Titles For You, con't: “The Brisket Crisis”

There are two Jewish holidays where brisket dominates the traditional meal, Rosh Hashanah and Passover. Brisket is optional on Chanukah.

Of course you can eat brisket any time but on these major holidays brisket is a “must have.” Therein lie the potentials for crisis.

The brisket buyer faces two key questions: When to buy it (meaning when will it go on sale) and how much do I need?

The first question requires keeping a keen eye on the weekly supermarket fliers. Buy too soon and you will over-pay. Wait too long and there might not be any left. Hint: brisket usually goes on sale the week before the holiday. That's when you pounce.

How much you buy depends on how many you're feeding. Remember, you can never have too much brisket. Here's a story to illustrate this point.

It's pre-Passover and my wife and I are in the supermarket shopping for our brisket. We come across a young woman, brisket in hand, asking the butcher if this would be enough for her table. My wife, ever helpful, asks the woman how many guests she is having. Once told, my wife says you better take another one. She does. Crisis averted.

Wait, there's more. They start talking, get around to where we each live, etc. etc. It's a classic case of Jewish Geography. It gets better. We tell her we live in Verona and she says her husband used to live there. Not only that, turns out he used to live in our house. She's married to the son of the couple we bought our house from.

We wished her a great Seder. Never saw her again.

Our brisket was delicious. And we had leftovers.

Coming soon: "One Came Back: The Saga of the Missing Sock."