Hi All,

So yesterday I braved the blizzard and bad drivers yesterday to buy a brisket since the family was asking for chili.  I got home from Sam's and realized I had forgotten to buy onions and Fritos.  I decided it was okay since I had onion powder and tater tots in the freezer.  So I separated the flat and the point.  It was about 8F outside and I thought it would be a good idea to freeze the flat and the scraps (for sausage) on the deck.  Out they went.  I made my chili while the meat outside froze.  We ate dinner (and I realized that while the onion powder was okay in the chili, I had no onions to put on top of the chili which really really sucked).  I went outside and grabbed the mostly frozen meat.  I wrapped the point in foil then put in a large zipper bag.  The scraps were already in a zipper bag.  I decided to let them finish freezing outside overnight since it was much colder outside than in the freezer.

This morning I woke up and heard something pounding on the wall next to the sliding door to the deck.  I looked out and saw a magpie pecking at the bag with the scraps in it.  It saw me and flew away.  I was pissed (partially at myself), but felt a little better when I realized it had only pecked one hole in the bag and it was on the corner of the piece of frozen meat.  I was able to cut the corner off with the meat cleaver, put it in a new bag and now they are resting in the freezer in the garage.

I did not really have a problem with birds eating figs last year.  I hope this is not a harbinger of things to come.

Never mess with a man's meat!!  ;)
Man, a brisket sounds so good.  I've made lots of pork butts, but haven't tried brisket yet.  I'm sure the WSM would love to tackle it though.

Frank,

I think using the point for chili is a great idea until I realize I'm giving up the burnt ends.  With the past several flats, I've been in pastrami mode.  The one I have in the freezer is about 7lbs.  I'm thinking that will be pastrami as well.  I think my recipe for both the pastrami and chili (I live with light weights when it comes to spiciness) are getting pretty close to where I want them.  Having said that, I have the brisket scraps, some left over beef cheek scraps and a partial leg of lamb in the freezer that I am really looking forward to converting into some Greek sausage.

Don't get me wrong.  I love, love, love a great pulled pork butt, but brisket is king.  It might be all the time I spent in central Texas. If you need a nudge, here is the last pastrami I made...

 
 

i am the brisket king!!! I remember when you could buy a whole brisket for 14.00 dollers. Well the meat people relized that peps really like brisket and raised the price to 45.00 dollers for a whole brisket. Who wants a trimmed brisket anyway.
Richie from louisiana

That looks great James! I have never made a quality brisket before, so far it seems to be one of those things I haven't put any time into so when I make one it shows.

Really nice James, I need your pastrami recipe.

James, that is a thing of beauty.

I'm really curious to see how you did it, if you wouldn't mind sharing. 

That thing looks amazing! I've smoked a few briskets before,but never tried that.
Any tips or advice?

That looks amazing...do you soak it in a brine and then smoke it.

John,

I do not have a lot of room in the fridge to soak it in a wet brine.  I put the cure in the dry rub.

Chad, 

Tips:  Get a scale, repeat the process frequently, and KEEP NOTES.  I use an Excel spreadsheet for all of my meat recipes so I can see the adjustments I've made over time.  

RECIPE:

• The ingredients for the pastrami I posted is in the PDF file.
• 15+ days before you want to eat, trim your brisket to your liking and place in a large zip top or plastic roasting bag.  
• Assemble the dry cure and sprinkle on the meat.  I do this in the zip top bag the meat is being stored in so none of the Cure#1 is lost.
• Seal the bag and place in the fridge.  
• At least once per day, turn the bag over and massage the meat.
• After 2 weeks, remove the brisket from the bag and rinse off all of the cure.  At this point the meat should be firm and have a very unpleasing brown color.  If you were to boil/steam the meat at this point, you would have corned beef.
• Trim a piece off your brisket and cook it in a pan.  Check for saltiness.  If too salty (it usually is for me), soak the brisket in ice cold water.  It normally takes me about 2 hours of soaking.  If you use a large pot for this, use a lot of water.  If using something smaller, change out the water every 30 mins.  If you look at the picture of the pastrami going into the smoker, you will notice the probe is inserted into a blunt corner.  This is where I trimmed for tasting, but I also trimmed so I would know how to slice once cooked and be cutting against the grain of the meat.
• Pat the meat dry and put on a rack and store uncovered in the fridge for a few hours to overnight depending on how soon you want to start smoking.  The surface should feel tacky when you take it out.
• Prepare the rub.  If you are grinding whole spices, I prefer to grind separately, then mix together  
• Smear the surface of the brisket with a thin coat of yellow mustard (you can use the fancy stuff but you'll be wasting it at this point) or a neutral vegetable oil.
• Sprinkle on the rub to your taste.  I think I used about 2/3 of the rub last time.
• Smoke at 225F with a wood of your choice until the meat gets to about 185F.  I think if  you take it to 190F it should be slightly more tender, but we are usually anxious to eat at that point.  I do not usually wrap in foil when the meat hits 160, but if you would like to... do it.  Oak and/or Maple are good choices, but lately I've been going with Pecan for all non-pork smokes (and even some of them).
• Option 1: Let the meat rest for 30-45 mins (or as long as you can wait) before slicing.
• Option 2 (like I said, we too ready to eat to do this, but it works great on leftovers too):  After the meat cools down, wrap it in plastic and foil and let sit in the fridge for a day or two.  When ready to eat, steam the pastrami until hot.

