February 14th - Valentine's day came and went like a winter's wind.
February 28th - Probably went to work that day, unless it was a weekend, then I didn't.
March 26th - Got my real estate license
April 10th - Started working for Dick Lepine Real Estate
July 20th - I turned 35. Still alive.
Aug 1st - Started a new job at Sybase/SAP - Tech support engineer - Still talking to the customers so the other engineers don't have to.
Sep 10th - Resigned from Dick Lepine real estate. I didn't sell shit.
Sep 22nd - Joined the Usual Suspects Band.
Oct 31st - Halloween bitches!
Dec 18th - Today I decided to start the blog again!
Man, it's been a busy year! So this will be a quick little blog about smoking some corn beef. Let me just preface this with that I was supposed to smoke a beef brisket for my drummer's Chanukah party. Once he found out I was a fellow meat smoker, I was definitely in the band. Before that, he had his doubts about my sax skills. But unfortunately my daughter came down with pneumonia last week and my pregnant wife was sick as well so I was unable to smoke the brisket or go to his celebration. So come Saturday, I had meat smoking on the brain and any meat smoker knows that when you get the itch you need to scratch it! So off I went Saturday afternoon in search of a brisket!
I tried to find a brisket but Walmart was sold out. Yes, I buy my brisket at Walmart. $2.58/lb for a whole brisket. Can't beat those prices. Maybe I am supporting the man that puts the workers down, but come on people, $2.58/lb!
Anywho, after driving to Tewksbury and then Salem, NH, there was no brisket to be found. Could have been because all the Jews bought them for Chanukah (I always spell Chanukah with a C because it gives it that authentic feeling when you pronounce it in your head. The I'm choking on a walnut and can't get it up "Ch" sound. If you use the H, I don't trust you or your beliefs.)
So no brisket was to be had. Then I see the corn beef brisket and thought, why not just toss that in the smoker. It's beef, it's brisket, it's corned. Corned is a weird term. I looked it up recently and it has nothing to do with corn. Has to do with the size of the salt kernels used to brine/preserve/flavor it. I think I might have written about this in a previous blog but in case this is your first time here, I had to bring it up. Apologies for wasting your time to all my 12 dedicated followers.
Alrighty then, let's get cooking!
I bought a point and a flat brisket. Flat doesn't have much fat, whereas the point has more fat. More fat is always better for smoking so I had my doubts on the flat. Rinsed them off a bit and coated them with a little olive oil and bbq rub.
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| Point on the left and the flat on the right. Could also call them rectangle on the right and not rectangle on the left. |
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| File photo of my smoker at my house from a previous smoke. Smoker has been moved to the new patio which I installed sometime between then and now. |
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| Imagine the smoker in the top left of the patio, in front of the outlets. |
Last time I smoked a brisket it took about 15 hours so I wasn't sure how long these would take considering they were smaller. I started around 5pm Saturday evening and took them out around 4:30am. Yep, I woke up around 4:30am cause I kept having BBQ dreams. Weird disturbing BBQ dreams. I'll let all of you take your imaginations to those dark creepy places because whatever I write will not compare. I know you people.
So out of the smoker after close to 12 hours when the temperature of the meat registered around 185-195 degrees. I wrapped them up in two layers of foil, popped them in a cooler, and went back to bed for a couple more hours of BBQ free dreams.
Morning came too quickly, probably from Ally waking me up. It was like Christmas morning, or what I imagine Christmas morning to be like. (Since I'm Jewish, I wouldn't know. Chanukah evening doesn't have the same feeling. Trust me.) Knowing that downstairs, there awaited 6 lbs of Mesquite smoked corn beef for my pleasure or breakfast. Yep, I sliced that baby up and made myself a side of corn beef with my eggs over easy and piece of Challah bread!
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| Also seen here is a clementine and a cup of coffee in a Disney evil mug. And that's a halloween plate. Yep, a Halloween plate in December. Why only use it one time a year. |
But I'm jumping ahead of myself. I unwrapped the corn beef like a present and I was happily surprised to see a nice blackish, brownish smokey bark. The sweet, smokey, woody smells soon enveloped my nostrils and permeated their way through the house. If this was a cartoon I would have floated in the air and followed the smell around the kitchen.
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| Sliced point of corn beef. Wish flash on. |
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| Sliced point of corn beef close up with no flash. |
On a taste scale I'd say it was a bit on the salty side. Probably due to the corning process. Definitely helped by having it with some mustard or bbq sauce. The flavors and tenderness of the meat were pretty sweet. And by sweet, I mean awesome, and not sweet like candy. Even though I'd choose this 10 days out of 10 over candy.
Just be warned that if you decide to smoke a corn beef, it will be awesome but it won't be a real BBQ brisket. That will have to be made at a later date and later time when the stars are aligned, my family is not sick, and I can find a whole $2.58/lb brisket at the Walmart.
Special thanks to drummer Dave for bringing me over some of his smoked brisket, ribs and latkes from his party. I hope to repay the kindness in the near future.
Next up : Who knows? This only Tyler recipe thing is pretty tough so it's just an everything cooking food blog now.
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