Full packer Corned Beef to Pastrami

[jetman]

Seeing the full sized pallet with packer corned beef on sale for $2.49# was just too much temptation to pass up. This weekend, my belly bacon (15# worth!) that has been curing for about 10 days will be ready for smoke, cannot leave well enough alone to do just one meat and the taste of our homemade Reuben sammiches from last week are still on my taste buds.

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• jetman
• Mar 15, 2013

10" knife to give a size comparison, that's one big chunk of sandwich meat!

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• jetman
• Mar 15, 2013

Cut into quarters, hard rinse with garden hose and into a water bath to pull out some of the salt. After a couple water changes and an overnight soak I'll spice with course ground pepper, coriander, mustard and onion & garlic powders, will let it marinate overnight and plan to smoke Sunday.

More to come.....

Jetman<<<

 

[kathrynn]

 I am sooo IN!  Waiting on the great q-views!

Kat

 

[jarjarchef]

Looks like a plan......I was just telling someone I wanted some pastrami........

 

[kathrynn]

I just may have to get mine done this weekend too!

Kat

 

[bigfish98]

Is the water bath personal preference?  Or something that really should be done at all times?  I like my corned beef salty.

Bigfish

 

[mneeley490]

Is the water bath personal preference?  Or something that really should be done at all times?  I like my corned beef salty.

Bigfish

Corned beef, yes. But Jetman is making pastrami. Pastrami is similar, but you replace most of the salt with other spices (namely pepper, corriander, and juniper) and then add smoke.

I just smoked one of a similar size last Sunday. Came out great!

 

[vikingqueen]

Corned beef pastrami ..BACON ....MMM looks like a good weekend to be in the country with Jetman!! I will bring the rye bread !!

 

[jetman]

Some pics of today's progress with my first pastrami from store corned beef.

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• jetman
• Mar 16, 2013

Spices before grinding, top, left to right:

brown mustard seed, yellow mustard seed, brown sugar

Middle row:

granulated garlic, paprika

Bottom:

whole black pepper, whole coriander.

Made up my own spice from reading what others have tried.

pastrami spiced (2).jpg

• jetman
• Mar 16, 2013

All four HUGE chunks of corned beef all dressed in ground spices

pastrami spiced and vac packed 01.jpg

• jetman
• Mar 16, 2013

Tried something different, wanting to smoke tomorrow and needing spices to work their way in faster, I vacuum packed all in 1 gallon food saver bags. Back to the fridge for the night.

pastrami spiced and vac packed close up.jpg

• jetman
• Mar 16, 2013

Closeup of the vac-packed Pastrami

 

[kathrynn]

Looking good!!! Keep us posted!

Kat

 

[jetman]

Weekend smoke-fest is over, finished smoking about 12 pounds pork belly and the 15+ pounds of Pastrami.

out of smoker at 120 degrees internal.jpg

• jetman
• Mar 18, 2013

This is after about 5 to 6 hours in the File Cabinet Smoker, looks great but only had an internal temp of 120, goal was 160. Busy changing out the burner as the $5 thrift store propane grill burner just could not keep up any longer, so in middle of the smoke I had to quickly install a new iron burner (online wallyworld) means no action pics of the smoking.

after finishing in house oven.jpg

• jetman
• Mar 18, 2013

Put all four pieces in a stainless restaurant pan, covered with foil to finish in house oven. Put in a low oven for about four more hours, sleep caught up with me and they ended up going up to 200 degrees! Much of the fat cap (no trimming was done prior to smoke) had rendered down.

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• jetman
• Mar 18, 2013

First cutting and taste test, all I can say is WOW!! Taste is incredible and I cannot wait for the flavors to mellow and meat to setup in the fridge so I can finish off in the slicer.

Delishous.jpg

• jetman
• Mar 18, 2013

Shot the beautiful colors, the spice blend tastes wonderful to me and salty-ness was fine, not too overpowering. This was an easy project,day after St. Pats day their should be some good deals on corned beef from your fave grocery store!

JetMan<<<

 

[dirtsailor2003]

Looks really good Jetman! I too picked up one of those packers and put it in the freezer until I can get to it. I hope mine turns our as good as yours. Been craving pastrami for a while now!

 

[chef willie]

Looks great....and thx for the memory about looking for CB's cheap now that St. Paddys day is over....

 

[sound1]

That won't last long, Great Job!!

 

[smokinhusker]

Looks great!

 

[pgsmoker64]

That looks awesome!  

The Oregon crew is rockin out some Q this weekend!!!

Great job!

Bill

 

[maple sticks]

So many great cooks on this site, Yum.

 

[bigridgeback]

[h2]I can't wait to try one myself, thanks for the thread. 

[/h2]

 

[jetman]

Thanks all for the kudos, really appreciate it! This was a simple project with wonderful results.

For those interested, here is what I came up with for spices.

This was a little more then enough to do a full packer brisket (corned beef) cut into quarters:

Brown sugar 1 cup

whole coriander seed 1cup

Whole peppercorns 2/3 cup

Granulated garlic 2/3 cup

Paprika 1/3 cup

Brown mustard seed 1/3 cup

yellow mustard seed 1/3 cup

Grind whole seeds to to coarse grind, rub beef and set overnight in fridge. I vacuum packed mine in 1 gallon food saver bags to quicken the marinating. Next day, dried under a small fan for a few hours, smoked over Apple wood in a 200 degree smoker until it reached 120, foil wrapped and finished in house oven until 200 degrees. Was planning to go to only 160 but after a 15 hour day, my eyelids let me down ;-)

Dan

aka Jetman