British BBQ Society Forums

Is it worth smoking a brisket which has almost no fat or marbling? I'm thinking it may be a bit too dry, or can it be done adequately if injected? My other alternative is to cure it and turn it into pastrami.

Hi Aris

I myself would go for the Pastrami option, that way with the curing and cooking process involved you are almost certain to get a good end result.

Good Luck
Si

IMO Salt beef or Pastrami

aris wrote:Is it worth smoking a brisket which has almost no fat or marbling? I'm thinking it may be a bit too dry, or can it be done adequately if injected? My other alternative is to cure it and turn it into pastrami.

I got a relatively lean brisket from my local butcher last week. It was mainly flat with a little bit of point.
I bought it on Monday and got my butcher to run it through his tenderiser machine quickly, which is basically a machine which punches some small holes in the meat (I could not see the holes once done and the structure of the meat wasn't compromised).
I applied a rub on Monday night and took it back to my butcher on Tuesday and he vacuum sealed it, which helped the rub permeate. I left it in the fridge until Thursday evening.
I had bought a good quality proper fresh stock, and on Thursday evening injected this into the meat and left in a large dish in the fridge.
Started cooking (from the fridge) at midnight Friday, overnight on low temp (225 f)
Crutched at 10.30 am Saturday (internal temp 170) with about 200ml apple juice thrown in and cooked until internal temp of meat was 203 f. This was approx 12.30pm.
Wrapped in another layer of foil, two towels and put in cooler box until we ate at 4.30pm and it was lovely and moist and tender.

Thanks chaps - it is in the freezer so i'm going to have a think about it. I think pastrami sounds like a good idea, just lots of prep!

Good luck. Let us know how you get on.

Lots of prep? It's eeeeeeeeeasy A basic cure for any meat is just 3% of the meat's weight in salt, 1% in sugar and 0.25% in cure #1. Dry cure for a week, rinse then smoke. For pastrami all you've gotta do is add the usual spices - coriander seed, black pepper, garlic, mustard seed...

Mmm, may have to try that

YetiDave wrote:Lots of prep? It's eeeeeeeeeasy A basic cure for any meat is just 3% of the meat's weight in salt, 1% in sugar and 0.25% in cure #1. Dry cure for a week, rinse then smoke. For pastrami all you've gotta do is add the usual spices - coriander seed, black pepper, garlic, mustard seed...

Thanks for that - I think i still have some cure#1 dicking about. I see Amazingribs.com have a technique on their website - will use that too.

Just ordered some Prague #1, got to give pastrami a go!