Madame Vo's Jimmy Ly explains how to make 24-hour brisket and short rib pho

• Madame Vo's Chef Jimmy Ly teaches an amateur how to make beef noodle pho with short rib, eye round, and brisket through video chat.
• The broth is the star of the show and takes at least six hours to make.
• We simmered the broth with aromatic spices, vegetables, and different beef cuts for the maximum suggested time: 24 hours.

Followed is the transcript of the video.

Medha Imam: Pho takes eight to 24 hours to make, so that's what I'm nervous about, but we're gonna go on an adventure. There's literally flame. It's a meaty broth, it's just delicious. There's a brisket in there, there's also a short rib. Guys, this is gonna be amazing. Finally, today's the day I'm gonna make pho at home with Chef Jimmy Ly, from Madame Vo. And he's known for making some of the best books pho in New York City. And I'm also excited for my family to try it out because it'll be their first time too.

Medha's dad: What is it? Pho?

Medha: Pho. And we're gonna give him a call and see how it goes. Hello Chef Jimmy, where are you right now? I'm in my man cave in my basement at my house, so... The first part of the process, which is gonna be the most time-consuming, will be the bones. You can use a variety of different bones depending on availability from your butcher.

Medha: So I went to the meat store, and what I got was bone marrow bones, does that work? And I can show you.

Jimmy: Yeah, you could use that. For me, I would like to use two to three different cuts of bones because that would add more def to the beefiness, to the broth. Traditionally, there's three different types of pho. Beef pho, obviously that's the most-well known, most popular and then the second one would be chicken and then the vegetarian. That's pretty much it from the spectrum. Anything outside of that would be like fusion or someone else's take and we're making beef noodle pho. And then down a little, like it's a little high. Yeah, yeah, so you're trying to get all the moisture out, so when you roast the bones, you don't want the water to start flaring once it hits the fat. After this you need to preheat your oven to 385 degrees.

Medha: After this, or right now?

Jimmy: You can do it right now. If you have a sheet pan that you can just lay aluminum foil. You don't wanna overcrowd. You kinda wanna space them out a little bit. Perfect .

Medha: So here's the coarse salt. And my mom actually made a space in her cabinet.

Jimmy: Moms can be super territorial with their kitchen space. I totally get it.

Medha: Like literally, this is the kitchen, this is my cupboard.

Jimmy: Oh wow, thanks mom.

Medha: It doesn't stick, so I just drizzle it on?

Jimmy: You don't have to put it like individually, you could just like, kind of do what Salt Bae does. Like just like on top, like yeah, like that. And then you're gonna set your timer for about 20 minutes. Now we're gonna multitask, right? Fill your pot up with water, three quarters full, turn on the fire, get out your cutting board. And we're going to start cutting our onions. And we're gonna start charring, while it's roasting, while the water is boiling. As a chef, you wanna control your environment. You wanna control everything. And if something needs attention, then you're just doing that one thing.

Medha: Do I need to cover the pot?

Jimmy: No, don't cover the pot.

Medha: We have 11 minutes left for the stove. Do you want it to be in a high, medium, or medium-low?

Jimmy: Right now you wanna bring it to high because I want that water to be boiling.

Medha: Okay, great, which one do you like better?

Jimmy: The one on my left.

Medha: Your left? Jimmy: Yeah, right here.

Medha: This one?

Jimmy: No, the other one, yeah. My left, my left. Cut that part, yes.

Medha: This?

Jimmy: The white stuff, just cut all that and you're gonna use that in your broth. Those green onions, you will save for garnishing at the end.

Medha: So I'm gonna... You said to throw these away–

Jimmy: No, throw those–

Medha: Don't throw them away.

Jimmy: No, throw those in the pot. How many onions do you have there?

Medha: I have one, two, three, four, five, six, seven. Seven.

Jimmy: Okay, we're gonna use three onions today.

Medha: Like yellow onions, will these make me cry?

Jimmy: Yes. So just keep your distance. Once you clean them, slice them in halves. Once you slice it in half, you're gonna just take that first shell out. After that, we're gonna start charring our onions and ginger.

Medha: I think also just checking the timer on this, 22 seconds.

Jimmy: Just turn it off.

