Here's what you need to do - Pastrami

Here's what you need to do. Take one of those 2fer1 Corned beefs you bought around St. Patricks day out of the freezer and thaw it out.

Soak it in a pot of water for a few hours to leach some of the salt out of it.

Take it out of the water and dry it off.

Put this rub on it. I cut it in half and used a half tablespoon of granulated garlic instead of garlic.


Put it in your smoker at 225 for 5 hours or until the internal temp hits 195. Take it off the smoker and let it cool down for an hour or so, then put it in a ziploc bag and toss it in the fridge overnight.

Then make a reuben out of it.

Mine get layered like this.


Slap that puppy in your panini press and grill till the cheese starts to ooze out of the sides a bit.

Final step, Eat it up. You'll thank me.

It's a good thing supper is over. That really sounds great.
David

Now I have to remember the recipe.

I like to skip the thousand Island and make my own Russian dressing (really not difficult: http://www.marthastewart.com/263013/russian-dressing). Dressing on the side so I can dip it and savor each bite

I'm also a big fan of steaming post smoking - it converts all of the connective tissue into a buttery delicious character: http://www.north-america.bradleysmoker.com/recipe/steaming-pastrami/
If you have a few hours there's a rather long diatribe here: http://forums.egullet.org/topic/24820-the-great-pastrami-smoked-meat-experiment/ detailing all of the variations on corning, smoking, steaming, etc... I've tried a few of the ideas from there but (salt) petered out before hitting all of them

I'll have to give the steaming a shot and that russian dressing recipe looks pretty easily doable with ingredients typically on hand. Nice!

I'm pretty sure I gained about 10 lbs just reading this post.

Brent Dowell said:

I'll have to give the steaming a shot and that russian dressing recipe looks pretty easily doable with ingredients typically on hand. Nice!

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Yeah my thought is that you've spent hours already on creating a culinary masterpiece - why cheap on the dressing We don't exactly follow that recipe, but as per usual roughly adjust to taste.

We do buy Marie Callendar's dressing, so it's not the super cheap version. Although I never know why you just don't mix mayo, ketchup and sweet relish

I've got to say, It seems like the difference between the recipes for smoking/steaming seems to be the final temp the brisket is pulled off.

I actually smoked mine very low until it hit an internal temp of 195, and I can tell you it was tender and juicy. Not dry at all, which perplexes me.

The Bradley link said they smoked it till an internal temp of 165, and that it produced a drier texture? Maybe it depends on what kind of corned beef is used.

The one I got was absolutely tender and moist. I sliced it all up thin today and vacuum packed some for future use and the vacuum packing managed to draw out some more moisture.

Must be one of those things where YMMV for a bunch of different variables.

I do have to say that using the pid controller I've got on my smoker does a much better job of maintaining an even temperature than the standard controller, so I'm not sure if that's another variable that would need to be accounted for.

To tell the truth, I slapped that brisket in the smoker yesterday and darn near forgot about it, then checked what temp I needed to pull it off at, and miracle of miracles, was at the right temp at that time.

Brent Dowell said:

The Bradley link said they smoked it till an internal temp of 165, and that it produced a drier texture? Maybe it depends on what kind of corned beef is used.

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Yeah the fat content, etc.. undoubtedly has some effect. I'd like to claim that the brine characteristics matter as well but have no evidence to support that in a reasonable fashion.

Brent Dowell said:

I do have to say that using the pid controller I've got on my smoker does a much better job of maintaining an even temperature than the standard controller, so I'm not sure if that's another variable that would need to be accounted for.

Click to expand...

That undoubtedly helps a lot - the steaming is a cheap way of obtaining something not altogether unlike temperature control for mere mortals so it may well not matter as much for your setup. Your setup is pretty dang sweet really

I am stuck on the first step. Finding the corned beef. Have not yet found a source around me.
Don't know what it is but around me there are no old fashioned butchers and one i did find said a lot of the issue here has to do with regulations so most have up and get meat from meet packers.
Even finding something like kidney for steak & kidney pie is a mission. Hard to find the tasty cuts in city folk suburbia where folks seem to have forgotten where their food comes from.

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Just an amateur opinion, but isn't that final internal temp the key to each method. Pork butt experience shows the connective tissue breaks down when the internal temp hits 195/200 and that seems to be a big part of the secret to a good batch of barbecue...even though the meat is safe to eat at a much lower temp. IIRC the old USDA 'safe to eat' temp was @165 for pork. Now it's 145. A lot of recipes still list that old temp, which dried out the meat. You would think that the foil wrap used for butt and brisket to seal in moisture serves the same purpose as steaming. Aren't they all just different ways to end up at the same goal...200 internal?