Corned meat project diary

[NetWareHead]

Very nice. When I make pastrami with full packer briskets, I sometimes get a little bit of uncured meat in the center of the cut where the nitrite cure did not have enough time to fully penetrate. Really it just produces an interesting set of slices with a gray stripe in the middle while the rest of the meat stays red. Between 2-3 weeks is my minimum curing time.

When you taste them, can you please comment on the saltiness of the finished product? My pastrami recipe asks for a desalination step after the brine, offering an explanation that the residual salt combined with the added smoke makes the meat too salty. The instructions are to submerge under fresh water overnight to remove some of the salt. After desalination, they get a black pepper and coriander rub and then smoke. I smoke before the stall begins and remove at 150 internal temp.

At this point, I section into manageable pieces, vacuum seal and into the freezer. We unwrap and steam the piece(s) until 205 internal temp and then slice.

A link to some pics: https://photos.app.goo.gl/HMeNGev8u36fDpND3

 

[Chocu1a]

I made some duck pastrami for a wine dinner last year. Was a week long process, but the end result was fantastic.

The brine

The spice crusting

the 1/2 hour cold smoking

the two hour slow cook, then stored for a week in the cooler.

the final result- House cured duck pastrami with homemade lavash, arugula pesto, mustard foam, & baby greens. It was amazing.

 

[Ns1]

fancy.

 

[ponyo]

The chuck pastrami turned out great. I foiled and steamed finished after the 3 hours in the smoker. The meat internal temp was around 172 at that point. I placed the chuck pastrami on the chicken cooling rack inside the disposable aluminum pan and added about cup of hot water for the steam. I covered the pan and placed it back on the smoker. After another 45 minutes, the chuck pastrami hit the 203 internal temperature and I decided to stop the steaming process and pull it off the smoker. The pastrami wasn't salty and the flavor was spot on. And the cure had penetrated all the way through the meat and everything was color red. This was real pastrami and the taste I was looking for. Not the nasty store bought version. It's day and night difference in taste with this homemade brine pastrami vs smoking the store bought corned beef. The problem with the store bought kind is the nasty brine and you don't know the salt level of the brine. This homemade brine was about 8% salt level so it wasn't overly salty compared to the store versions which are usually crazy salty. There's no comparison between the taste of the brine. I will be making this regularly. It's easy and so worth making. I will not touch store bought corned beef ever again. Verdict on homemade chuck pastrami: Home run.

At around the 3 hour mark. Chuck internal was around 172 and had the color I was looking for.

Placed the chuck on the chicken cooling rack inside the pan with about cup of hot water and covered it. Placed the pan inside the smoker to start the steaming process.

Brought it inside the house. Chuck pastrami internal was 202-205 F.

Sliced it thin.

Made myself a fat sandwich with rye bread.

The first sandwich was so good I had to eat another. Ate second sandwich.

My puppy giving me the sad look. I made sure she got her fair portion.

The leftover in ziplock bag for this week's sandwich meat.

 

[ponyo]

Very nice. When I make pastrami with full packer briskets, I sometimes get a little bit of uncured meat in the center of the cut where the nitrite cure did not have enough time to fully penetrate. Really it just produces an interesting set of slices with a gray stripe in the middle while the rest of the meat stays red. Between 2-3 weeks is my minimum curing time.

When you taste them, can you please comment on the saltiness of the finished product? My pastrami recipe asks for a desalination step after the brine, offering an explanation that the residual salt combined with the added smoke makes the meat too salty. The instructions are to submerge under fresh water overnight to remove some of the salt. After desalination, they get a black pepper and coriander rub and then smoke. I smoke before the stall begins and remove at 150 internal temp.

At this point, I section into manageable pieces, vacuum seal and into the freezer. We unwrap and steam the piece(s) until 205 internal temp and then slice.

A link to some pics: https://photos.app.goo.gl/HMeNGev8u36fDpND3

The chuck pastrami wasn't salty at all. It was the perfect level of saltiness IMO. I only rinsed the meat on the sink before cooking and it was fine. No desalination needed.

