Did you know that when a corned beef brisket is smoked it becomes pastrami? I didn’t! DOH!
I looked in the refrigerator yesterday and found two corned beef briskets. I’ve smoked plenty of briskets but I wondered what would happen if you smoked a corned beef brisket. After getting permission from my wife to experiment on one of them it was off to the internet for some research.
Just when I think I’m starting to become knowledgeable about meat and smoking… WHAM… I realize that I actually still have a lot to learn! What I learned was that if you take a brisket and pickle it you get corned beef brisket and if pastrami rub is added then smoked you get pastrami. So of course I had to try it!
Here’s the procedure I followed…
A. Soak the corned beef brisket to remove some of the salt.
I soaked it in the fridge for about 5 hours. I changed the water twice during that time.
B. Put on a thin coating of yellow mustard and rub it with a mix of black pepper (lots), ground coriander, brown sugar, garlic powder, and onion powder. Let it rest overnight in the fridge.
C. Smoked with a mix of hickory and mesquite at 225-250 degrees until it hit 160.
D. Foiled with a little of my kid’s wild cherry juice box (no apple juice was in the house) until 190.
E. Let it rest for an hour or so in the foil.
F. Tasted a sample to see how it came out. I liked it and my wife declared it tastes like pastrami to her too.
F. Put in the fridge to cut and eat the next day.
I just kind of winged this whole deal… no measurements on the rub and guessed at the cook temps… but it seems to have worked out.
One Day Later… The Final Report…
WOW… This pastrami is amazing!
Before slicing my pastrami, I went to the deli and bought the most expensive pastrami they had. I wanted to do a taste comparison between homemade pastrami and store bought.
The homemade pastrami won hands down! It had so much more flavor than the store bought. I will definitely be doing this cook again. Now all I need is a meat slicer 🙂