Smoked corned beef

[pz]

I have a few days off and I can't seem to stop using the smoker!  Today we tried smoking a couple of store bought corned beef.  While I made a few mistakes, the finished product was still really tasty, but I'm definitely going to make a few adjustments.

The meat was first cold smoked in the Bradley for 2 hours, then transferred to a Trager for about an hour and a half at 250F.  Finally it was tightly wrapped and moved to a 275F oven to finish for another 4 hours.  In the meantime, my wife made the dough for some home baked bread.  The desired outcome - Reuben-like sandwiches for dinner.

[Click images to zoom]
This is the final product.  Very tasty, and butter tender, but the next time I'll cut 2 hours off the oven cooking time.  Also, the meat was kind of salty and I should have soaked it overnight.  However, when it was in the sandwich, it was delicious and did not taste overly salty at all

...a closeup of the corned beef

Once the meat was done, and taken out of the oven to rest, the oven was reset to 450F to bake bread.  I must confess that we have been trying to reproduce European and San Francisco style thick crusty bread for as long as I can remember, and finally we stumbled upon a method that produced some of the best bread we have ever eaten - now on to sandwiches!

First the bread was spread with a home made sauce my wife made that was based on mayonnaise, and was spicy, savory, and with a hint of sweetness.  Meat was piled high onto the bread, then topped with sauerkraut and then Swiss cheese.

... the final product.  Although I'm sure I've tasted equal at some time in my life, I can't remember when, and it is all made more enjoyable because we smoked the meat, made the bread, and the mayonnaise spread.

Tomorrow I get to continue the fun and try my first hand at smoked cheese; can hardly wait!

[3rensho]

Looks great.  Very nice bread.  Looks like what we buy here.  Try slapping some cracked pepper and coriander seeds on the CB before smoking and it'll be even better.

[Habanero Smoker]

You must have relocated your photos after you posted.

Your next step in this process would be to make your own corned beef. Use either of the below recipes, but don't add the spicy rub to the meat prior to smoking.
Pastrami Recipe
Beef Pastrami

Looks great.  Very nice bread.  Looks like what we buy here.  Try slapping some cracked pepper and coriander seeds on the CB before smoking and it'll be even better.

It also makes it beef pastrami.  :)

[pz]

You must have relocated your photos after you posted.

oops, sorry, I did  :-[ I have not used Photobucket before, and when I moved the images into a folder the link was broken.  Now I've switched back to the vanila [img] tag using photos I already have on Google

Your next step in this process would be to make your own corned beef. Use either of the below recipes, but don't add the spicy rub to the meat prior to smoking.
Pastrami Recipe
Beef Pastrami

It also makes it beef pastrami.  :)

Those recipes sound delicious!  Thanks, and will give them a go.  A big part of the fun for us is to make/grow as much of the ingredients as possible.  Right now I'm using your basic Canadian bacon brine, and have added fresh sage and thyme from the garden.  I hope it turns out.

Looks great.  Very nice bread.  Looks like what we buy here.  Try slapping some cracked pepper and coriander seeds on the CB before smoking and it'll be even better.

That's a great compliment coming from one of our European friends!  I've a colleague at work who was originally from Switzerland, and he too laments the fact that we simply cannot get great crusty bread away from large metropolitan areas.

[SiFumar]

Looks great!  Love to make corn beef/pastrami!  Care to share bread recipe?

[pz]

Looks great!  Love to make corn beef/pastrami!  Care to share bread recipe?

Absolutely!  I'll ask my wife, who is the baker in our culinary duo.  I found the method a few weeks ago, and then we saw a Laura Calder episode which was a slight modification to our method, and it appears to be perfect.  The great part is that it is so simple and requires so few utensils that anyone can make bread that will be the envy of the neighborhood.

I'll post back with the exact recipe shortly.  ;)

[SiFumar]

Thanks! Looks similar to the no knead recipe done in a cast iron pot.

[The542]

Excellent thread PZ! The bread, the beef, the sammy...all amazing!

You'll love cold smoking cheese on this thing.

[pz]

Thanks! Looks similar to the no knead recipe done in a cast iron pot.

Yes, that's the basis of the method!  I do recall that we use a Lodge Dutch oven and that we bake covered at 450F for 35 minutes, then crack the lid and continue baking for another 30 minutes.  We understand that baking covered allows the moisture from the dough to steam the surface, which develops the delectable crust.  The recipe is a bit different for us because the dough starts out thin, almost like a batter.

Excellent thread PZ! The bread, the beef, the sammy...all amazing!

Thanks for the comment The542!  :)

[Saber 4]

It's all looking good, can't wait to see the bread recipe I'd love to make our own instead of driving to Dallas for bread.

[Ka Honu]

Saber - I'm too lazy to look for the original thread but SiFumar posted the following recipe a while back and it's excellent:

Crusty Bread

3 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1 3/4 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon yeast(Rapid Rise works for me)
1 1/2 cups water (355g)

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, salt and yeast.  Add water and mix until a shaggy mixture forms.  Cover bowl with plastic wrap and set aside for 12 - 18 hours.  Overnight works great. DO NOT REFRIGERATE!

Heat oven to 450 degrees.  When the oven has reached 450 degrees place a cast iron pot with a lid in the oven and heat the pot for 30 minutes. 

Meanwhile, pour dough onto a heavily floured surface and shape into a ball. Very sticky, flour hands. Cover with plastic wrap and let set while the pot is heating. 

Remove hot pot from the oven and drop in the dough.  Cover and return to oven for 30 minutes. 

After 30 minutes remove the lid and bake an additional 15 minutes.  Remove bread from oven and place on a cooling rack to cool.

Can be doubled.

Add-ins:
1 diced jalapeno and about a cup of cheddar shredded.
2 Tblsp. capers, finely chopped & 1 c. sliced black olives

[Saber 4]

Thanks Ka Honu.

[pz]

Sounds very similar to our recipe  :)

Things to experiment with are the salt (we use Kosher), the amount of water 1 and 3/4 cups, and a full teaspoon of the rapid rise yeast.  This lets us complete the first rise in as little as 6 hours.  However, I don't think these things are too critical because we are changing a little each time just to experiment.

As to baking, we do basically the same as you do, Ka Honu, but do the lid-on baking for 35 minutes, then cracked for 30 minutes.  Then if we want an even thicker and crispier crust, take the loaf out of the pot and bake directly on the rack for up to 10 minutes more.

The add-ins you posted sound really good, Ka Honu  ;)

[Ka Honu]

All credit for that recipe goes to SiFumar; I just copied her post.

[pz]

oops... sorry SiFumar!