Smoked Corned Beef

[brewersfan73]

I know I already posted this in the weekend cooks thread, but I wanted to get a little feedback to see if I can do this better next time. Here's what I did this past weekend.

Ingredients:
Grobbel’s traditional flat cut corned beef brisket from Sam’s Club, 4.88 lbs
1 tbsp whole black peppercorns
1 tbsp whole coriander seeds
1/2 tbsp whole yellow mustard seeds
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
Yellow mustard (binder for rub)
Pellets: Traeger Gourmet Blend of Maple, Hickory and Cherry (Costco)

Night before:
Soak corned beef in cold water bath for 3 hours (change water once halfway through) to pull out some of the salt
Toast the peppercorns, coriander seeds, and mustard seeds in a pan for 3-4 minutes, then smash in a ziploc bag with the flat side of a meat tenderizer. Mix in the garlic powder and onion powder
Pat dry the corned beef after soaking, then apply a little yellow mustard and add the rub
Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight

Austin XL, smoke tube, & small water pan, no spritzing
Cook brisket for 2 hours on SMOKE setting (averaged ~185 degrees)
Turn up controller to 250, cook for 3.5 hours (brisket stalled around 145 degrees)
Wrap in foil and cook at 250 until brisket is 205 degrees (~2.5 hours)
Turned off grill and let brisket rest inside grill for about 1.5 hours, internal temp at 180 when unwrapped

 

[brewersfan73]

The Good:
- Brisket got done on time, although I was a little worried when it stalled around 145 (I was expecting closer to 160).
- It was tender and juicy, although not so tender that it fell apart while slicing.
- The length of soaking seemed to be about right - just the right amount of saltiness when it was finished.

The Not-So-Good:
- The smashed peppercorns, coriander, and mustard were still too big and really took away from the flavor of the smoke and meat. I would definitely use less pepper next time, and would grind them much finer. Maybe use less rub overall, but that is just my family's preference. I had already cut down the pepper ratio quite a bit compared to other recipes.
- I lost about 60% of the total weight during cooking (dropped from 4lb 14 oz to 1lb 14oz). Is there anyway to cook it differently to minimize loss, or is this just one of those things that "it is what it is, depending on the cut of the meat"?

Other things I'm thinking:
- I might be tempted to do 2 or 3 smaller flats instead of a larger one to reduce cooking time. Most of the other ones at Sam's Club were 3-4 lbs.
- Do I want bark on a corned beef? Should I add a little brown sugar to the rub? I didn't want to go full pastrami-type recipe, but I'm wondering if it would enhance the flavor.
- This is going to sound stupid, but it was hard to find the direction of the grain after I cooked it. I cut 4 slices before I realized I was going the wrong way. I need to take a better mental note of the grain before it is covered in spices. Haha.

I look forward to any advice. I really want to perfect this since it's one of my favorite meats.

 

[brewersfan73]

Sorry, forgot to add pictures in this thread.

The meat:

Soaking:

Spices & finished rub:

Ready to wrap the night before:

Grill setup:

Ready to wrap (temp at 145 degrees)

Finished:

I've also got screenshots from my Inkbird app graphs if anyone is interested, but I didn't want to make this post any longer.

 

[Mike From R.I.]

Sorry, forgot to add pictures in this thread.

The meat:
View attachment 3166

Soaking:
View attachment 3167

Spices & finished rub:
View attachment 3168
View attachment 3169

Ready to wrap the night before:
View attachment 3170

Grill setup:
View attachment 3171

Ready to wrap (temp at 145 degrees)
View attachment 3172

Finished:
View attachment 3173
View attachment 3174

I've also got screenshots from my Inkbird app graphs if anyone is interested, but I didn't want to make this post any longer.

I think it looks awesome.

 

[Cowboy1955]

Awesome job 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻🏆💰🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

 

[brewersfan73]

Smoked Corned Beef - take two:

I changed up a few things from my first try:
- Cooked two smaller flats (about 3-3.5# each)
- Did the soaking and prep the same day I cooked it, as opposed to the night before
- Ground my spices a lot more
- Added a little brown sugar to the rub
- Due to the cold weather, I didn't use the SMOKE setting at the beginning of the cook
- Cooked uncovered for longer, especially when compensating for the smaller briskets
- Held in oven after the briskets hit ~205 on the Pit Boss

After 2 hours:

Unwrapped and ready to be sliced:

Sliced for sandwiches:

Reuben sandwiches:

I'll add my tweaked recipe in the next post when I get a chance.

 

[brewersfan73]

Smoked Corned Beef - take two continued:

Ingredients:

• Grobbel’s traditional flat cut corned beef brisket x2 (3.1 lbs & 3.4 lbs), slightly trimmed
• 1 tbsp whole black peppercorns
• 1 tbsp whole coriander seeds
• 1/2 tbsp whole yellow mustard seeds
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 1 tbsp light brown sugar
• Yellow mustard (binder for rub)
• Pellets: Kingsford Classic (Hickory/Cherry/Oak) and Lumberjack Competition Blend (Maple/Hickory/Cherry) - I was transitioning between bags, so it was probably a 50/50 split. The LJ pellets went in the smoke tube.

Steps:

• Soak corned beef in cold water bath for 2 hours (change water once halfway through) to pull out some of the salt
• Toast the peppercorns, coriander seeds, and mustard seeds in a pan for 3-4 minutes, then ground using mortar & pestle. Mix in the garlic powder, onion powder, and brown sugar.
• Pat dry the corned beef after soaking, then apply a little yellow mustard and add the rub
• Austin XL, smoke tube, & small water pan, no spritzing (temperature outside was 30 degrees, some wind, and a little snow)
• Cook brisket for 3 hours at 200 (IT was ~125 at this point)
• Turn up controller to 250, cook for 3 hours (IT was ~150 and stalled)
• Wrap in foil and cook at 250 until brisket is 205 degrees (~1.5 hours)
• Put in warm oven to hold IT at ~200-205 for about 30 minutes
• Rested for about an hour before slicing

Thoughts:

• I would definitely stick with the 3 to 3.5 lb brisket flats in the future, as opposed to the 5 lb one I did the first. I lost less weight during the cook and the meat was more consistent.
• Brown sugar didn't seem to make a difference, but I'd probably leave it in next time.
• Grinding the spices definitely helped versus smashing them. The ratio of pepper, coriander, and mustard seed still wasn't a big crowd pleaser in our house. I might scale back the coriander and pepper a little bit next time.
• Unfortunately, not a lot of smoke flavor. Even with the smoke tube and the LJ pellets, it wasn't what I was hoping for. Don't get me wrong, it has better flavor than boiling or pressure cooking, but it doesn't have that "wow" factor.
• Very tender and juicy. Like last time, it didn't fall apart and crumble, which is great for sandwiches.
• Next time, I will follow this recipe closely and tweak the ingredients in the rub.

 

[mixed up]

done that it was so good