Medha: I was so scared I turned on the wrong oven, but we're good, I turned on the right one. Jimmy: And then I want you to take the bones out and drop the bones into the pot.

Medha: Okay, so, all right.

Jimmy: Yeah, it's hot, it's hot, be careful. Medha: They're heavy.

Jimmy: Very nice, very nice. So now slowly put your bones into the stock pot.

Medha: Okay, I just got hit by some bone marrow juice but I'm okay, so this is what it looks like. This is the biggest one. I'm just gonna move the pot to the back of the stove, so we have space to char the vegetables.

Jimmy: How are you gonna char it? You don't have a grill net, right?

Medha: No, I do not, but... Will it work?

Jimmy: It's a splatter screen.

Medha: I know, but I was like, maybe–

Jimmy: That's metal netting.

Medha: Well, it just looks like a grill net, in my eyes.

Jimmy: Yeah, okay, okay. I think we could go without it, just because of safety precaution. I don't want it to melt or like burn down the house.

Medha: Okay then, I'm down with that. Jimmy: We can grill your vegetables on top of your stove top right now. Okay, so you ready?

Medha: Yeah.

Jimmy: Don't be afraid of the fire. Once you see that it's kind of starting to really burn, like move it to make sure it's evenly charred.

Medha: I smell it already. I'm just scared of the fire and the onion just exploding.

Jimmy: It's not gonna explode, don't worry. You can do a little bit more, another minute. Medha: Not there yet, oh, this one is.

Jimmy: Yeah, that's perfect, that's done. You don't want it to be too black because once you put that into the broth, it's gonna make the broth a little bit black, so right now it's just activating flavors.

Medha: Oh my God. It's getting hot in here. It's not really that... Oh my God, they're so slippery.

Jimmy: And we're gonna wrap that up and then we're going to char the ginger.

Medha: Got it.

Jimmy: The ginger is gonna take a little bit longer, 'cause it's much thicker. From my experience, like ginger takes double the time of onions. You're gonna have to scrape the black pieces off and then you're gonna start hammering it.

Medha: What if I don't have a hammer at the ready? Should I get that at the ready?

Jimmy: If you don't have a hammer, which is fine, you see that bottle of fish sauce that you have that you're gonna use? Just lay a paper towel and then you can just use it to just kinda, yeah, just bang on it. Turn the fire on high right now. Okay, on high, okay, and we're gonna do that for a minute.

Medha: There's so much crackle in the flame like spitting out. Jimmy: That's fine, see, now we're speeding up the process. All right we're done, you can shut it off now. You can put it in a bowl, you can run it in cold water right now, so it's easier for you to just like to skin them and also for the ginger to cool off, so you don't burn your hands.

Medha: I'm an amateur. Well, I've cooked in the past, but this is some intense cooking.

Jimmy: And then you want the ginger to kind of crack because you want the water to extract all the nutrients from the ginger. How is that going?

Medha: I'm recording Huh? Can you bring it? Oh, my mom said she has a hammer. Okay, thanks Momma. She's gonna go get it.

Jimmy: Yeah, just slam it harder, like you just got into argument with somebody like yeah, perfect, perfect. There, okay you're good, you're good. That's it, you're done.

Medha: Mom just brought the hammer.

Jimmy: Okay.

Medha: I'll just give it a go once.

Jimmy: Perfect, okay, they're smashed. Okay, so now you're gonna place the onion and the ginger into the stock pot. You can just turn it on a little bit more, 'cause you wanna see some bubbling, but very minimal. Get some salt, just add that into the water. So right now that's done. Keep it at a low boil and just leave it on all day.

Medha: Oh, leave it on all day?

Jimmy: Leave it on all day. And just check on the pot like every two to three hours, because obviously it's gonna evaporate. Once they reduce just add water.

Medha: Okay so always keep it at like a 3/4 level of water.

Jimmy: Yes, before you go to bed, I want you to turn off the stove and just let it sit. Don't put it in the fridge, don't cover it. Okay, I want the broth to air out. The first thing you do when you get up, before you brush your teeth, turn it on. Turn it on, on low flame and just let it cook through.

Medha: And right now the broth is still clear. It hasn't really, you know... I don't think it's cloudy yet. I think I can definitely smell it more, which is a good sign. So I'm gonna check back again in around three more hours. It's very clear as you can see and I think it's getting to the point... Oh, and there's my sister. We're all up, we shouldn't be up, it's literally midnight, but the broth is clear. Do you guys smell anything?

