Scratch Corned & Pastramied Brisket / Ranch Kettle (long)

[Old Dave]

This is my recipe and method of corned and pastramied beef brisket and the cooking and smoking process was done on my Weber Ranch Kettle.



The meat was four beef brisket flats and the average weight was 7.1 pounds each. The four bowls contain my corning rub which is a blend of Morton Tender Quick, brown sugar, fresh ground black pepper, dried parsley, dehydrated onion, sea salt, pickling spice, and ground cloves. The mesh bag contains 2 pounds of garlic. The four quart containers are filled with the brine which is made up with water, Morton's Tender Quick, brown sugar, and garlic powder.



I trim the fat off of each brisket flat and then cut each flat in half for my process.



Next step is to inject about 3.0 oz. of the brine into each pound of meat.





This is the two pounds of garlic which I have put thru the Suzy and you can't really have too much of this great seasoning. I will use 1/2 pound of the garlic on each brisket flat. 





After the meat is injected, I pack on the garlic to both sides of the meat and spread it around being very careful to not push any of the brine out of the meat. I then add my corning rub to all sides of the meat.



The meat goes into Zip-Lock bags and then into the fridge for 4-5 days. I turn the meat over about twice each day.



On smoking day, I take the meat out of the bag and then wash all the rubs and garlic off each piece under a running sink faucet. The meat then goes into a pan of water to soak for about an hour.



The meat comes out of the pan of water and then is dried off with some paper towels and then placed on drying racks for about 40 minutes to finish drying.

At this point, we have some wonderful corned beef brisket.







The final rub is made up of gobs of fresh cracked black pepper, fresh cracked coriander seed, and brown sugar. I apply it to all sides of the meat before it goes onto the smoker.



I set the Ranch Kettle up using four of the Weber charcoal fences with two on each side and then load about half a chimney of Stubb's cold charcoal on each side. I then heat up about 2/3 of a charcoal chimney of  Stubb's and pour about half of the chimney over each side of the cold coals. I then add some hickory chunks for my smoke and I am ready to cook.



Place the meat on the Ranch Kettle and start the cook.



I did have to add a little charcoal once as the cook took about 9 hours to finish.



I smoked the brisket flat pieces to about 185 degrees internal and this is what they looked like when I started getting them off the kettle.

The meat was covered in foil and cooled for about an hour and then the meat went into the fridge overnight as I like to put the meat thru the slicer cold. However, I did slice enough off with a knife for a sandwich.





My first sandwich with this wonderful treat was about a half pound of the pastramied beef on rye bread with 4 slices of Swiss cheese and then a generous helping of horsey sauce over the top of the meat. Add a dill pickle spear and some chips and enjoy.





The next morning, we put the meat thru the slicer. Sure looked great.





We then vacuum sealed the meat into one pound bags for the freezer.

My 28 pounds of brisket flats netted me 12-1/2 pounds of corned and pastramied meat.





My second sandwich was a pastraimed Ruben made with about a half pound of the meat along with 4 slices of Swiss cheese, some fresh made kraut from a neighbor, and some Thousand Island dressing on a couple of pieces of buttered rye bread. I placed the sandwich into a hot cast iron skillet and fried it for a few minutes until done. Served with some garden tomatoes, a dill spear, and a pepper.

Now that is some good stuff!

[MartyG]

One of the best tutorials I've seen here @Old Dave  thanks for the details, photos and inspiration. I love Rubens, so this will have to happen soon. (And we just canned a ton of dills, and are making a batch of kraut soon too - we're all set!)

[Johnpv]

That's some damn nice looking pastrami!

[MacEggs]

Excellent write-up!  Those plated pics look fantastic.

Very inspiring on two levels .... Including getting a Ranch. 

[crowderjd]

Wow, that was an incredible demo.  Very clear instructions.  Looks fantastic.

[WNC]

Wow, incredible! Sandwiches looks amazing!

[austin87]

Drool. I've been reading up a ton on curing meat, this looks like a great way to start.

[Maxmbob]

Looks great, thanks for posting.

[baconeatingzombie]

My jealousy of people on this site just hit a new high...HAHAHA   I need to do this next. Thanks for the post

[SixZeroFour]

Fantastic write-up and the results look outstanding!! Thanks for sharing Dave!

[Old Dave]

For the folks that may want to try this recipe and method, here is a little more detail on the ingredients.

This is for a 6-8 lb. brisket flat.

The brine or cure for corning the beef:

28 oz of water
1.5 oz or 3 TBL of Morton's Tender Quick
2 TBL brown sugar
1 tsp garlic powder

Heat this mixture up in a pan and then cool in the fridge. Do not boil.

Inject the meat with the brine at 1" intervals both horizontally and vertically and get 3.0 oz of the mixture into the meat for each pound of meat.

The first rub..

1/4 cup Morton's Tender Quick
2 TBL brown sugar
3 TBL fresh ground black pepper
2 TBL dried parsley
1 TBL dehydrated onion
2 TBL sea salt
3 TBL pickling spice
1/2 tsp ground cloves

Garlic...

GOBS...you just can't put tooo much garlic on this meat. I used a minimum of about 40 cloves for this 7 pound flat.

Final Rub...

9 TBL fresh cracked black pepper (not ground) *
3 TBL fresh cracked coriander seed *
3 TBL brown sugar

The pepper and coriander need to be cracked into about 4-6 pieces per each seed or peppercorn for best results. You can use a mortar and pestle or maybe a spice grinder but you do need the larger pieces of this spice. This meat should have a hard crust when the process is complete.