The previous store bought corned beef were all too salty and required days of desalination. But the problem is every company has different salt brine so you don't know how long to desalinate. Do it too short, it's overly salty. Do it too long, it's bland.

You should adjust the salt level of your homemade brine so you don't have to desalinate. On the homemade brine, you control the salt level unlike the store bought ones. I used 2/3 cup kosher salt and 1 tablespoon of the pink curing salt with 3 quarts of water along with other spices. And that was perfect for me. I tasted the brine before I started and it wasn't that salty and had terrific flavor from the spices.

And if you want uniform curing, you should inject the brisket with the brine. Then you won't need to wait 2-3 weeks and week of curing is all you'll need.

 

[ponyo]

This is the brine I used.

• 3 quarts water
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 2/3 cup kosher salt
• 1 tablespoon pink Prague #1 curing salt
• 2 teaspoons whole coriander seeds
• 2 teaspoons yellow mustard seeds
• 2 teaspoons black peppercorns
• 1 teaspoon red chili flakes
• 1 cinnamon stick, crushed in pieces
• 8 whole allspice berries
• 3 bay leaves, hand crushed

 

[ponyo]

Next corning project: lamb leg pastrami

 

[Chocu1a]

Looks perfect. Great job.

 

[zinfamous]

I made some duck pastrami for a wine dinner last year. Was a week long process, but the end result was fantastic.

The brine

The spice crusting

the 1/2 hour cold smoking

the two hour slow cook, then stored for a week in the cooler.

the final result- House cured duck pastrami with homemade lavash, arugula pesto, mustard foam, & baby greens. It was amazing.

wtf.

come to my house.

 

[zinfamous]

This is the brine I used.

• 3 quarts water
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 2/3 cup kosher salt
• 1 tablespoon pink Prague #1 curing salt
• 2 teaspoons whole coriander seeds
• 2 teaspoons yellow mustard seeds
• 2 teaspoons black peppercorns
• 1 teaspoon red chili flakes
• 1 cinnamon stick, crushed in pieces
• 8 whole allspice berries
• 3 bay leaves, hand crushed

what was the meat weight?

 

[whm1974]

I really love Corn Beef and I really enjoyed reading this thread. A thank you to the OP for starting this thread.

Anyway I'm thinking about getting a small corned beef brisket and putting it in my slow cooker along with some cabbage and a few potatoes.

 

[dullard]

I approve of this thread. Thanks for the detailed photos and follow-up.

 

[NesuD]

I made some duck pastrami for a wine dinner last year. Was a week long process, but the end result was fantastic.

The brine

The spice crusting

the 1/2 hour cold smoking

the two hour slow cook, then stored for a week in the cooler.

the final result- House cured duck pastrami with homemade lavash, arugula pesto, mustard foam, & baby greens. It was amazing.

Marks a 9 for presentation.

 

[ponyo]

what was the meat weight?

Around 6.5 lbs total. I think each chuck was little over 3 lbs.

The leftover was even better today. I made hot pastrami sandwich using the panini press and it was off the charts good. I had some leftover smoked brisket slices I also added to the sandwich but it paled in taste comparison to the chuck pastrami.

And earlier today I stopped by Costco Business Center and picked up some more meats to experiment with. I picked up some 4.5 lbs of beef cheeks, 4.5 lbs of ox tails, 16 lbs of beef Tri Tip, and 6 lbs of boneless leg of lamb. I plan on corning some of the beef cheeks, Tri Tip, and the leg of lamb. The Tri Tip is USDA Select. I don't normally buy select grade beef but I got crazy deal on it. I paid $1.80 /lb for the Tri Tip. So I couldn't say no. It was marked down because the label sell by date expiration is tomorrow. That's even better because that's free in-store wet aging. I plan on wet aging for at least another 30 days so it's win-win.

 

[Chocu1a]

Braise the beef cheeks and ox tails. The tri tip should make some excellent pastrami. Lamb should be interesting.