Medha's brother: What?

Medha: Do you guys smell anything?

Medha's brother: I also don't.

Medha's sister: No.

Medha: No, go closer, actually smell. Brother: It smells more like ginger- Sister: Oh it smells like- Brother: I smell mostly ginger. Sister: Yeah it smells very gingery.

Medha: Yeah so I also smelled an exuberant amount of ginger so I actually decided to take out a small piece of ginger because I thought the ginger was overpowering every other smell. So it's 12:15, I'm gonna turn it off. Time to go to sleep. Okay, all right, so I just woke up and I'm gonna go ahead and turn on the stove to make sure that the broth is still cooking.

Hello guys. I am about to put in the brisket and the short rib into the broth, this is the broth. Jimmy said I was supposed to leave it in for two to three hours to extract the flavors into the broth. Okay so it's been three hours and the short rib looks good. Look how juicy it is. It's now been 24 hours since this broth has been on a low boil. So after we actually put in the short rib and the brisket, you can tell that the broth has really changed in terms of color and in taste. And what I can actually see is that it's definitely more brown than it was before, but at the same time, it's also more tasting like a beef broth rather than a vegetable gingery broth. So we're getting to the point where it's almost done. I'm about to turn it off and we're going to wait until tomorrow morning to add all the spices and the garnishes and the meat and it'll be ready to eat. Hi Chef Jimmy.

Jimmy: So what's up, how's the broth looking?

Medha: So this is the broth.

Jimmy: It's a little brown. Yeah, it's brown, but you can kinda see through it. After you take out the bones, you're going to have to add water in and that's gonna help a little bit more with the brownness. It's gonna clear it up a little bit more. And then what we're gonna do is we're gonna flavor it. I mean, there's nothing wrong with your broth Medha.

Medha: Okay, literally sitting here, I'm like, "Tell me what I did wrong, I need to know."

Jimmy: No, no, no. There's nothing wrong with your broth. Mind you like, this is your first time making it. Do we have cardamom?

Medha: Yes we do.

Jimmy: Black cardamom pods. Do we have fennel?

Medha: Yes we do.

Jimmy: Awesome. Medha: I'll show you all my ingredients. Could I just put all the spices on here directly?

Jimmy: No, you're gonna do it separately. From my experience, from what I learned, when you do it all together, you're gonna burn it. It's gonna be inconsistent. So it takes a little bit of finesse. So I would just do, star anise would be star anise. Cinnamon would be cinnamon, fennel would be fennel. And then cardamom is just cardamom. The reason why we toast them is to activate. To activate flavors in the broth. Gonna be a cooking class to an art class now. So now you're going to have to kind of make your own teabag with the spices that we just toasted. Medha: Yeah, okay.

Shirley: Medha, are you cutting that with a knife?

Medha: I wanted scissor but it's too far, it's like downstairs, it works. Jimmy: Medha, you should just be like, "Don't tell me how to live my life."

Medha: Seriously. Shirley: I'm thinking of... Oh my God. You're cutting up with like not controlled force, I'm just nervous.

Medha: It's almost there.

Shirley: You feel nothing towards this, Jimmy? That she's cutting a cheesecloth with a knife?

Jimmy: Yeah, I would say scissors, but I guess it's downstairs, like I get, I'm guilty of it, lazy. I sometimes am lazy too.

Shirley: Yeah I have stakes for this too, 'cause Medha is gonna drive over and give me some of his pho later.

Jimmy: Oh, wow, okay, okay. Nervous now. So where it's big enough to hold everything together, and then if you have twine, that would be great. If not, then you would have to make it big enough where you can tie it. Just for safety reasons turn off the fire, and take out the bones, don't rush it.

Medha: What is that? Oh it's the fat.

Jimmy: You're gonna take out the bones, the ginger, the onions as well, and just keep the soup.

Medha: That's insane, I didn't know you take everything out. Jimmy: Yeah, no, you have to take everything out because now you're done with the bones. Right now, it's just taking up prime real estate. All of that was to extract flavor into the broth and to clear it.

Medha: Could you use the ginger and all the onions for anything?

