Cheating at Burnt Ends: An Experiment

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worktogthr

Master of the Pit
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Nov 3, 2013
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Massapequa, NY (Long Island)
I recently bought a packer from restaurant depot and decided I wanted to use the majority of it for more pastrami because my family can't get enough of it. Since I plan to smoke the pastrami when it's donencuring in either my MES 30 or my Masterbuilts Duel fuel, my plan was to separate the point from the flat ahead of time and then cut the flat into two pieces. So I would have two "lean" pastramis and one fatty pastrami. Well, I tried to follow the tutorials on SMF about how to properly separate the point and the flat but then my daughter started to wake up from her nap and I started to rush. I butchered it and not in the skilled craftsman way, but in an awful psycho killer kind of way. I had two nice pieces of flat for pastrami and one decent piece of point for pastrami and one gangly awfully cut piece of point. So I thought... Hmm people make burnt ends out of the point but I don't have the time to smoke this maimed piece of meat whole. So I decided to cube it up ahead of time and smoke it like that. Used some mesquite and cherry, popped the cubes of brisket ( some mustard and Jeff's rub in them) on a q-mat and popped them in the dual fuel with propane at about 240-250 for a couple of hours until they reached 165 or there abouts:
Put them in a pan and wrapped in foil, cranked the heat to 300 (time is of the essence here) for about a half hour after wich most of pieces were around 200 IT.


Tossed them with some more jeffs rub and sweet baby rays and back in the smoker at 250 with some apple for about an hour, tossing every 15 minutes or so they get smoked evenly.

I will be back with the results. I apologize in advance to anyone who takes offense to my cheating ways haha. And I apologize for the horrible pictures. This has been a very rushed production.
 
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Ok. So after an hour sauced and rubbed, they were looking crispy and delicious so I pulled them from the smoker.

Cut one of the larger pieces.

So here's the verdict. Incredibly delicious but...the tenderness was not where I wanted it which surprised me because I toothpicked almost all the larger pieces and they were like butter! No resistance. Thought these had a little more chew to them then I expected. Like they toughened up. Maybe overcooked them? What do you all think? Could it be that because I hacked the point up that the the direction of the grain could have caused the chewiness?

Either way a fun and delicious experiment! Some more pics:

Must have eaten about 5 or 6 pieces right before bed. Probably not great for my reflux haha. Can't wait to eat the rest. Maybe I'll cover in foil and slowly reheat to try to tenderize a little more.
 
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good lookin burn ends boy.

dannylang
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Looking at the pic it looks as if you did cut with the grain which would have caused them to seem a little tough. It is kind of hard to figure out the grain in the point so you probably did the best you could. I bet that stuff would make some killer chili..
 
 
Looking at the pic it looks as if you did cut with the grain which would have caused them to seem a little tough. It is kind of hard to figure out the grain in the point so you probably did the best you could. I bet that stuff would make some killer chili..
When I was cubing them up I was trying to find the grain but it was tough.  Probably why some seem more tender than others. When I toothpick tested them they felt so tender but I guess thats because the grain is not a factor when poking them.  I would love to make chili out it but I don't know if its going to last because the taste is worth the little bit of extra chew!
 
 
When I was cubing them up I was trying to find the grain but it was tough.  Probably why some seem more tender than others. When I toothpick tested them they felt so tender but I guess thats because the grain is not a factor when poking them.  I would love to make chili out it but I don't know if its going to last because the taste is worth the little bit of extra chew!
I hear ya.... I can almost smell them from here.
 
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