Corn beef/ pastrami making thread..

I make my own corned beef at least 3 times a year and will buy the whole brisket at Costco and they sell Prime for a very good price when on sale.

I'll trim down to about 1/4 inch fat off the cap and the brine recipe I use is as follows:

1 gallon water
1 cup kosher salt
1 tsp. Potassium Nitrate (Salt Peter)
5 bay leaves
1 tsp. ground cloves
1 tsp. all-spice berries
2 tsp. peppercorns
1 tsp. mustard seed
1 cup white vinegar
1/2 cup white sugar
7 cloves finely chopped garlic

Boil all ingredients until well blended. Allow to cool to room temperature and then submerge the brisket in the liquid. Refrigerate and brine for 2 weeks before cooking.

Place something weighted on top of the brisket to keep it submerged---(I use a plastic container with a few extra plates in it) and turn it over every day to make sure it is evenly brined.

Prior to cooking remove from the brine and rinse thoroughly, then pat dry.

If you smoke it for pastrami, use a recipe you find on the net and go from there.

If you want to make corned beef with it, simply place it in a large enough pot and cover with water and boil it until tender.

ETA: I generally cook mine about 3 hours and will take some of the cooking liquid and use that to cook down some cabbage and potatoes to go with it for a "Corned Beef & Cabbage" meal.

I'll cut the cabbage in fairly large chunks and begin the cooking process by first sautéing some onion and garlic in either olive oil or bacon grease then add the cabbage to lightly brown it in the oil. Then I'll take some of the cooking liquid from the corned beef and let the cabbage cook down in that to begin getting tender. Next, add some cubed potatoes and let that cook till tender. Season with salt and pepper as needed.

Forgot to mention: I use a large plastic "food safe" container to brine the brisket.

quote:

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Migh end up doing pastrami, so any tips on smoking it appreciated..

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A Smoked Pastrami Recipe That's Close To Katz's

Bought a 13lb prime packer. Trimmed it down to about 9 lbs.




Made the brine out of:

4 quarts water
2 cup kosher salt
1 cup brown sugar
3 tablespoons pink salt
2 cinnamon stick, broken into several pieces
2 teaspoon mustard seeds
2 teaspoon black peppercorns
15 whole cloves
8 whole allspice berries
4 bay leaves, crumbled
10 crushed garlic cloves
1 teaspoon ground ginger

Heated the brine to dissolve the sugar and salt, then cooled down to 45 deg with ice




Submerged it and put it fridge I have it weighted down. Will flip it over every day. Will go at least 10 days. Maybe 2 weeks. I plan to do pastrami and corned beef with it.

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The recipe I posted originally called for 2 cups kosher salt but I found the corned beef to be too salty with that much, so I cut it down to 1 cup.

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Uh oh. I hope it doesn’t come out too sally. I ended up using Alton Brown’s recipe, but doubled all the ingredients since his was for a 4lb brisket. You think I should add some water to dilute the brine?

Might want to up that (salt peter to a TBSP for a gallon of water.

i would trim based on if doing corned beef or going all the way to pastrami
it is to much work for me if just doing corned beef and i an happy with store bought

but pastrami! i would use a very trim piece cause i just wanted and thin line of fat and to get as much smoke and flavor as i could into the meat

After 10 days in the brine I decide to get this show on the road. Also decided to do it all in pastrami instead of half corned beef.

Removed from brine.



Rinsed thoroughly, then dried




Made a rub. For the rub I toasted some coriander and mustard seeds, added smoked paprika, crushed black peppercorns, garlic powder, minced onions, brown sugar




Slathered a dab of creole mustard on the brisket to help it stick and rubbed it down.



Got it going on Ol Bessie about 7am with some cherry (I read cherry will yield a taste similar to Katz deli), hickory and charcoal. Will let it slow roll most of the day while I’m at work. Depending on what temp it gets to I may wrap and finish in the oven to get the temp up around 200 deg.







Going to buy some Jewish rye, kraut and good Swiss after while

I think I'm going for pastrami ruebens tonight. May go the slaw route after that..

Love the size of your smoker, although a bit of overkill for that size piece of meat.

Also looks like you are on a nice size piece of property with the tractor and bushog in the background.