For brisket, fear not the pressure cooker

The nice thing about cooking a monster brisket for Hanukkah — aside, of course, from the fact that the meat can be mouth-meltingly delicious — is that it is a dish you can mostly ignore as it cooks.

Season a massive hunk of brisket, toss it into a Dutch oven with some liquid, then pop it into a 275-degree oven for the better part of a day. Done — and delicious.

That was what I planned to do for this recipe. Then I realized that while that approach does leave the cook free to do other things, it also monopolizes the oven. It does so at such a low temperature that it becomes difficult to share the space with other dishes you might want to prepare.

So instead, I turned to that most terrifying — and misunderstood — of kitchen tools, the pressure cooker. Modern pressure cookers are quite safe. They basically lock in moisture and — thanks to the pressure seal — are able to cook at a higher temperature. The result is fast, even cooking that won’t dry out your food.

That means my sweet-and-tangy barbecue brisket sliders cook in about 1½ hours instead of all day, and the hands-on time is the same.

SWEET-AND-TANGY BARBECUE BRISKET SLIDERS

Start to finish: 1 hour 45 minutes (15 minutes active)

Servings: 10

4-pound brisket, trimmed of fat, cut into 3 or 4 pieces

Kosher salt and ground black pepper

2 tablespoons canola or vegetable oil

2 cups water

15-ounce can tomato sauce

½ cup ketchup

½ cup packed brown sugar

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