Homemade Bacon, Polish Kielbasa, German Bratwurst, And Pastrami

[nicnat]

Brisket is not like smoking sausage. And the smoking temps and meat temps don't go by those rules..
I've smoked a **** tonne of briskets and you can tell by how mine turns out I've got it very well dialed in from doing a lot of them and playing with brines/flavors etc too. Pastrami's and Montreal smoked meat briskets etc..

Yes you want your internal temp of a pastrami (brisket) to get past the stall and get very tender where you can insert a toothpick or probe and have no resistance when pulling it out. Like butter. That internal temp of butter probe will usually end up being between 204 and 210 but it will depend on your cut of meat so you should start probing around 203 degrees.

If you smoked a brisket and pulled it off at 160 it would be tough like leather and dense and horrible. Tons and tons of videos you can watch to see the techniques on youtube. To quicken the process to get past the stall phase (which can last a long time and is usually when the internal meat temp is between 155 to 165 approx) you can wrap the brisket pastrami etc in butcher paper or tin foil for that phase to get the internal temp to break through the stall phase. I like butcher paper as I find it gives a nice moist, tender, yet still nice texture meat. Gotta be careful not to get the outside of the meat too dried out when doing so. For brisket my smoker is usually around 225 to 250 degrees. I've done them at all temps between those temps. I've used lot's of different woods to smoke them with. Maple, oak, apple, hickory are all nice for brisket in my opinion. Apple is the mildest of those ones.

Depending on the brisket you will be smoking that pastrami for approx 6 to 10 hrs depending on the heat you cook at and the technique you use to get past the stall.

Link to some more info on smoking pastrami: https://www.traegergrills.com/recipes/smoked-cured-beef-pastrami

Link to a decent smoked brisket pastrami:

thanks that makes a ton of sense an will leave it in for a couple more hours to get that temp may have to switch to the oven

 

[wolf]

@wolf those temps were for the eventual inside the pastrami temps not the smoker itself, his looked like it turned out pretty well. what internal meat temp do you end up with when you are done smoking? mines been in the smoker for about 3 plus hrs and center of meat is at about 140 f smoker (a bradley) is around 170 now but took 3 hrs to get there, going fairly slow, I'm in no rush, lol. any advice is much appreciated.

Sorry had a brain fart thought we were talking sausages and them one guys had pictures of ... I do what chasin does in foil in pan as i want the juices ...

 

[ILHG]

Homemade Baloney. A family favorite. No fillers, lips, or assholes. Just good stuff. Cant beat it on a tray bun with mustard

 

[cletus]

Homemade Baloney. A family favorite. No fillers, lips, or assholes. Just good stuff. Cant beat it on a tray bun with mustard

 

[Chasin' Dreams]

Homemade Baloney. A family favorite. No fillers, lips, or assholes. Just good stuff. Cant beat it on a tray bun with mustard

That brings back some childhood memories of fried baloney, mayo, mustard sandwiches. Haven't had one in a very long time. Now you got me craving one lol. Looks like a very well made product you got there.

What did you use for meat cuts to make it with?

 

[ILHG]

That brings back some childhood memories of fried baloney, mayo, mustard sandwiches. Haven't had one in a very long time. Now you got me craving one lol. Looks like a very well made product you got there.

What did you use for meat cuts to make it with?

Just 80% extra lean ground beef & ground pork from Costco. Worked well for baloney

 

[ILHG]

Homemade beef wieners. Turned out great

 

[ILHG]

Pickled polish sausage. From sausage I made in an earlier post. This stuff is amazing

 

[wolf]

 

[walleyes]

View attachment 63729

Must be a butchers joke lol.

 

[Chasin' Dreams]

Running out of this quickly. Time for another batch next weekend.

 

[wolf]

Running out of this quickly. Time for another batch next weekend.

be prepared I was in shock pork went up 40 % as i had a lot of farm pork last 3 months making some bacon it is well over 10 a lb just for bellies WTF ,, something has to break here as the pricing is getting out of control ...

 

[tinboatrobb]

We bought a whole pig from a friend and hanging weight was 240lbs. After butchering at Brauns in Duncan the cost was 6:50 per lb, wrapped, labeled and frozen.
Best tasting pork you can get, 100% natural.

 

[Chasin' Dreams]

be prepared I was in shock pork went up 40 % as i had a lot of farm pork last 3 months making some bacon it is well over 10 a lb just for bellies WTF ,, something has to break here as the pricing is getting out of control ...

Interesting I haven't heard that yet out here but maybe it's coming. I'm still on the list to get some more from our friends with their own pigs but the stores out here still seem to be around the same right now. Safeway has bellies on for $4.99 right now and two of the packers (Johnston and Britco) out here were still at $2.99/lb for case lot pricing a week ago when a friend of mine bought some. Regular grade. Extra lean was $3.99 I think.
I know the smaller farms out here and a couple of the Berkshire's are up around 10 to 12/lb for small size orders but thankfully I don't pay that cause I do trades as well but I may end up having to buy from the stores cause I'm running out faster than I thought. Goes fast cause we use it in lot's of different dishes and we gift/trade some to family as well. I should be buying cases or going in on cases at least. Pretty sure at Johnston you can personally pick out the case of bellies you want if trying to find a certain leanness to the cuts which is a nice option to have.

 

[Chasin' Dreams]

We bought a whole pig from a friend and hanging weight was 240lbs. After butchering at Brauns in Duncan the cost was 6:50 per lb, wrapped, labeled and frozen.
Best tasting pork you can get, 100% natural.

Right on. Nice knowing exactly what your getting from the whole pig and where it's coming from, what it's fed and having it all packaged up.

 

[Sea Chaser]

Have a pork belly in the freezer for a few months. Now with the inspiration from this thread I’ll give the bacon thing a crack soon.

 

[Chasin' Dreams]

Have a pork belly in the freezer for a few months. Now with the inspiration from this thread I’ll give the bacon thing a crack soon.

If you have a cold smoke option I suggest doing some hot smoked and some cold smoked to compare. I was hot smoking it in the past but since cold smoking it I find it so much better. But saying that any bacon is good hot or cold smoked. I find cold smoked has more flavor and color and cooks better. Good to try it both ways so you know what you like best. If you end up making it a lot you'll probably find you will get pretty picky in the bellies you chose cause some of them can have so much fat that it will render down way too much without enough protein in the cuts. The protein will also absorb and retain much more flavor of brines/rubs than the fat will.

 

[tinboatrobb]

Cold smoke is the way to go. Better end product in my opinion.

 

[ILHG]

Last batch of smokies and polish sausage didn't last long. With only outdoor visits going on, we have been enjoying lots of sausage cooked over the fire. This weekend I made up 15lbs of smokies (80% local pasture pork & 20% local beef). Also 10lbs of polish sausage that will be pickled later this week. I love making sausage and it has been instrumental in my mental health over the last year.

 

[ILHG]

I deboned a big farm chicken and dry cured it like I would bacon. I then stuffed it and smoked it like a ham. This stuff is awesome! Taste just like ham but lean like chicken. I sliced it on the meat slicer for lunch meat. This will be a regular product in my house. It's so easy and the finished product is awesome.