Outdoor cooking - Barbecues, Barbecue, BBQs, BBQ, Smokers, Grills. And Ribs.

Gettin' my Christmas on - Beef rib chili & ham hock smoking.

Overnighted the pastrami so no progress pics but the end result, mamma mia!

Edit: in the homemade bagels, gonna live off these for the next month.

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That looks so good!!

Looks exactly how I want pastrami to look, and sliced to a sensible thickness.

Immense work.

wow!

Mouthwatering!!!

Really fancy giving this a go, was there anything in particular you did and/or tips from your experience?

🤤

Ahhh yeahhh! Glad it worked out well done! Homemade russian dressing was a revelation to me with mine...

Was the recipe/method for this masterpiece posted in this thread somewhere?

I can’t guarantee it’s the one @Ptown used but we discussed this one:

https://heygrillhey.com/homemade-pastrami/ which I have used successfully in the past.

Great, many thanks

Thanks, well aim to try this over the Christmas break

Thanks for all the kind words! Really appreciate it. Wish I could post some out to you all!

I ended up using Meathead's guide for the brining and prep including their rub, only big deviation was rinsing the brisket instead of soaking it in water to desalinate (HeyGrillHey/Chud style). Meathead's calculator was invaluable, everyone I talked to said to be real careful with the salt ratios so it gave massive peace of mind.

Honestly, a super easy cook as well. Weber just held 220-230 on lump charcoal all night, started at 11pm, wrapped at 6am, finished by 9am. I honestly don't think I'd change a thing in the future. Maybe wrap a little earlier, the drier one especially as I tried to foil boat it before remembering there was no fat cap to render/protect and I actually wanted to steam it a bit.

That looks amazing.

How long / hot did you cook for?

[Edit] fuck me, I can't even read properly. Sorry. Never mind.

That's 220°F, no?

Thanks! Yeah 220f, yanks run this game.

Wow, what an achievement!

Did you do anything interesting with the brisket's fat cap?

Thanks, appreciate it! Fat cap was pretty minimal on this brisket, it's just the way things are trimmed before they even get to this shop. I got the butcher to cut a 2kg section of Angus where the flat meats the point so I could separate them and see which I preferred. That's why one looks way juicier, because it had that thin, patchy fat cap. What little fat I did trim off got frozen and I'll turn into tallow though.

Thanks for the info.
2kg (ish) of greatness!

Last post for a while, I promise.

I got these for £6.50 because of a decimal error on a website months ago and been saving them for a family visit. 4kg of USDA Choice plate ribs. Served the large one on the bone, smaller one shredded into Korean BBQ sauce and bao. Was a complete level up on anything else I've ever made just through sheer quality of the meat.

Had Jirby's guide in mind (likely misremembered) and hardly trimmed them at all except some obvious silverskin. Really should've as that fat cap looked gross (but oozed flavour).

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mixup with the delivery dates at the butchers meant this arrived too late to do the 8-10 day brine for pastrami so will be just smoking it like a normal bbq brisket.

gave the kamado a high temp burn to give it a clean and will repeat tomorrow before giving it a wipe and clean out ready for christmas eve.

now i have it in hand it's looking like it might be better to cook the two separately, maybe point for christmas day where it's just me and my gf and chuck the flat on in the evening on christmas day so it's ready for visiting family on boxing day.

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That was expensive!!!

we actually paid £10 less than that as their website charges the lower end of the weight scale (5-6kg in this case) but due to weight variations in the actual items the price by weight is likely a little more.

and we just moved into our new house after spending ages doing it up so we're not doing presents and this is our christmas treat.

And what a lovely treat it will be!

Quality page from top to bottom!

6am start yesterday, even the dog was not up for hanging around in the garden that early.

I ended up separating and using the flat and have saved the point for burnt ends. the brisket was grossly oversized for my kamado so I had to trim the flat so i have a bag of about 600g of cubed brisket for some slow cooker action down the line as well as a bag of tallow in the freezer.

cook ended up being a mild nightmare. kamado got to temp and stabilised and then i opened the lid to put the brisket on and somehow the temp jumped 100f by the time the lid was back on and the temp probe updated again. took nearly an hour to hit 250f again. might have ultimately helped me avoid a stall and i'd read that this is how some people do it to help speed it up so it powers through the 160-180 range but i think this ultimately sacrificed a fair amount of smoke ring on the final product.

I pulled it at 165f and wrapped in butchers paper but when the probe went back in it must have hit a pocket of fat or something as I got all the way up to 200f where i was due to pull but probing it with my handheld temp probe showed the whole thing was actually sitting around 180f still. if i hadn't checked properly it would have gone in the cooler to rest at that point and would have utterly ruined the christmas dinner.

ended up all being fine and while not as juicy as I'd hoped (i went too aggressive with the fat trimming i think so mea culpa) it was delicious and we have a fucking shedload of leftovers to feed the in-laws when they descend on us later. the dog has also been acting like we got it a ps5 for christmas since lunchtime yesterday.

served it with mash for me and roast taters for the gf, mac and cheese, chorizo pigs in blankets, coleslaw, potato salad and corn on the cob. not traditional but infinitely closer to my ideal meal than a traditional roast with the trimmings.

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