chulent meat

Flanken

Middle Chuck

Shank Kalichal

Regarding meat that falls apart during cooking: roll several portions of raw meat into cylindrical shape and tie each with a string (there’s string available for this sort of thing). Then, just put the cylinders into the chulent for cooking.

The issue of borer is avoided by serving the meat still bound with the string and eating the meat as one might eat meat off a bone.

Flanken

Navel Pastrami

Brisket (but only if you cook it for 24 hours minimum)

It’s labeled flanken. Any kosher store should have it out on the shelf. If it’s not there ask the guy.

Also marrow bones add a lot of flavor to the chulent. You only need one or two for an average size chulent.

Shloimel: Since we don’t know where you live it is hard to say what they call it. The major stores in the NY area generally label it “Flanken”.

It’s sometimes labeled “short ribs”.

It’s butchered differently. Flanken is cut perpendicular to the bones, if it’s just labeled as “short ribs” it’s likely cut English style which is parallel to the bones.

What your butcher does will likely depend on the season and day of the week.

“What happens if you use ground meat?”

You ruin the ground meat, while adding minimal flavor to the chulent.

And don’t even think about using hot dogs.

Maybe I need to make it myself because for some reason using ground meat sounds good

“Maybe I need to make it myself because for some reason using ground meat sounds good”

Don’t come back later saying I should’ve warned you

As for the hot dogs, you’re probably better off just serving hot dogs and then making chulent without any meat. It just ruins the hotdogs and doesn’t add anything to the chulent.

“I suppose that in Borough Park, they could have a chulent meet.”

They actually do, and not just in Borough Park.

EDIT: Wait I get it. You were making a joke. Chulent “meet”.

And don’t even think about using hot dogs.

Sorry, but you obviously haven’t tried real “hot dogs” from Romanian (the 1/2 – 3/4 pound Kielbasas) in your chulent. Unfortunately, they are probably not an option for Shloimel, but they make Chulent even more awesome.

“So making it more chili like sounds appetizing.”

So then just call it chili. Don’t make chili and pretend you’re making chulent.

Call it Shabbat Chili

iacisrmma: Thank you.

So I guess the difference is whether or not the meat is ground?

Ground = chili

Chunks of flesh = chulent

Spicy foods make me more sweaty so on Shabbos with all the layers and lack of showers, I envision a mild chilulent (hybrid)

As cold weather is setting in here in Connecticut, I shall start making cholent for this coming Shabbos. The main part of our home is 200+ years old and has working fireplaces used for heating and cooking. There is both a tripod where I hang a cast iron kettle that hangs above the coals or an oven built into the brick wall where I can place a covered casserole.

I use a pickled rolled roast as the main meat in my cholent if made in the covered casserole. I take it out and slice it when it is time to serve, ladeling the beans,barley, vegetables, potatoes and gravy alongside on the platter.

If I’m cooking in the kettle I use both short ribs and home-made link sausage the size of knockwurst. This is more of a stew and is ladeled out into rustic pottery bowls for each individual at the table.

We only make cholent from approximately Chanukah to TuB’shvat as after that I don’t always keep the fireplaces going. My family is spoiled and does not like the taste or consistency of Cholent made in a crockpot.

I also NEVER put kishke or potato kugel on the top of the cholent. There is enough crbs with potatoes, barley and beans.

“So I guess the difference is whether or not the meat is ground?”

I guess, but also ground beef is not generally made from the type of meat that you would want to put in your chulent.

cherrybim: While I agree with you many others will disagree with you. Most people prefer flanken.

Geordie……….

Actually, we start serving Fruchtsuppe from Shavous to Rosh HaShanah, but as a starter, not a main course.

The main course of the meal from Tu B’Svat until Shavous is usually cold joints of Roast chicken, Turkey, goose or duck, asst. Aufscnitt, and salads (especially pickled red cabbage made with applesauce) and rosti, or a cucumber/onion salad, spaetzel, and asst breads and crackers. As an homage to the asst Litvish in-laws a potato kugel or onion/noodle pudding might grace the table.

This year, I’m attempting to cure and make my own Metwurst. I’ve not had a decent kosher supply available for the past dozen years. I make many of my own wursts and have a small brick smokehouse in the rear yards which gets lots of use. I smoke poultry as I use to get in Joburg in the 1970s for when we travel, as well as cold Shabbos lunches.

Years ago Chulent was made universally the same way. For some reason during the last few decades people add their own stuff that quite frankly takes away the authenticity of chulent. People add Hot Dogs, Coca Cola, Ketchup, rice, corn, everything but the kitchen sink. Why cant the original good old beans, barley, potatoes and meat stay that way? Why mess with what is good?

I always put flanken in my cholent and with it I tried spicy sausages came out really good!!

Git Meshuge…………

Cholent was NEVER ‘universally’ made the same way. The contents varies according to means and availability of ingredients, as well as the tastes of a particular community.

It gets its name from the French word Chaud….hot as corrupted by travel into the Jewish enclaves of Ashkenaz (Germany) them east to the Pale and Yiddish speaking communities.

It essence, it is a derivative of a French ‘pot au feu’ a pot on fire that contained beef broth as well as meat and vegetables, The pot stayed on a hook over the fire’s coals at all times in a home or inn and ingredients were added at will, leftover cuts of meat, vegetables and scrapings, some bits of starch such as potatoes (after 1500), barley, beans.

The way I cook in a kettle on a tripod by our cooking hearth is in this style. I often add what is left in a bottle of wine or beer or ale and leftover bits of meat and vegetables from the fridge, just as a French innkeeper or housewife might have done.

Everyone’s cholent is made to the cook’s whims or taste. My cholent made in the kettle has far more broth than the glop I have been served in many Litvish or Galitzianer homes. The cholent I make in a covered casserole in the brick wall oven by my fireplace is served on dinner plates as sliced pickled rolled beef roast with root vegetables and gravy on the side. This looks like a fine meal that might be served in a German Inn with vinegar based potato salad with onions and pickled red cabbage as the starch and veg sides.

I dare say that when my Great-great Grandmother was making cholent in Bavaria in the 1850s it was not of the same ingredients as that served in eastern Europe. My Grandmother, born in NYC in 1890 told me that she never encountered barley or beans in a cholent until invited for a Shabbos to my father’s grandmother’s home after my parents were engaged. Their lineage was Litvish and although arriving in the USA in 1868 they still made a starch dominated cholent that was thick and heavy.

iacisrmma, why would you use onion powder and garlic powder when you can use actual onions and garlic? I use tamari and a hefty amount of cumin. I sometimes substitute cracked corn (aka hominy) for barley (a good way to make it gluten free, if you have guests who can’t have gluten).

I thought Jimmy cracked corn

lightbrite

And I don’t care