 

[Ns1]

How do your arteries handle all of this. My god.

 

[Preyhunter]

Looks like around an alternator sized amount of beef.

 

[ponyo]

Braise the beef cheeks and ox tails. The tri tip should make some excellent pastrami. Lamb should be interesting.

My wife is going to braise the ox tails. I'll corn one pack of the beef cheeks and plain smoke the other pack. I never had tri tip so I was excited to see it available. It's not common available cut of meat in GA. You can find it but it's usually like $9 /lb or so. At that price, I'm eating ribeye. I plan to corn couple of the tri tips and cook the rest reverse seared. Lamb should be interesting. My family is not big fan of lamb. They don't like the gaminess of lamb. I'm hoping the corning and smoking process will eliminate or reduce the gamy taste so we can all enjoy it. If not, I'll be eating lot of lamb pastrami solo.

 

[ponyo]

How do your arteries handle all of this. My god.

I'll probably die early of heart attack. I know I should cut back but I rather die happy than sad.

 

[zinfamous]

My wife is going to braise the ox tails. I'll corn one pack of the beef cheeks and plain smoke the other pack. I never had tri tip so I was excited to see it available. It's not common available cut of meat in GA. You can find it but it's usually like $9 /lb or so. At that price, I'm eating ribeye. I plan to corn couple of the tri tips and cook the rest reverse seared. Lamb should be interesting. My family is not big fan of lamb. They don't like the gaminess of lamb. I'm hoping the corning and smoking process will eliminate or reduce the gamy taste so we can all enjoy it. If not, I'll be eating lot of lamb pastrami solo.

You can always find tri-tip at Trader Joe's if you have one nearby. It's the only place outside of CA where you can always find a "proper" Tri-tip. Meaning, even at Costco or Safeway or local fancy organic butcher, what they call Tri-tip is often just 1.5-2 parts of the 3 cuts that make a true Tri Tip. ...basically, it has to look like a lung. I've seen what looks like a tiny piece of a flat cut of brisket labeled as Tri-Tip.

TJ's usually has a nice 2-3lber Tri-Tip in vacuum bag for ~$18-27.

 

[ponyo]

Lamb Pastrami

I finally got around to corning the lamb leg. I used the same curing brine recipe except I added some fresh rosemary. Today was the 8th day, so I removed the lamb, rinsed it, and rubbed it with black pepper, coriander, and rosemary. My plan was to smoke the boneless leg at low 225 F temp until the leg IT hit 160 F. I normally smoke hot and fast but I wanted to smoke the lamb leg slow to see if the cherry smoke could take away some of the gaminess of the lamb. Everything was going according to plan except the lamb took too long to cook at the low temperature and my daughter was hungry. So I removed the lamb at 152 F IT and sliced off a small portion for her and I to eat and placed the rest of the lamb back in the smoker to finish cooking til 160 F. The lamb pastrami was outstanding. The salt level was perfect and the meat was super tender. I could taste and tell it's lamb but the lamb flavor was more subtle and gentle. I'm more beef person but this lamb pastrami was legit. I would 100% recommend making this if you like lamb and pastrami. It's great combo.

boneless lamb leg in curing brine

Lamb leg rubbed with black pepper, coriander, and rosemary and placed on Kamado Joe Jr. Smoked with lump charcoal and cherry wood chunks. It was raining so the weather wasn't that great for smoking.

Small chunk of lamb leg removed and sliced at 150 F IT.

Slice of lamb pastrami with tzatziki sauce. Yum.

Made a gyro with lamb pastrami and naan bread.

Bite and taste.

Rest of the lamb leg pulled off the smoker at 160 IT

You can see the where I had cut and removed the small section for the gyros.

Small taste test of the finished lamb at 160 F IT. Awesome!

Next up: Homemade smoked ham using corned pork picnic.

 

[lxskllr]

I'll probably die early of heart attack. I know I should cut back but I rather die happy than sad.

I wouldn't worry about it. Cancer from the nitrites will probably get you first :^P