Corned Beef (wannabe pastrami)

[weedenb]

La Quinta,

Yes the last two pieces are a half cut in half. Started out as a bit over 5lbs eye round. The cut in half lengthwise seems to make things about the same thickness as brisket. The 1/2 done as corned beef for dinner last was a thumbs up with the family :) First time for a non-brisket CB, interesting differences. Much leaner, denser meat, way less shrinkage when cooking, I'll be doing that again! (sorry, missed the pictures - its gone!)

For my future reference, is quartering these things the best way to go for corned beef/pastrami? Seems like the thickness is just about right but you end up with fairly small (~1-1/4lb) pieces but just halving it lengthwise would seem to be an unwieldy length unless trim off some?

[Habanero Smoker]

How long will they be if you cut them length wise?

With the proper containers there wouldn't be a problem wet curing it. You would only need one container for both pieces. Or if you were able to wet brine the other ones in one gallon bags, a full length one should easily be brined in two gallon bags.

Also, if you cut them length wise, you will not need such a long curing time, and it also gives you the option of a dry cure.

[weedenb]

Habanero,

The original round was close to 14" long, I'll definitely split them lengthwise for curing in the future and them decide if I want to shorten them to suit. I guess that's why all you guys have sausage grinders, takes care of the odd's and end's  :)

Pastrami is out of the smoker and resting (3hrs hickory then 155F IT) , now I just have to wait a few more days :(



Just enough of the corned beef left to slice up and do some CB reubens while I'm waiting :)

[Habanero Smoker]

Or if the next one is that long, just cut a 3 - 4-inch piece off the thin end and use it for stew meat, or stir fry. My cuts were around 11-inches in length.

I took my eye round to 142?F, it came out great. I think I prefer the eye round to brisket. The eye round gave enough beef flavor, and is more tender. The first few slices I mistakenly sliced with the grain and it was a little tough, but once I started slicing against the grain it was much more tender.

A few deli's around here use coleslaw on top of their pastrami sandwiches; along with Swiss cheese and mustard on rye. I made one the other day and it was good.

Oh! I forgot to mention your corned beef looks good.

[DTJ]

I have been primarily using eye of round for my corned beef/patrami for awhile.  My family prefers the leaness of this cut over the brisket, also many times find it cheaper!!
Daryl

[weedenb]

Success, the pastrami turned out great! I will definately be doing this again, just my luck Costco was sold out of eye the other day when I checked :( Lots of lessons learned, I'll cut the salt back to 1-1/2 cups if I brine again, prepare the meat in ~2" thick slabs, buy a spice grinder!, slice thin, etc., etc. I think I'll try Habanero's dry cure next time and do a batch of Canadian bacon along with it. The two little pastrami's looked pretty lonely in my monster smoker!

Thanks everyone for the great advice!

[Habanero Smoker]

Good to here you were successful.

Some suggestions, if you use a wet cure next time. You may want to give some thought to placing the cuts in a container and not plastic bags. With the cuts approximately 2 to 3-inches thick, give some thought to cutting the curing time to maybe 3 - 5 days; the longer you brine the saltier it will be. Sam's sells 8 quart Rubbermaid food containers. One contain will probably cure multiple cuts of  an eye round. If those containers are too large for your refrigerator, sometimes the carry 4 quart food container.

[DTJ]

The 8 quart ones are the one I use and work great

Daryl