• When the meat goes into fridge to cure, core and shred some cabbage and place in a SS or plastic mixing bowl.
• Weigh the shredded cabbage and add 1g of salt (I prefer kosher salt) for every 40-50g of cabbage.  I started at 40 but found it a bit too salty.
• Mix the salt and cabbage together with your hands, then start squeezing the living daylights out of the cabbage.  You want to break down the cabbage and accumulate quite a bit of the juices.  It usually takes me several minutes and your hands will hurt.  You can also use a potato masher (but it takes longer) or use the stand mixer on the lowest setting for about a minute or two.
• Pack the cabbage as tightly as you can into a Mason Jar (3lbs of cabbage just about fit into a quart sized) and add any residual liquid leaving some head space. 
• Seal jar and place in a warm spot (something like  you would use to start fig cuttings.
• Burp the Mason Jar daily
• The sauerkraut will be ready at the same time as your pastrami.  It won't be the vinegary type kraut in the stores.  It will have a milder flavor.  Adding a splash or two or a bunch of vinegar when packing the jars will not only punch up the flavor, but it will act as a starter to the fermentation process.  I will either go without or just add a splash.

Those pics look so good.  Thanks for the tips, no pun intended.  ;)

James,
very nice,  next time, try the point as pastrami.   HEAVEN!!!!
will more closely resemble the "plate" that a lot of old fashioned pastrami used to be made from.

James, thanks for the recipe ....may have to try it ..........

I wish, Greg.  I live with a bunch of lean meat eaters.  Usually, If I am trimming a brisket, I try to trim it with some fatty side for me.  The next one I've already trimmed all lean.  I'm trying to push the envelop as much as I can with them, but I have not even been able to get them to try a ribeye instead of a filet.  They are light weights with heat as well.  My chili has gone from a 3-4 alarm to about .5 alarm.  It still taste great, but not much if any kick.

John, there are a lot of steps, but it is pretty easy.  If you are doing an extended cure, make sure to follow the instructions for Cure#1.  There are many names for it, but it should be pink in color [not Himalayan pink salt] and consist of 6.25% sodium nitrite and 93.75%. Dry application is 1 tsp (5 grams) for every five pounds of meat.  There are different dangers for using too much or too little of it.  Dry curing should be about 5-7 days per 1" thickness of meat.  Label any leftover Cure #1 as toxic (it is) and keep away from the normal cooking spices (I keep mine in the box with my meat grinding attachment).  It should ONLY be used for curing meats.

I forgot to mention above (I've edited) I smoke the meat at ~225F.  It took about 10 hours to get the 5.5lb pastrami to 185F.

James,
I feel ya bud.  My gang wont eat the spicy stuff either and as a result my tolerance has suffered when I get the opportunity...
;o(

Thanks James , I use something called Morton's Tender Quick when I make venison jerky which is only .5% sodium nitrite and .5% sodium nitrate , propylene glycol, salt and sugar , but they are much smaller cuts of meat.

I used MTQ for brisket once.  I found it to be way too salty even after an overnight soak.  I was still gulping down water.  

The recipes I've seen online for pastrami generally call for about 1.5T (~18 grams) MTQ/pound (check the package to verify).  If using this amount, eliminate the additional salt and cut the sugar in half.  At this rate, you will still have about 20% more sodium nitrite.  Also, since the MTQ has sodium nitrate, you will not need to do cure twice as I suggested I am going to try with the next pastrami.  The government guidelines for dry curing whole cuts of meat is not more than 625ppm nitrite to meat and fat.  My recipe is about 150ppm and 1.5T MTQ/lb will give about 180ppm.  While this is sufficient for preserving (I think the minimum guidelines are 40ppm), it does not fully yield the bright pink color pastrami is known for (as evident in the pics above).

For the sake of being complete, the guidelines are for whole pieces of meat and do not apply for chopped/ground meat.

Nothing better than a Reuben and I believe it was at Beef O'Bradys, could be wrong, but it was identical to a Reuben except it has pastrami. To die for!

That is one thing we miss about the Big Apple! The friggin heroes! There was a deli on Queens Blvd right across from the courthouses that made some crazy good sandwiches.
Hot pastrami on a roll with melted Swiss and brown mustard, Reuben on rye(right on Wayne) , cold home made roast beef on a freshly baked italian hero bread with Swiss ,shredded lettuce ,tomato and mayo,and many others. My favorite ?
All of the above! What can I say Greeks like to eat! All that being said ,I would trade them all for James's Brisket!!! That's how good it looks. Thanks for sharing James. Pm sent! I ll take ten of them;)