Pastrami and Packer Balls

I have a saying at work. "Pastrami makes everything better." This saying usually only comes up when I've made a fresh batch recently. The last week, I was saying it a lot and it was so true! I picked up some Corned Beef on sale,

soaked it in water over 4 days, changing the water twice.

The only thing that was left was to give it the rub down with a mix of Cow Pow and Gettin' Roasted then throw it on the smoker cruising at 250.


When they hit an internal of 190 (which came up on me a lot sooner than I had planned.) I wrapped them in foil with some beefy goodness mixture and let them go until they hit an internal of 205. Off they came and rested for about an hour before slicing.




As you can probably imagine, it tasted abso-farking-lutely fantastic! :thumb:

While I had the smoker running, I figured it would be a good time to shoot a video on the Packer Ball recipe I came up with recently. AKA: Smoked Sausage Brussel Balls.
[ame]http://youtu.be/u5heeMeYM6U[/ame]

I have to say, they really were darn tasty. :becky:


Thanks for looking and hopefully drooling.

martyleach said:

Looks great Tom! I'm surprised that UDS still has a wood handle with that weather....

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That's because, when it comes to wood handles, I insist upon the best from the expert craftsman at AMLwoodart. A quick sand and seal this spring and they will be right as rain. :thumb:

rcbaughn said:

Those pre-corned briskets are pretty dang good aren't they?! Ever tried soaking for less time and not adding salt to the rub? I've done that twice now and only soaked a couple hours and it came out great, and I got my pastrami eating going a lot faster! Lol!

And those both flats? I can't get a flat to turn out. If it ain't a point I just can't seem to cook it and it be moist.

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I looked for 2 flats on purpose. I like the nice even slices you get from the flats. You could give them just a minimal soak before throwing them on the smoker but, one of the main reasons for pulling the salt out of the meat is so the meat doesn't dry out during the cook. And, honestly, I love having that crust of seasonings on the edge of every slice. To make mine moist, I create a foil tray for them to sit in for the last hour of the cook and during the rest period. To this tray I then add enough magic mixture to go all the way up on the sides of the meat. Then loosely cover with foil. I've found I can construct the tray with a flap to cover out of a single piece of tinfoil. Beef loves to shrink when I cook it in my smoker and have found this is a crucial step to bring the moisture back into the meat.