Went to Cash-n-Carry to buy some pellets and they had a sale on corned beef full packer brisket. So like any pastrami loving, rueben sandwich craving smoke enthusiast I decided now was as good a time as any to try my hand at Pastrami.
So I soaked this 14 lbs of brine-saturated perfection over night, changing the water every few hours and rinsing the brisket during each exchange. The morning of the smoke I put together a blend of coriander, black pepper, garlic and onion powders, and just a bit of turbinado sugar. I was afraid that the prepackaged brine would still be too salty so that's how I justified the sugar. In the end, it was neither too salty or sweet but more on that later.
I set the traeger to 225 and stepped away. Knowing I had several hours to kill I invited over the family and some friends. We sat around, drank beer, and played corn hole (bean bag toss) until the meat hit 180 IT. I have seen other suggest pulling the meat at 165 IT but I was smoking the entire packer, flat and point still attached. I wanted to really break down that connective tissue.
We let it rest for 30 minutes then cut it thin and made hot pastrami rueben sandwiches. It was delicious but unfortunately I was having 'too good of a time' to snap a final pick. This is the left overs. It was just as good the next day.
So I soaked this 14 lbs of brine-saturated perfection over night, changing the water every few hours and rinsing the brisket during each exchange. The morning of the smoke I put together a blend of coriander, black pepper, garlic and onion powders, and just a bit of turbinado sugar. I was afraid that the prepackaged brine would still be too salty so that's how I justified the sugar. In the end, it was neither too salty or sweet but more on that later.
I set the traeger to 225 and stepped away. Knowing I had several hours to kill I invited over the family and some friends. We sat around, drank beer, and played corn hole (bean bag toss) until the meat hit 180 IT. I have seen other suggest pulling the meat at 165 IT but I was smoking the entire packer, flat and point still attached. I wanted to really break down that connective tissue.
We let it rest for 30 minutes then cut it thin and made hot pastrami rueben sandwiches. It was delicious but unfortunately I was having 'too good of a time' to snap a final pick. This is the left overs. It was just as good the next day.
