Smoked Corned Beef (Wiviott)
To make a reasonable facsimile of pastrami first soak fresh corned beef in
water* for 36-48 hours to rid it of some of the salt. You then coarse grind,
in a 4/1 ratio, black pepper/coriander seed, add powdered garlic, onion
powder and ground ancho pepper, liberally coat corned beef with the mixture.
Smoke the corned beef as you would a brisket, though due to the corning
process it will only take about half or three quarters as long, and you will
be quite pleased with the results. I use full packer cut corned beef, point
and flat, with the fat cap still attached. If you use a small corned beef
flat without a fat cap make sure to smoke it under something fatty, like
pork shoulder or baste often.
Some wrap the smoked corned beef in foil while still hot and let it stew in
its own juices overnight, allowing it to reabsorb the juice and become
tender. I find this step unnecessary using a full packer cut corned beef,
plus I prefer my pastrami sliceable.
I have been smoking corned beef for years and it is a favorite. The cracked
black pepper/coriander seed/rub/then smoke soaked corned beef recipe came
from Garry Howard and Dan Gill, who, I believe, adapted it from a recipe in
Rick Thead's Meat Smoking and Curing FAQ.
*Do not skip soak step or the finished smoked corned beef will be so salty
as to be completely inedible. If you use a commercial, grocery store corned
beef, I suggest 48-72 soak.
