Corned and Pastramied Beef Brisket

We like to keep this meat on hand and did use up the last of what we had frozen a few week ago so it was time to do up another few pounds. 



I started with 3 choice brisket flats that weighed slightly over 21 pounds total. I also made up my first round of spices and seasonings. I also got about 150 cloves of garlic ready for my treat. I made up the curing brine that will be injected into the meat.





I trimmed up each brisket flat and then cut each one in half.



I injected the brine into each piece of meat.



I put the garlic thru my Suzy and packed a generous amount on each piece of meat. 





I packed on the spices and herbs and placed each piece of meat into a Zip-Lock bag. The meat went into the fridge for 4 days and was turned over about two times a day during this curing period. 





I took the meat out of the fridge and washed all the spices and seasonings off under running water at the sink and placed the meat into a pan of water for about an hour.  I then toweled the meat off and let it air dry for about 30 minutes.



Made up the second round of spices for the smoking process and packed them onto the brisket pieces and they were ready for the smoker.

Decided to use the Hasty-Bake for this smoke and rolled it around to my cooking patio.



I figured I would need about an seven hour smoke time so I setup a fuse burn for about an eight hour cook to be sure I had enough to finish my treat. I placed a couple of firebricks in the charcoal pan and then added 13 pounds of Wicked Good charcoal  briquettes. I then added some hickory chunks for my smoke. 



I fired the cooker up and brought it up to temp and loaded my 6 pieces of meat. 



A beautiful morning but a little chilly at 41 degrees and windy.



The meat got done a little quicker than I expected and I got the first piece off at about 4 hours and the last piece off at about 5-1/2 hours into the smoke. The meat was smoked to an internal of about 185 degrees.





Put the meat thru the slicer and it sure looked great. It will be packed into one pound vacuum bags and frozen for future use or....







A fellow might take about 1/2 pound of this meat and put it on some big slices rye bread and then slop on a few dollops of horsey sauce. He might add 3-4 slices of Swiss cheese and fold this sandwich up and serve it with a dill pickle. OH MY!!  It just don’t get any better than this.