Doin a first timer tonight. I ran across a full 14.75 pound uncut corned beef brisket. I could not resist giving it a try. I have it soaking in water now and it has been for a few hours. My wife loves pastrami but does not enjoy the spice mixture outside so I am considering just mustard with some cayenne. I'll post an update after the fact. If anyone has some tips I am a few hours away from putting it in.

BTW I found it at Smart and Final for any of you that have those stores..

Zedd

Hi Zedd,

Just in case your mustard/ cayenne rub doesn't suite you here's an idea:

Give her the boot and make it the right way!

lol, j/k. Sorry Mrs. Zedd.

But really, the traditional rub usually consists of paprika, granulated garlic, cracked coriander, and cracked pepper corns. Koshar salt, brown sugar, and cracked mustard seed can also be used in the rub.
Why not put 1/4 tsp of each of these on a plate and let your Mrs. taste each one to see which of them offends her taste? Then lesson the amount or totally eliminate it from the rub altogether.

Below is the rub I use when making pastrami:

2 TBS Granulated garlic
2 TBS Cracked black pepper
2 TBS Coriander (about 60/40 cracked/ ground.)
1 TBS Koshar salt
1 TBS Mustard seed (again, 60/40 cracked to
ground ratio)
1 TBS Brown sugar

Just an idea. Hope yours turns out spectacular for ya!

Try this test, put the rub on 1/2 of it and not on the other half. Give it a good smoke and let her try both halves.

There is probably a good fat cap between the point and the flat, so I'd trim that out. You can also cut the point off when the flat is done and have "pastrami burnt ends". When you take the point off, trim it up and put it back in to smoke

Hey Zedd!! How did it turn out???

My son was commenting that he's in the mood for some pastrami......I may have to pick up some corned beef and smoke some up too!!

dan

Ok,

I got to these suggestions too late to make any changes. However, after going through the ingredients on the true pastrami crust, I realized Ms. Zedd would of course have a problem with the coriander seed since she HATES cilantro. I will do different next time.

HOWEVER.. After taking this full 14+ pound corned beef briket, soaking it in water for about 5 hours, rubbing it in mustard and cayenne pepper to ready it. I placed it in the 50 with a mostly full woodbox of oak. I know, you guys keep saying not to oversmoke but we really like a lot of smoke and oak doesn't go to the bitter side. After many hours at 225 we took it out at 198 internal. I have to say this was the best damn corned beef/pastrami we have ever tasted. I'm not sure what to call it. It was far too moist and tender to be pastrami. It was like eating normal brisket out of the CS but tasted like pastrami. Pretty darned cool really.

I have done corned beef flats in the past but never will again. I will save them for St. Patty's and boil them with cabbage as is traditional.

Zedd

Coriander, as you probably know, is the seed of the plant which produces cilantro but they taste nothing alike. Coriander has none of the soapy taste of cilantro. You might want to give it a try sometime. Believe it or not, there's an Indian restaurant nearby that makes homemade ice cream with coriander in it and it's excellent.

Very interesting! I have never tasted the seeds directly even though I have used them. I will have to take a tase and see.