Family is in Japan, so on Sunday I made a knockoff Montreal Style pastrami. I bought one of those brisket points that they sell as pre-cured corned beef at the grocery store. I forget the brand, but I'm sure you can find it at Hy-Vee or Dahls or somewhere like that.
I rinsed it and soaked it for a few minutes to pull a little salt out because it looked really salty. Then I coated it with the rub included in the package and a ton of fresh cracked pepper. I smoked it at 275 for about 4 hours on applewood until I hit a stall at 151 degrees for close to an hour. Then, I moved it to the oven and put it on my turkey rack inside of a turkey bag with 2 bottles of dark beer on the bottom so it could steam for the rest of the cooking time. I pulled it at 192 and foil wrapped it for another hour.
It came out ridonkulous. I ate a bunch of it as-is and made some mini open face reubens with that dense German rye toast loaf thing they sell. I used the remainder to make a "brisket and gravy" knockoff that a BBQ place in Chicago sells and that was absurdly good.
I will definitely make it again, but next time I'll prolly let it go to 195 or 200 before I pull it because that point needs a little more time than a brisket flat. If you ever see that vac sealed corned beef on sale at the grocery store and you have a smoker, I highly recommend trying it. I don't recommend eating it more than once or twice a year, though. It cannot possibly be healthy. There was a place called Fumare in Chicago by my office and I used to crush their Montreal Pastrami all the time, which is prolly why I now have "moderately high" cholesterol, but I've found it virtually impossible to find stuff like that outside of big cities with a collection of Jewish delis or Canadians running delis.