Jimmy: No, that's all garbage now. The ginger and the onion has been cooked down. Its entire lifespan is done.

Medha: Jimmy I'm just gonna show you. It's not fully clear, but–

Jimmy: All right. Medha: Most of the stuff is out.

Jimmy: That's fine, that's fine. Okay so now you're gonna add water and then you're gonna bring it to a boil. Yep, just throw it in.

Medha: And it's just floating?

Jimmy: Push it down a little bit. Let the bag fully get wet, get in there. The main objective of this step here is to extract all the flavors from the spices into the broth. This process will take about an hour to an hour and a half.

Medha: Okay so this is my short rib.

Jimmy: Cool, let's just throw it in, 'cause we're not doing anything fancy with the short rib, we're just cooking it down. Shirley: Were you surprised at the picture Medha sent you of the brisket in her stock?

Jimmy: Yo, I didn't know she was gonna get like an industrial-sized, restaurant-sized brisket. She showed me the brisket and I was like, "Dude, that's the size of my torso."

Jimmy: Do you have knife skills?

Medha: I mean, you saw how I handled the cheesecloth. I wanted scissor.

Jimmy: I just want you to slice it down. Medha: Okay, one second.

Jimmy: As thinly as you can.

Medha: Something in the broth, hold on. Can I show you guys?

Jimmy: What, you just found something?

Medha: Hi mom. Yeah, okay. I don't know what this is. Oh, I'm so dumb, we just put the short rib in. We're good. I was like, did I just leave the meat in the entire 48 hours? We're good people.

Jimmy: So thin slices, like as thin as you can. Yeah, no that's perfect.

Medha: It's hard to cut. The spices are definitely infused. I can definitely smell the spices.

Jimmy: It smells good in the house, cool.

Medha: I think our ventilation system is actually like pretty solid, so I can't smell it in the house.

Jimmy: You should shut it off.

Medha: Honestly, yeah.

Jimmy: I mean, if I can bottle and cologne pho, I would do it. For the eye round, it's gonna be a little bit more tough because it's raw and you're gonna have to slice it thinly as well. It's been an hour and you can take out your bag of spices now.

Medha: And again why do you leave it in only for an hour?

Jimmy: You don't want your soup to darken. And also you don't wanna overpower the broth because the main essential factor of the beef stock is beef.

Medha: Yeah. I didn't open it, but...

Jimmy: Yes, let's use that.

Shirley: Are you doing it off camera so I wouldn't criticize you?

Medha: I didn't want Shirley to criticize me for using a knife again. Okay.

Jimmy: As a substitute, like if people can't get rock sugar, you can use regular sugar. It just tastes a little bit better with a rock sugar. Once it's over salty, it's kind of hard to save. When it's on the sweeter side, you can save that.

Medha: Oh really? That's interesting, why is that?

Jimmy: Once it's sweet, you can balance it off with a fish sauce and salt.

Medha: Oh my God I totally forgot about the fish sauce as an element to this. How would you describe the taste and what kind of flavors do you think the fish sauce will add to the pho?

Jimmy: I can highly say that pho with fish sauce is so much more amazing because it just brings all that umami flavor and it just hits you hard. Like it slaps, so 3/4 cup of that. And then we're going to add MSG and then we're gonna add salt. And MSG just enhances everything. I mean there's MSG in potato chips, MSG in Doritos, like it's a very addictive ingredient and it really brings the dish together. Bring it to a boil and once everything melts in like five minutes, you should be done.

Medha: Really?

Jimmy: That pot is done. That's done.

Medha: That's amazing.

Jimmy: And then you're gonna need to cook water because you're gonna cook your noodles.

Medha: They're giving it the smell so many different flavors. Like you can smell the meatiness of the broth, but you can also smell the star anise, the fennel seeds. It's like so different. I've never smelled a broth like this before. Like this is new to me and I can't wait to slurp pho.

Jimmy: The best noodle to capture flavor in a bowl of pho would be like flat rice noodles because it doesn't overpower the broth. It's a little bit clear now, but once you cook it, the color is gonna be completely white.

Medha: Okay, the noodles are ready.

