Corned Beef and Pastrami

[RustyJake]

OMG! $3.99? I just paid $12.99 at Costco, here in Toronto! That's a ridiculous difference! That Corned Beef looks awesome!

Our Coatco had them at 12.99/kg $5.90/lb they were up to 15.99/kg. Super Store had them at 26.25/kg for portion cuts. Ridiculous pricing really. I bout 3 at the 3.99/lb. Made the pastrami and froze two
It turned out well. When you do it from scratch you realize why some of the pastrami is so expensive. $30.00 a sandwich at Katz in New York
I find it rewarding when stuff like that turns out. I wish I had more time, money and freezer space, I would be continuing with making more stuff. I want to make sausage before summer is over this year.
My goal is a good Keilbasa

 

[Schumie_Toronto]

Our Coatco had them at 12.99/kg $5.90/lb they were up to 15.99/kg. Super Store had them at 26.25/kg for portion cuts. Ridiculous pricing really. I bout 3 at the 3.99/lb. Made the pastrami and froze two
It turned out well. When you do it from scratch you realize why some of the pastrami is so expensive. $30.00 a sandwich at Katz in New York
I find it rewarding when stuff like that turns out. I wish I had more time, money and freezer space, I would be continuing with making more stuff. I want to make sausage before summer is over this year.
My goal is a good Keilbasa

I think I made a mistake - I believe it was 12.99/kg $5.90/lb and luckily enough, I see Lawblaws (a big grocery chain) has them for $3.99/lb this week, so I think I'll be stocking up for sure!

 

[Torstenlaw]

I want to give this a go. Never tried it. I understand the dry brine and putting it in a bag, then into the fridge. You guys talk about rinsing it thoroughly. This confuses me...it's not hard! Once I pull it from the bag after 7 days it says to rinse it under cold water. Easy enough. Do you guys rinse it more?

I want to cook it on the Traeger. At this point simply cook it like a brisket, wrap it at 170ish and cook to 200 IT? Then let it rest for a day, or so and slice it?

 

[RustyJake]

I want to give this a go. Never tried it. I understand the dry brine and putting it in a bag, then into the fridge. You guys talk about rinsing it thoroughly. This confuses me...it's not hard! Once I pull it from the bag after 7 days it says to rinse it under cold water. Easy enough. Do you guys rinse it more?

I want to cook it on the Traeger. At this point simply cook it like a brisket, wrap it at 170ish and cook to 200 IT? Then let it rest for a day, or so and slice it?

If you calculate the salt ratio perfectly usually a good rinsing works.
I usually rinse and then soak mine in cold water for an hour, changing the water halfway through the soak.
Then, do yourself a favor, cut a piece off and fry it up. Taste it, if it's too salty, rinse and repeat the soak until you get the salt to your preference.

 

[Cabbage Head]

Looked really nice

 

[RustyJake]

I want to give this a go. Never tried it. I understand the dry brine and putting it in a bag, then into the fridge. You guys talk about rinsing it thoroughly. This confuses me...it's not hard! Once I pull it from the bag after 7 days it says to rinse it under cold water. Easy enough. Do you guys rinse it more?

I want to cook it on the Traeger. At this point simply cook it like a brisket, wrap it at 170ish and cook to 200 IT? Then let it rest for a day, or so and slice it?

Here's a great video with an equilibrium dry brine recipe. Using this will help with getting the salt and spice ratio perfect for your meat

I took a screen shot of the recipe that is in the video description from Eric at two guys and a cooler


And some sous vide instructions from the comments on the video

 

[Torstenlaw]

She's cooking now. Going to go to IT 200. Next time I will have to improve my dry rub prep. Did the taste test and not to salty.

 

[RustyJake]

She's cooking now. Going to go to IT 200. Next time I will have to improve my dry rub prep. Did the taste test and not to salty.

Looking forward to see your results and get your thoughts on it. Post some pics if you can
Some toast their spices before using them. The recipe from Eric calls for grinding them, some recipes don't. I think toasting and grinding would help with the flavor profile.
Right now I have two small pork shoulders I trimmed up sitting in the corned beef dry rub posted above. Up in Canada we have something called cottage rolls. Some are smoked and some are what they called sweet pickled. Kind of a misnomer on the sweet pickled, as it's just a wet brine very similar to the corned beef brine, only utilizing pork. I am into my first week, will probably leave it for the full 21 days seeing it's a dry brine
Here's the cottage roll recipe.

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(Basic Sweet Brine for One Gallon)

1 gallon of water
1 cup Kosher salt
1 cup dark brown sugar
1 tsp of Cure # 1 (pink salt) per 5 pounds of meat

From here you can customize it to your own taste, or use the following as a start:

1 tbsp. allspice
1 tbsp. juniper berries
1 tbsp. whole corriander seed
1 tbsp. whole black pepper
1 tbsp whole cloves
5 whole bay leaves
(alternately, you can use 5 tbsp. of pickling spice instead of the above spice combination)

 

[Torstenlaw]

Moment of truth. Sliced it up this morning and looking pretty good. For next time I will give it a bath to reduce the salt flavor a bit more. All in all a good first try. Next time I will grind the spice as well. This should get more flavor on it.

 

[RustyJake]

You definitely got some good color throughout. The brine got good penetration.
The salinity is a fine line for me. I am less salt tolerant than my other half, so I find thing salty most of the time. I always try to do extra rinses. My last batch was too salty for my liking.
You can try toasting the whole spices a bit before you grind them. Just be careful not to burn them. They get quite fragrant as they toast.
I am interested to see how the equilibrium brine works on the pork.

 

[Torstenlaw]

You definitely got some good color throughout. The brine got good penetration.
The salinity is a fine line for me. I am less salt tolerant than my other half, so I find thing salty most of the time. I always try to do extra rinses. My last batch was too salty for my liking.
You can try toasting the whole spices a bit before you grind them. Just be careful not to burn them. They get quite fragrant as they toast.
I am interested to see how the equilibrium brine works on the pork.

I'll give that a try next time. I'm less salt tolerant too. Butter without salt is the proper butter!!

 

[Torstenlaw]

Forgot to mention, after 8 days of the brine stage I didn't have time to cook it, so I froze it and then thawed it and cooked it a week later.

I'd say maybe it was a bit dry. Any ideas on why or how to get it more moist next time?

 

[RustyJake]

What temp did you smoke it at, what was the temperature of the meat when you took it off. Did you wrap in foil, or did you cook it open the whole time? Could be the amount of fat cap you left. Looks like you trimmed a lot off.
A lot of the recipes take the meat to the stall, around 160-170, and then they'll put it in a foil pan with a little broth to steam it. . Or just wrap it if it's got a good fat cap on it. These methods are good places to start next time. You'll see the pastrami or corned beef at some lunch counters sitting in a steam bath until served. Do not take the meat to 203-205° like you would a normal brisket. Take it to 190 and remove it, then let it rest and come down in temperature. Cool overnight and slice the next day.
I have had great success using my sous vide to finish. It takes a bit longer,but it works well. Just smoke the meat until the stall temps above. Then put it in a sous vide at 165° for 24-32 hours. I have ice cube sized tallow chunks and I'll throw a couple in the bag before I seal it. The meat will be tender and moist

 

[Torstenlaw]

I cooked to IT 200. No wrapping. Cooked at 180 for 45 min then bumped to 250 for remainder. I'll try to take it off at 190 next time.