Corned Moose and Moose Pastrami

KJH

WKR
Joined
May 10, 2016
Messages
547
After a few whiskeys one night I started thinking... With St. Patrick's day coming up I decided to make my own corned beef out of a moose brisket. It had been staring me in the eye every time I opened that freezer and it wasn't going to make it until the summer...

So I did a lot of reading and perused a lot of recipes online for a brine recipe and settled on one. I tweaked it a little bit by using a little less salt, but ended up brining for 5.5 days.

I then cut the brisket in half an cooked half like a traditional boiled corned beef... for corned beef and cabbage. I used the other half for pastrami and smoked it for about 10 hours. Both turned out amazing... really incredible and better than I could have ever hoped. I highly recommend trying this and I will always keep moose brisket whole from now on. Both stayed perfectly pink throughout the entire process and it wasn't salty at all. I really think you could make this work with a huge moose neck roast as well, as the flavor would be the same.

If you ever wanted to give it a try- I'd say go for it. I don't know why I haven't done it sooner. Easy as can be and the table fare is exceptional.
 
Joined
Mar 10, 2016
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Homemade pastrami is the best! If you use a large roast, you might want to inject some of the brine in the center. I don't have a problem with venison roasts, but I did and elk round a couple years ago and ended up with a spot in the center that did not cure. It was like great pastrami on the outside, with a center section that tasted like pot roast.
 

Trial153

WKR
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Oct 28, 2014
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NY
Moose in the brine ...
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KJH

WKR
Joined
May 10, 2016
Messages
547
I'll try reiterate as best I can.

Brine:
almost a gallon water
ice
1.5 cups Kosher salt
2 Tbsp pickling spices (from the supermarket spice aisle)
3/4 cup (90 g) brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon.
2 bay leaves
1/2 teaspoon ground mustard
2 tablespoons of black pepper
3 big pieces of candied ginger (all I could find in the kitchen)

Add the salt, curing salt, and brown sugar to a pot of boiling water. Let everything dissolve. As soon as its dissolved add the rest of the ingredients for about a minute and then remove from the heat and add a bunch of ice to start cooling it down. I then left it overnight in the fridge.

Meat:
Day 0- In the evening, I used the remainder of the pickling spice bottle for a dry rub (approx 2-3 Tbsp) in a coffee grinder and ground it up very fine. Then rubbed the meat with the seasoning and let it set overnight in the fridge.

Day 1- Filled a 2 gallon ziplock with the meat and then as much of the brine as possible. I removed all the air and then put it in another 2 gallon ziplock. Put in the fridge.

Day 2- Turned bag over

Day 3- Turned bag over

Day 4- Turned bag over

Day 5- Turned bag over

Day 6- Took the meat out first thing in the morning. Soaked it in room temp water for about an hour. Rinsed it off and died it with a paper towel.

Boiled Cooking: I put half in the crock pot all day and ate it with cooked cabbage and potatoes.

Pastrami: I put the other half of the meat on the smoker. I covered it with pepper and let it warm up to room temperature. I smoked it at 185 degrees for 2 hours with a constant cherry wood smoke. Then brought the temp up to 245 degrees and left on the smoker for 2 hours (minimal smoke). During this time I basted it about 3 times with a cider vinegar, beer, and coffee concoction. Then I pulled it off the grill and wrapped it very well with foil and put it back on the smoker for about 6 more hours with the temp at 220 degrees. When I pulled it off, the internal was about 210 degrees.
 
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