Smoking Corned Beef
We love corned beef, whether for St. Patrick’s day or just for a great sandwich any time of year. And you’ve hopefully read about our process for curing your own corned beef. If not, you should give it a try! But even if you don’t cure your own brisket, instead opting for a pre-pickled uncooked beef, you may want to try this somewhat unorthodox method for cooking it. Whether cure it yourself or not, smoking corned beef is sure to make a good impression. Let’s take a look, especially at the key temperatures and tools to do it right.
Wait, isn’t that just pastrami?
Before we get into the cooking portion, let’s clear up some nomenclature. Smoked corned beef is not pastrami, even though it’s close. Both are made of beef, both usually brisket. Corned beef is smoked in this preparation (whereas it is “traditionally” simmered), as is pastrami. But while corned beef is most traditionally made with a dry cure (hence the corns of salt), pastrami is often brine-cured. Then there’s the matter of the rub. Pastrami is coated in a coarse-ground rub consisting of black pepper, coriander, sugar, and other spices. (Learn to make your own pastrami in our post on the subject. It’s VERY good.) Smoked corned beef has no such rub.
Yes, it is similar. No, they are not the same.
How to Smoke Corned Beef
Removing excess salt
First, corned beef is a salty meat. Like, quite salty. Smoking it instead of boiling it tends to concentrate that salt rather than diluting it, as happens when we boil it. So you should run a bit of a de-salination cycle on it before you toss it in the smoker. Give the corned beef successive changes of cold water for at least 10, up to 24, hours to draw out some of the excess salt. It will still be salty ( it is corned beef after all,) but will go perfectly on a sandwich.
Smoking the corned beef
Smoking is a non-traditional but delicious way to prepare corned beef, and well worth the time it takes. But that time might be less than you think, for while this cut is made of brisket, we don’t cook it all the way to tender doneness in the smoker. Like pastrami, it’s best to give your smoked corned beef a steam or shallow braise cycle after it has absorbed a lot of smoke flavor. Let it cook in the smoker basically until it reaches the stall, then move it into a pan with boiling water and either keep it in the smoker, or move it inside to the oven to finish (no more smoke flavor will get in anyhow, so the oven is just as practical.)
Use your RFX MEAT probe to track the meat temp from your phone as you smoke it, and later when you steam it in the oven. Set the initial high-temp alarm for 160°F (71°C) and smoke that corned beef. When you hit that temp, pull it from the smoker, put it in a pan to steam it, and move it to the oven. Reset the high-temp alarm on your RFX MEAT to 203°F (95°C) And start checking the tenderness when the meat reaches about 195°F (91°C). You want it tender, but not as tender as a brisket…this needs to hold together a little better.
Smoked Corned Beef recipe
Ingredients
- 1 Corned beef, raw Purchased or home-cured
Instructions
- Preheat your smoker to 275°F (135°C). If you're using the Billows™ BBQ control fan with your RFX GATEWAY, 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 included air probe to make sure it stays in the proper range.
- Rinse your corned beef and pat it dry.
- Insert your RFX MEAT probe into the corned beef and place it in the smoker. Set the high-temp alarm for 160°F (71°C).
- When the alarm sounds, place your beef in a pan and add boiling 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 your Thermapen ONE.
- Remove the corned beef from the water pan and, f it need further tenderizing, wrap it tightly in two layers of foil, then wrap it in a few towels and stash it to rest in a cooler for an hour or two. But if the tenderness feels right, it's time to eat.
- Slice thinly and serve!
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?
Since I’m sodium intolerant, I’ve started curing my own corned beef in a vinegar mixture with a small amount of curing salt and other spices. But sous vide is my go to these days and cooking all comes down to heat and time= super juicy and tender. After curing, I smoke at 225* until stall or about 160*. Next, vacuum seal and place in sous vide bath at 150* for about 3 days, I converted an ice chest and use a sous vide circulator. Since it’s sealed, it comes out super tender with no moisture loss. At this point, I leave it in the bag and let it rest or place it in the fridge until ready to finish within 2 to 3 days. If finishing right away, I like the temperature of the brisket to drop to about 120* before sprinkling with more seasoning and giving it a couple of flips over the sear station on my pellet grill set to about 375*- of course the surface of the sear station is way hotter than what the pellet controller is sensing. The benefit is that the brisket never gets over 150-160* and it cooks in its own juices for most of the time- never a dry brisket again!
What is a good wood to use for smoking a corned beef?
I like oak or, if you can get it, beech.
Since the RFX probe was inserted for smoking, why not just leave it in place for the braise/steam step?
We do! but we also pot-check for tenderness and temp with Thermapen ONE. If we take it out, it’s so we can wrap the pan in foil, then we re-insert it into the meat through the foil.
About how long do you steam it? Of course I know to go by temp. Just trying to pit a timeline together
It depends on the size, but I’d plan on another 4-6 hours after the smoking.