Make your own Corned Beef

[jerrykr]

I have my Home Corned Beef Maker site finished.

Check it out and let me know what you think.

http://www.homecornedbeefmaker.blogspot.com/

From my reading, if you smoke it, Hot Smoke to 165 F. internal, or Cold Smoke it, you will have made Pastrami from the cured Corned Beef.

I do not have the ability to smoke my Corned Beef that I make, so I have not tried Pastrami.

Maybe someone could give it a try and let me know how the Pastrami turns out?

Thanks for looking.

[lemonD]

Jerry,
Once again nice blog, I make corned beef / Pastrami using a similar method as yours except I use Franco's easicure as a brine instead of Mortons.
I cook and smoke the pastrami in a water smoker which is perfect for the job but if you have one you could use a Charcoal or Gas grill that has a lid to do the smoking part and finish cooking in an oven, the smoking should take about approx 30 mins.

If you don't have a grill, then you could try liquid smoke before you cook.

Good luck.

[jerrykr]

LemonD,

Thanks for the nice comment. I hope the site is useful for folks.

I have an Oklahoma Joe's with the side firebox, but I've never really used it as a slow smoker. I do tons of Grilling on it however. Great grill.

I do have a Brinkman's water smoker, tho, I don't use it much. So, you say I should just use it with charcoal and maybe some grill wood chunks and go ahead and cook/smoke the Corned Beef over the water pan? That I could do. I'll give it a try soon.

If you have any other tips about Pastrami, I'm all ears.

Cheers,

[Bad Flynch]

Jerry,

I just posted some comments on your blog. What a wonderful site for people, like us, that really like the corned/salt beef. Corned beef so made is really good smoked with Hickory.

[lemonD]

Jerry,
Here is how I cook Pastarmi http://www.virtualweberbullet.com/pastrami.html so you could use your brinkmann.
If you can slow cook on the Oklahoma Joe's use indirect heat from the side box with charcoal and hickory chunks, if you can't slow cook then just use the Oklahoma Joe's side box to smoke for 30mins, then transfer to the kitchen oven for the rest of the slow cooking.
Use a hot water filled drip tray to keep the pastrami moist whilst cooking whichever way you chose to do it.

The rub on the link above is very good.

Lemon

[jerrykr]

lemonD,

I love your site. so much good information. I have one corned beef cured and ready to go, in fact the one in the pictures. I think that puppy is going to turn into Pastrami! I'll be looking at your info again before I light the coals.

Thanks!

-=- Jerry -=-
.

[jerrykr]

BF,

thanks, I really thought your comments augmented what I was trying to say. I'm thankful for your insight added to my info.

cheers,

[wittdog]

My suggestion is to use a hot plate in the offsets fire box for heat and a bowl of sawdust for the smoke....Hot plates are pretty cheap...Just my .02

[jerrykr]

Well, after quite some time I finally smoked the corned beef to Pastrami.

I tried the hot plate in the side box of the Oklahoma Joes without any food and my
hot plate could not ever get the main chamber to any reasonable temperature.

It would be pretty good for a cold smoke, I think.

I ended up buying a gas smoker, a Smoke Hollow vertical cabinet.

I had to modify it to get the electrical plug out of the cabinet.

Just an extra hole large enough for the plug to go thru.



Here's the hot plate sitting in the smoker.



By this time, I had cured a Pork Loin for Canadian Bacon, so here's the Corned Beef and the Loins in the Smoker ready to go.
Hickory chips go into the tray on top of the Hot Plate.



I also made up 15 pounds of Summer Sausage in fiberous casings, and smoked them later in the day.



All of the meats were finished cooked in a roaster oven to proper internal temperatures.

They all turned out very well. The Pastrami was a bit tough, probably just due to the brisket that I started with.

Enjoy curing and smoking!

[the chorizo kid]

what works for me [and many others] is to use two chambers. the first chamber [a curing chamber] is any old box that has a controllable heat and humidity mode. heat is an adjustable [$4 knob rheostat] heat bulb. humidity is a slow cooker which has some water in it. the "keep warm" setting raises the water temp to about 115F, and this sends lots of water vapor into the air, and prevents case hardening. but can be used to heat any meat, like corned beef, to the desired internal temp. just adjust the heat bulb to reach a steady 160F. that way it cannot be overcooked. then when the proper internal temp is reached, transfer to the cold smoker [after a few hours of air drying]. i get great results. using this 2 step process has saved megabucks on fancy smokers etc, and it allows precise internal temp control.
just my 2 centavos worth .