What are my chances of getting decent Montreal smoked meat from these store bought corned beefs?

[EdP]

Which would be better? Point or flat? Is this futile?

I’ll soak for a day and change the water a few times, gonna look at some non salt spice ideas here.

 

[thirdeye]

I think unless you were a total purist, (or devoted to one particular deli over another), your chances of getting an acceptable product is better than average. Smoking the flat and a point will allow you to dial-in your preference for a mix of fatty and lean slices on a sandwich, which is a debate in itself.

 

[EdP]

I think unless you were a total purist, (or devoted to one particular deli over another), your chances of getting an acceptable product is better than average. Smoking the flat and a point will allow you to dial-in your preference for a mix of fatty and lean slices on a sandwich, which is a debate in itself.

I’m not sure how to try this. I guess I can pick up here after the curing step,

https://eggheadforum.com/discussion/1128140/ultimate-montreal-smoked-meat-recipe

but the spices are also part of the cure so I’m guessing the flavor will be off (bland?). Maybe let it sit in the coriander/pepper an extra day or two.

 

[thirdeye]

but the spices are also part of the cure so I’m guessing the flavor will be off (bland?). Maybe let it sit in the coriander/pepper an extra day or two.

One description I've heard was that Montreal beef is made from cured beef, and pastrami is made from corned beef.

I corned a tri-tip recently for pastrami. Here is the link to that post.

Tri-Tip Pastrami Using Pop's Brine

For my most recent pastrami, I used a 1-gallon corning brine based on Pop's Brine, but added a bunch of corning aromatics and substituted 16 ounces of beer. I did inject 10% of the meat weight. The beef corned for 12 or 14 days, seasoned, rested 24 hours, then smoked followed by a pressure...

www.smokingmeatforums.com

 

[EdP]

I’m soaking the point, plan to smoke it tomorrow. I’ve seen some nice pics smoking with spog(sans salt) and the spice pack, so I may just do that for this one.

 

[gmc2003]

I’ve seen some nice pics smoking with spog(sans salt) and the spice pack, so I may just do that for this one.

Good idea to bag the salt on this project. Soaking won't get all the salt out of corned beef. Looking forward to this one. Good luck and keep us posted.

Chris

 

[EdP]

I’ve had it soaking in a 12 quart pot for about a day and a half. Changed the water three more times. Tonight I mixed 1 tsp onion powder, garlic powder, paprika, and ground coriander seed,.. skipped the pepper.

Planning to smoke it tomorrow with mesquite. It came with a packet of spices, (mustard seed and some other stuff), That’ll go on midway through the smoke. I have an aluminum pan so at some point I’ll put it in there, add some beef broth, and let it simmer.

Pretty much making it up as I go along here

 

[EdP]

Smoked it, fat side down so it wouldn’t burn, at 250 with some mesquite for about 6 hours. Then put it in a pan with a cup of beef stock and finished it inside covered with foil in a 225 oven for another 3 hours +/-. It was just probe tender everywhere at that point so I let it cool covered for a few hours and put in a ziplock bag for the fridge.



Sliced it across the grain, some thin some thicker, and let the sliced sit at room temp for about a half hour. Put them on a tray in the toaster oven with slices of Swiss for a minute, so the cheese was sweaty. Seeded rye and mustard.






Super tender, not salty to my taste. I used some plain yellow mustard which seemed pretty bland with this so I’ll get something a little spicier tomorrow for round two.