puree. I tend to pair it with some steamed vegetables, which will be extra lovely with some jus over them.