An innovative spiced beef recipe that borrows its technique but not its spicing from Danny Bowien.

According to Bowien, they call this method “the poor man’s sous vide at Mission Chinese Food.” While he seasons his beef only with salt and pepper, this version marries his cooking method with the traditional flavorings used to make English spiced beef.

• 2 Tablespoons dark brown sugar
• 2 Tablespoons malt or red wine vinegar
• generous cascades of salt and pepper
• a generous teaspoon of allspice
• ½ teaspoon powdered bay
• about ¼ teaspoon powdered cloves
• 2 lb fatty brisket

Twelve hours before you want to serve the brisket, preheat the oven to 210 °.

1. Combine everything but the beef and rub the mixture firmly and evenly into the meat.
2. Wrap the seasoned meat in three layes of plastic wrap covered with a layer of foil, “making sure, as Bowien warns his reader, “the meat is sealed in to stop the juices escaping.”
3. Put the package in a shallow pan and bake it for about 12 hours: “The meat should be jiggly and the fat should melt in your mouth.”
4. Cut a corner from the package and pour of the liquor from the beef into the pan: Keep it warm
5. Slice the beef against the grain into slices about half an inch thick and serve it hot with its liquor.

Notes:

-Unlike traditional English spiced beef, this recipe obviously does not involve curing the meat.

-Some traditional English recipes for spiced beef include juniper but it seems out of place in this one.

-Bowien waits until after cooking his beef to build a sauce. He stir fries garlic and fermented black beans in olive oil, adds chopped Chinese broccoli, pours on the liquor that leaches from the beef while it cooks, then finishes the sauce with a drizzle of oyster sauce and both sesame and flaxseeds.

-The Bowien recipe appeared in the 9-15 November issue of New York magazine.