trying out this process. starting today. using habs recipe have my brine cooling now. brisket trimmed down to just over 9 lbs. its from a farm where I get my beef and its long and thinner. to make it fit in my brine container I cut it in half. no pic today but when its done curing and before and after the smoker I will update.. any modifications to your process habs??
You are lucky to have a local source. Brisket in my area is either difficult to find, or the price is often around $7.00/lb.
I've made a few minor changes throughout the years. I'm not sure what version of my recipe you are going by, but any changes I've made have been minor; except the final internal temperature. If I'm not planning to steam it, I will bring the IT up to 185°F. If I plan to finish by steaming, I will smoke/roast it until the IT gets up to 160°F - 165°F, then finish it by steaming. For the short time that I "FTC", which is 2 hours, I just wrap in a layer of plastic wrap, then a layer of foil and place it in my microwave for the two hours; but with the amount you have I don't think it is possible.
using the recipe from the susanminor site/wet cure with info from a couple links you added. smoked cured ham and kitchen calculator.
That is very close to the recipe I use now. The only difference is that I now smoke/roast at 225°F - 230°F, and take the final internal temperature to 180°F. Also if I don't add the white peppercorns, I still keep the coriander seed to 3 tablespoons instead of increasing it to 4 tablespoons.
I love the My Kitchen calculator. For thoughs that have never used it, I've inserted a link below. Make sure you review the video tuturial; it makes using the calculator much easier.
My Kitchen Calculator (http://www.mykitchencalculator.com/recipeconverter.html)
Smoking day(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180927/c11dcb2bbd0b0c93a9bff4cf65379ee7.jpg)(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180927/ebb3f934d173c49889b64786903665a2.jpg)(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180927/ded4afb140b9b2935065fc56a41165cb.jpg). Bradley preheating to 230 going to use cherry or apple. Will make up my mind when i put the meat in the box.
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Temp up to 185 out and foiled to rest 1 1-2 hrs. Nice colour and taste but seems a might salty. Before the rub soaked 1/2 hr change water soak 1/2 hr taste test soak change soak test rub and smoke. Will give it a day and check again. (https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180927/2f00b491e1a8c8be985422159cd6eb4d.jpg)(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180927/fb47cf9ad4948cff24f53470780e313c.jpg)(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180927/d94d273be45bdcf793f8a5e31c4579e1.jpg)(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180927/cdd31e886a23ee8539b08f5869f2b8d4.jpg)
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Sorry to hear it is overly salty. How long did you brine for?
I would expect the salt taste to remain the same when you taste it again. If it is still salty, the salt may not be that strong when you make sandwiches with it, or use it in recipes. The below recipe is a great recipe to use your pastrami in. If you pastrami is overly salty, I would omit the salt the recipe calls for.
Black Bean & Beef Pastrami Soup (http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=8202.msg84627#msg84627)
If you use this recipe again, try reducing the salt to 8 ounces.
in the brine for 6 days. most of the salt is in the crust. biting in the middle of the slice is good so I am hoping that when I thin slice and make a sandwich it will be ok. first time making pastrami and I can still use the meat. not wasted but I learn more every cook.
just looked at the black bean soup mommy thinks that will be outstanding
I forgot to mention that your pastrami looks great. It has me craving to make some.
O.O what is that and how do I make it?
It looks amazing.
I might have to try to make that next summer when I have time.
I don't believe I ever posted the directions on this board. I posted it on a site that was referred to as the Recipe Site; which is no longer available.
Below is a link to the achieved post. Some times the site is not stable, and links within the post may not work. If the link within the post doesn't work, sometimes clicking on the back arrow of your browser will refresh the page and display it properly. I suggest the following changes, if you are using the wet brine reduce the amount of salt to 7 ounces. Bring the internal temperature up to 185°F. Also if you don't have the white peppercorns for the rub, leave the coriander at 3 tablespoons.
Beef Pastrami (https://web.archive.org/web/20151016152850/http://www.susanminor.org/forums/showthread.php?157-Beef-Pastrami)
yup I agree with habs. the salt content is tp high and I did a 9 lb brisket. I made ruben sandwiches last night and just to much salt. smoke and learn the rest of my pastrami will get chopped up and used in soups. all of my measurments were done by weight.
Thanks for the recipe Hab, I will put it to good use sometime this winter. Manfromplaid, that is good looking pastrami even if it is to salty, I damn near jumped in my truck to come pay you a visit lol. I have cousins that live just outside of Warburg, they used to have a dairy farm out there
who was they cause my missus was a milkmaid in a dairy just outside Warburg for about 10 years
There are two curing methods contained in my recipe. If you use the dry cure, as it is written, you won't have a problem with saltiness. I use that recipe almost all the time, and only used the wet brine a few times during development; in my early days of curing. I'll probably be doing another wet brine test in a few weeks; but using a less expensive cut of beef. I'm going to drop the added salt to 7 ounces. So including the additional salt from the cure will give the brine about 10 ounces of salt per gallon.
They are the Jacobson's, Otto and Cathleen (Kay) were my aunt and uncle and Eric and his family are still there, but I think they sold off the dairy operation. I remember stuking hay and shooting coyotes on the farm as a kid. I spent many summers there.
I will probably stick to the dry cure unless I hear of a better method from you Hab. Thanks again
bear we know the family, not well but my kids went to school with a bunch of them. not the dairy my wife worked at... I used the wet cure due to the size of my brisket at first. it was long and I cut it in half to fit in my brine container.. which means I could of done the dry cure on 2 pieces. since I want to use the pastrami in the fridge I went ahead and made up a black bean soup for my supper. blending 1/2 the beans makes it nice and thick and there is enough fluids to smooth out the extra salt in the pastrami. thanks for the info habs.
Thank you all for the info on this post.
I have copied it all over to a word doc to goin my recipe binder. I will be giving this a try next summer.
Make sure you include the changes that have been posted in this thread. I mainly cure just the flats. If you have a whole brisket, I would separate the two muscles. It's best to either cure the flat, and the point separately. I saw that my local Walmart is selling whole briskets for about $3.50/lb. They have a huge fat cap, but for that price I may just pick one up.
Will do :-)
this is an older post but since I recently made another pastrami using the same process I thought I would do an update. (no photos) started out with a seven pound brisket. same brine, in for 6&1/2 days. because the first one was salty I let this one soak in cold water much longer. changed out the water 3 times total soak almost 2 hours. oak for 3 hours at 225 then transferred to my pellet grill at 275 until temp was 165, wrapped in foil till 205 into the house to cool. fridge overnight and sliced thin. used 1 lb for the same soup (its awesome so try it) salt level was perfect. just used a simple pastrami rub I looked up on the net.
Excellently timed post manfromplaid. ;) My local butcher has brisket flats on special at the moment, I have a couple in the fridge and your post saves me some searching on the Bradley forum whilst this thread also provides the link to Oldman's recipe site.
Plan on wet curing one for pastrami and having never made the soup that is now on my list of things to do! :)
I haven't made that soup in a while - I almost forgot about it.
This post also reminded me it's been a while since I've cured anything. I'm going to keep my eye out for a flat.