Smoked Corned Beef Brisket

Happy St. Patrick's Day, if you aren't wearing Green, pinch yourself for me!

My husband loves to smoke meat as well as barbecue, you might say he is a fiend for it actually. St. Patrick's Day was coming up and we decided to smoke the Corned Beef Brisket for a change and see how it worked out. I did some research on the subject and the cut you really want to purchase is the Flat Cut, you pay a bit more that the Point Cut but it is well worth it.

I must say it worked out extremely well. This is our new GO TO method of making Corned Beef from now on. We smoked with Mesquite and prior to smoking plastered the meat with a wonderful mixture of flavor.

Here is how you do it!

1 Flat Cut (not point) Corned Beef Brisket

1/4 cup Grainy Mustard (we used a combo of honey, brown deli and horseradish blend mustard, use what you have)

2 tbl Apple Juice

1 tbl fresh ground black pepper

Pickling spices (which came with the meat)

Mix the above ingredients and plaster on your Corned Beef. Since this was a "cryo packed" corned beef, it's plenty salty so do NOT add additional for the rub.

Smoke at 250 degrees using Mesquite (or Hickory) for approximately 12 hours or internal temperature reaches 185 degrees. Pull it, wrap in foil and finish in the oven at 350 degrees until internal temperature reaches 195 to 2005 degrees.

Let rest for 30 minutes to an hour, slice (against the grain - typically the shortest direction; see the pictures) and serve. If you can do this a day in advance, immediately chill the brisket. The rendered fat will harden and other goodness will gel. Discard the fat and use the gel as a sauce (nice golden brown once reheated and it really carries the smokey flavor).

If you don't have a smoker, you could do it in the oven as well just make sure you monitor the temperature of the meat. I would consider adding 1/4 to 1/2 tsp of either Hickory or Mesquite liquid smoke to the paste/topping prior to cooking to get a good, subtle infusion of smoke. Though beef can be eaten at 145 degrees, briskets really need to go to 195-205 so you render the fat and connective tissues (also making the meat fall-apart tender).