This is not your pork!
is one Smokin' Farker
- Joined
- Apr 24, 2012
- Location
- Linz...
Lessons learned this time:
A rather small breast core of young Austrian bull with just 7.19 lbs
It had a nice looking flat, but a really tiny point
Rubbed in curing salt according to the instructions of the manufacturer and wrapped tightly in plastic foil for dry curing
And here we are 12 days later
It did NOT get that nice reddish throughout, the curing salt only penetrated the top layer and partly not at all, resulting in grayish spots
Firing up minion style with some buried apple wood
Beef on
The tiny point was ready after 3 hours 11 minutes
The point went into the cooler for resting, and on it went for the flat. Here is an overview of the cooking area.
Flat ready after 6 hours 4 minutes
Tiny point after resting
Flat after resting
Closeup of the sliced point
Closeup of the sliced flat
And on it went to getting steamed
It can't be denied, that the flat is just looking beautiful
So here we are after steaming for 30 minutes
Steamed beef closeup
Our Essence of Q Sauce
And the resulting sandwich
All in all it was a huge disappointment! Not Pastrami like at all, but a 12 days dry cured brisket, which does not come any close to the better briskets I have produced so far.
Pastrami production will have to be revisited after some time passing by, but then I will use the curing salt at my own discretion.
- For applying the curing salt do NOT follow the instructions of the manufacturer! It was way too little curing salt, so the brisket did in fact not turn into Pastrami at all. At least the ingredients prevented the beef from spoiling during it's 12 days sitting in the fridge wrapped tightly in plastic foil.
- If you take the beef to IT 175°F on the smoker, steaming a sliced portion for 30 minutes is NOT enough to further break down the connective tissue! It had way more bite than we had wished for. For the second meal we had it steaming for more than 2 hours, then it was nice and tender.
A rather small breast core of young Austrian bull with just 7.19 lbs
It had a nice looking flat, but a really tiny point
Rubbed in curing salt according to the instructions of the manufacturer and wrapped tightly in plastic foil for dry curing
And here we are 12 days later
It did NOT get that nice reddish throughout, the curing salt only penetrated the top layer and partly not at all, resulting in grayish spots
Firing up minion style with some buried apple wood
Beef on
The tiny point was ready after 3 hours 11 minutes
The point went into the cooler for resting, and on it went for the flat. Here is an overview of the cooking area.
Flat ready after 6 hours 4 minutes
Tiny point after resting
Flat after resting
Closeup of the sliced point
Closeup of the sliced flat
And on it went to getting steamed
It can't be denied, that the flat is just looking beautiful
So here we are after steaming for 30 minutes
Steamed beef closeup
Our Essence of Q Sauce
And the resulting sandwich
All in all it was a huge disappointment! Not Pastrami like at all, but a 12 days dry cured brisket, which does not come any close to the better briskets I have produced so far.
Pastrami production will have to be revisited after some time passing by, but then I will use the curing salt at my own discretion.