Jimmy: We're almost at the finish line. Chop up the cilantro, scallions and purple onions. And once that's done, we're going to plate. Let's grab the rice noodles, just add four to five pieces of brisket, and then you're gonna add eye round on top of that. Make sure the soup is hot, so once it hits the raw meat, it's gonna cook it. Add onions, cilantro, scallions, the short rib, perfect. And then you're gonna add the broth on top. When you're scooping the broth Medha, you wanna go from the bottom up not from the top, because the top layer it's all fat.

Medha: Yeah, it's steaming. Oh my God, this looks wonderful. Oops, splatter zone. All right, Chef, how did I do? What do you think? Tell me, it looks beautiful in my opinion. I wanna know yours.

Jimmy: I think you did a really great job, especially this is your first time making pho. And especially since you've never had it before and for you to go through all the steps and process with me, I think you did good, but I know that you can do better next time because you have this experience. I'm gonna say eight out of 10 because you never had pho and you don't know anything about this dish.

Medha: So Jimmy, I am sad because I cannot eat this right now because I'm fasting, but I will let you know what I think and what my family thinks at dinner time when we break our fast and yeah. That'll probably be the first time me and the rest of my family have ever tried pho.

Jimmy: A little scary because you and your family never had pho before. I'm really hoping that this tastes right. Even though I did the tutorial with you and I hope I don't disappoint.

Medha: Oh, because I've never had pho but Shirley has had pho in the past. I thought it would be a great idea to actually send her one bowl of pho today, so when I break fast, she and I will actually eat it together, and then she can tell me compared to the other pho she's had whether it's good or not.

Jimmy: Shirley, if it was really good, I made it. If it was awful, it's Medha, okay? If it was good, it was like, "Okay, Chef Jimmy, thank you." If it wasn't don't let me know. This was really fun and catch you guys later and please be safe.

Medha's dad: Pho is very good and made by Medha Imam. When you put the green thing, that's good because that green thing brings the flavor, doubles the flavor.

Medha's mom: Green onion.

Dad: That green onion, yeah.

Medha's sister: Yeah, it's green onion.

Medha's brother: No cap, no lie. Pretty good.

Sister: Good job, it smells good, that's why I want to stop recording and try it.

Medha: I know, I'm sorry.

Dad: One thing is that I think you could have more noodles.

Medha: More noodles?

Dad: Yeah.

Medha: Okay, I'm someone who doesn't like noodles–

Dad: No, but we have to go with what people like, I'm telling you.

Medha: You guys didn't have faith in my pho.

Sister: No, it's just like we were hungry.

Medha: Yeah, I know. Okay, the moment we've been waiting for. Wow. This is so good.

Mom: It's very tasty.

Medha: And the beef, Baba, the beef is supposed to fall right off the bone and it's doing that.

Dad: Right, doing that, yeah.

Medha: It literally fell right off the bone.

Sister: You want me to–

Medha: Oh my God, yeah. Look at this, it just came right off the bone.

Dad: Who's Jimmy?

Sister: Chef Jimmy.

Medha: Jimmy's the chef who taught me.

Dad: Hey Jimmy, great job. Ah, make my daughter a chef. I've spent a lot of money. She can return some of those.

Medha: Hey Baj here wanna try it?

Sister: Yeah.

Medha: Grab your spoon. Okay hello, my sister is now gonna try the pho with me. All right, Baj, go for it.

Brother: Medha, that was legit.

Medha: Really?

Sister: That's really good.

Medha: Like really?

Sister: Because the broth is like more–

Medha: Fatty?

Sister: No, it's fatty, but it has so much flavor in it.

Dad: Yeah flavor–

Sister: The flavor is really good. It's like sweet but also like... Like savory.

Medha: Smoky?

Sister: Yeah and smoky.

Medha: It's a little bit smoky. I'm gonna add Sriracha. So usually people add Sriracha.

Sister: Oh, sorry.

Medha: So much Sriracha, yo.

Sister: I like it.

Medha: Yeah but you're making an ad for Sriracha.

Sister: Hey, sponsor me.

Medha: That's not how these videos work.

Sister: I know.

Medha: Thoughts?

Sister: Really good. Everyone: Do it again. Yeah, do it again.

Medha: What?

Shirley: It tastes really good.

Medha: Really?

Shirley: I would not be able to tell that this was like pho made by someone that made it for the first time.

Medha: Really?

Shirley: Yeah.