Smoked Meat Sunday

I feel like I worked all weekend? I need some time off or something....

Smoked Meat Sunday
You saw the pastrami prep last post, here are the rubbed up ribs and pastrami getting about set to go on the Big Steel Keg:


I used some apple wood for smoke and got the Keg to hold 250 degrees for about 4 hours. Here are the items almost done:


I sauced the ribs over direct heat (took out the diffuser) and on one slab I used Sweet Baby Ray's sauce and on the other I used KC Masterpiece:


The pastrami was perfect on the salt content, the last one I made was too salty I think. The taste was very good, but I think this particular brisket came from a really fat cow because all the fat lines running across the meat took away from the texture I think. Still, it was very good. Here it is all sliced up:

Nice.

I was way too optimistic with the dinner plate and I only ate about half of this:

We had corn on the cob as well but no picture for that. It was fun to get outside and cook. I also cut the front and back lawns, it never ends.

I am tired! I still need to do market homework and see what's up for next week so I will update this post later on.

Added:
Thanks to the some what down market, I have over 50 stocks to review!!! Ouch.

Showtime has had "Lord of the Rings" films on all day. Who can not be moved almost to tears by the beautiful Adagio D Minor piece Gandalf Falls:

Same tune with the movie, so rough:
Film Clip

Have a good night.

There Will Be Food Tomorrow

Got the hallway all ready for the wife to paint tomorrow; fixed a couple loose cupboards; glue set a small table that was getting very unstable (it is where we have the cat food so the dog does not eat it, he will eat it all if he can get to it); and a few other home chores. Nice.

There Will Be Food Tomorrow
Nice weather finally! I threw out that I was going to be cooking and amongst the many items I can cook baby back ribs and pastrami were the lead contenders. Kid Dynamite is a pastrami addict (his words) so I figured why not take another shot at one? I made one last year almost exactly at this time of year!

Via Wikipedia:

Pastrami (Romanian: pastramă, Yiddish: פּאַסטראָמע pastróme), is a popular delicatessen meat usually made from beef and, traditionally in Romania, also from pork and mutton. Like corned beef, pastrami was originally created as a way to preserve meat before modern refrigeration. For pastrami, the raw meat is brined, partly dried, seasoned with various herbs and spices, then smoked and steamed.

So pastrami is not just a beef brisket, it must be corned or brined and then smoked.

Anyways, here is the food for tomorrow's cook:

I could not get over to the butcher shop, but I was glad the baby backs at the grocery store were meaty and looked good.

To make pastrami, you will have to desalt the corned beef otherwise the final product will be so salty you cannot eat much of it. That's not good. While on the smoker the meat will shrink around 30% so everything gets concentrated. I soaked the brisket in water for 7 hours changing the water every hour. Here is a look at how much salt pours out:

The water was clear but gets colored as the brining solution runs out.

Here is the brisket after soaking:


I made a pastrami rub of the following:
.25 cup kosher salt
.25 cup paprika
3 tblsp coriander seeds (will add tomorrow before putting on smoker)
2 tblsp ground coriander
3 tblsp light brown sugar
2 tblsp ground black peppercorns
2 tblsp yellow mustard seeds
1 tblsp ground white peppercorns
1 tblsp minced garlic

Here is the brisket all rubbed up and ready to refrigerate overnight:

Yeah it was premium beer time, Budweiser! (BUD)

I like to apply rib rub to the baby backs right before I put them on the smoker, just my preference. Seems to give a better outside "bark" but maybe that's juts me. The Big Steel Keg will be in action tomorrow! More pictures ans results tomorrow.

Have a good night.

Black Pastrami Sunday

It could not have been better weather here this weekend. 70-75 degrees, strong sun, and slight breeze. NICE! My fishing license finally arrived in the mail so now I need to buy some supplies and it will be fishing time soon. Very exciting. For any folks that fish, ever try the new Berkley Trans Optic line? I bought a spool and would like any feedback. Usually I only fish Berkley Fireline and Yo-Zuri Hybrid line (my favorite) but I thought I would try the color changing line. Let me know.

Black Pastrami Weekend
I love pastrami and another factor for me in buying The Big Steel Keg was the ability to do low smoking for just this item. Here is the process.

Some people can brine their own brisket meat into corned beef but I am lazy so I just bought a pre-made one:


The meat is very salty after the corning process so you need to remove a bit of the salt by soaking in water:

I did a 6 hour soak and changed the water 4 times. I will come back to this part.

Next up is the application of a pastrami rub:

I did all this on Saturday and left the brisket in the fridge for overnight with the rub on.

Today I set up the Keg with lump charcoal and some apple wood for smoke. The Keg was solid at 250 degrees for the 4 hours of the cook. Here is the pastrami before I took it off the grill:

I let the pastrami rest for 30 minutes and then sliced it up as thin as I could:

I need better knives, mine are pretty dull and it was hard to cut the pastrami in thin slices.

The pastrami tasted very good and the smoke really adds an extra touch that supermarket pastrami does not have. I had a nice sub roll with lettuce and mustard with 4 slices of pastrami.

I think a longer water soak would have been better; there was still quite a bit of salt in the meat. Maybe 8 hours or more next time. You learn by doing, right?

Back to work tomorrow, is it really Monday already?

Added:
You know me, I just cannot help it!:

Ratt, "Round and Round" is so very good.

Added also:
Man I just can't stop! Maybe I should quit economics and just do music:

Scorpions and Animal Magnetism.

Added again:
On a really down note, Ronnie James Dio has passed away. EconomicDisconnect is really hurt by this. They say "As time goes by all your heroes will fall". It's true. A pioneer and metal god, may I offer:

"Rainbow in the Dark".
Really not happy right now.

Have a good night.