Smoking Corned Beef
Have you cured your own corned beef yet? You should give it a try! but even if you don’t cure your own, you may want to try this unorthodox method for cooking it. Whether you have a home-cured piece or snagged a pre-cured one from the store, smoking your corned beef is sure to make a good impression. Let’s take a look.
How to Smoke Corned Beef
Smoking is a non-traditional but delicious way to prepare corned beef. You still want to cook it in water at least part of the time to let some of the salt out of it, but smoking it before a steam/braise cycle will imbue it with a deep, smoky flavor. We followed the advice given at Taste of Home to get ours just right. This is a great way to jazz up a store-bought cured corned beef that won’t have as much depth of flavor as a home-cured version.
Using a leave-in probe thermometer like the 4-channel Smoke X® to monitor the cook is a great way to make sure you hit your critical temperatures.
Ingredients
- 1 corned beef, raw, about 3 –5 pounds
- water
Instructions
- Preheat your smoker to 275°F (135°C). If you’re using the Billows™ BBQ control fan with your Smoke X4, set the fan temp for 275°F (135°C), otherwise, set your high-temp alarm for 300°F (149°C) your low-temp alarm for 250°F (121°C) and monitor your smoker with the receiver to make sure it stays in the proper range.
- Rinse your corned beef and pat it dry.
- Insert the penetration probe into the corned beef and place it in the smoker. Set the high-temp alarm on the meat channel for 160°F (71°C).
- When the alarm sounds, place your beef in a pan and add water to come 1/3 of the way up the side of the meat.
- Wrap the pan tightly in foil, insert the probe through the foil into the meat, and reset your high-temp alarm for the meat to 203°F (95°C).
- Cook the corned beef in the pan until the alarm sounds. Verify that the meat has reached 203°F (95°C) throughout by spot-checking with a Thermapen®.
- Remove the corned beef from the water pan and wrap it tightly in two layers of foil, then wrap it in a few towels and stash it to rest in a cooler for at least an hour, preferably two.
- Slice thinly and serve!
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I know this is probably an old blog but doesn’t a smoked corned beef by definition become a pastrami?
Almost, but not quite! To become pastrami, it also needs the full coating of pepper, coriander, and other spices.
I’ve been making pastrami from corned beef for a while and I’m trying to get it moister / more tender. Has anyone tried cooking the meat then giving it a pastrami rub and smoking it? What was the result and how long did it need to smoke?
What is a good wood to use for smoking a corned beef?
I like oak or, if you can get it, beech.