Pastrami Fail

Sorry your results were not good. I usually pull at a little lower temp.

My last one turned out better than expected. I used a corned beef that was the same brand a few weeks earlier, and tho' I soaked it over night, the finished result was still too salty. And a little tough. I decided to do a longer soak, w. more water changes. Intended to do 48 hours, but rain delayed it to 60. I suspect that was a good thing.

I rubbed it w. some fresh Montreal rub from the Spice Trekkers. They actually are based in Montreal, but their blends come from all over the place. Really good, come in tins and need to be ground before use.

I thought I had a near fail. I've been using some extruded coconut shell lump. It is really high in carbon content. Hard to start, but burns really hot. I forgot this, and left my vents set for 275 approx. Went out after a few hours, and found the dome at 325, and the brisket internal at 180. I shut the vents down, and brushed the meat lightly w. water.

Took it off not too much later, internal temp a bit over 200.  I'd learned that standard deli practice was to slice, and then steam the pastrami right before serving. I did that. There was some char surface, but the point seam still had lots of nice fat. Not a total fail. 

But after a day bagged in the fridge, the char softened, and released more flavor into the meat. The sandwiches we had after that were the best I've done. I noticed that there were small pore like openings in the flat portion. Don't know if the long water soak and the higher than usual heat made for steam pockets that opened the muscle tissue up. At any rate, the flat was more tender than usual, and soaked up the Russian dressing nicely.

Teefus said:

lkapigian said:

I don't let any Brisket rest less than 2 hours, preferably longer IMO that's when magic happens....also probe for tenderness not temperature ...not sure if you used a Thermopen or not, maybe whatever you used is off a bit...how big was your corned beef?...sounds like it simply wasn't done

It started out a little over 4#. Agree on the tenderness as opposed to temp, but at 208 (with a new Thermopen) I was worried about overcooking. It actually probed pretty tender so I thought I was OK to pull. The toughness really caught me by surprise. When I did this last time it was melt in your mouth tender.

I'll be slicing it up for sandwiches tonight. Worst case scenario I'll simmer it in a little beef broth for a while to soften it up and have hot pastrami.

I probably would have pulled it as well based upon that...you will still enjoy it

Teefus said:

Happy ending after all. I sliced it up tonight and it's good and tender. I let it rest another couple hours wrapped in foil after my last entry above. That must have made the difference. 

Good to hear. Hate going through all that effort when it doesnt turn out. Looks great to me.