Dave’s Pastrami

Earlier this year Dave, over at Dave’s Cupboard blogged a recipe for transforming corned beef into pastrami.  Click here to read it.  Dave used to blog a lot about home charcuterie, and between that & my love of pastrami I knew this would have to be the recipe to try.

The immediate problem for me in making the dish, though, was that I did not have a proper slicer.  Since there was no way I was going to slice it thin enough by hand, plans to make my own pastrami were pushed to the back burner.

Last month when Mrs. Claus hit me up for a Christmas list, “meat slicer” popped into my mind.  From past fast food experience I knew that nice slicers are expensive.  But the Internet now lists several brands of home-duty slicers all for around $100 each.  While I knew Dave already had a nice slicer, and probably little current knowledge of cheap slicers, I emailed him anyway and asked his opinion.  He replied back with some brand names to stay away from, and a brand name he would try if he was in my situation.  Christmas day found me unwrapping a new ChefsChoice slicer.

Only corned beef points were available at the stores I visited, and the pieces were kind of small after allowing for shrinkage.  So I ended up buying 6-1/3 pounds of meat in two bags at a reasonable $2.88/pound.

The Internet also listed another blog of someone who had made pastrami from corned beef.  That poster said he skipped the step of soaking the corned beef overnight to soak out some of the salt.  Even though I generally like a lot of salt, I stuck to Dave’s directions and soaked the corned beef overnight..

The spices were coarsely ground Friday night so that everyone would not have to listen to the spice mill at 3:00 a.m. Saturday when the points were rinsed, patted dry, and pressed with Dave’s public blend of six herbs & spices.

The beef was allowed to come to room temperature until it was loaded into my Brinkmann smoker around 6:00 a.m.  While my preference for an outside temperature would have been for something higher than that morning’s 35 degrees, you can’t always get what you want.  Maple wood was used for smoke.

Around four hours later the meat temperature hit the wall at around 160 degrees.  After wrapping in aluminum foil the beef was finished off in a slow house oven.  After hitting ~165 degrees the meat was pulled out and allowed to rest until its temperature started dropping.

Since it was so cold outside, the pastrami was moved to the cold gas grill and set underneath a fan out of an older ceramic heater to get it chilled enough for easy slicing.

The pastrami was just plain perfect!

The meat looked fantastic, and tasted even better.  The soak was warranted – I thought my first pastrami had the perfect amount of salt.  The Boyz & I enjoyed it warmed with rye bread, onion rolls, provolone cheese, and spicy mustard.  Kim enjoyed watching us eat it as she feasted on something else.

While I would not want to run a deli with this particular meat slicer, for occasional home use I think it is a good unit to have around.  It had sufficient power to cut the meat, and cleaned easily.  It does have a lot of plastic parts, so I had to be careful about pushing the meat flat against the fence as rigidity is not its strong suit.

I got tickled, though, the first time it was switched on.  The unit has a universal motor, and the blade hooks up to it via a geared reduction box.  So until you look & see the blade spinning considerably slower than a commercial unit’s, the motor’s noise makes for a fairly intimidating presentation.  But it got the job done.  As long as the blade stays sharp for a reasonable amount of time, I am going to consider the slicer a good deal for the money.

On the flip side, the slicer will probably be worn out by slicing Dave’s pastrami on a frequent basis.  Should that happen it will be replaced with a sturdier unit – Dave’s pastrami is worth it.



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Only 3 Years from Receipt to Installation

Listening to my CD jukebox or news radio is important to me when I’m working with my hands.  To make sure nothing is missed, there are speakers in the kitchen, in the soffits near the patio, and in my shop which can all be set to provide a continuous trail of sound while I move around from one activity to another.

Three Christmases ago, I noticed a dead zone between the patio and my shop.  So Santa was asked for a set of 6X9 coaxial automobile speakers to install in the shop soffit closest to the area.  In what was poor planning on my part, I had the shop’s attic blown full of insulation before the speakers were installed.  Having no desire to tromp around in the insulation running wires, the speakers languished on the wood vise bench until a way of running the wiring without getting in the attic dawned on me the other day.

Cutting the holes in the soffit was supposed to be the easy part.  Thinking the soffit’s plywood seams all ended on rafter tails, after referencing off of a seam, I got halfway through the left-hand speaker’s hole before finding a rafter tail in my way.  Oops.  But after scabbing the wood back in & slathering the boo-boo with wood filler, the outcome of round two was matching oval holes.

Part of the plan had always been to cut a hole in the inside wall above the existing receiver connection to access the new wires.

If this was a home improvement show, the host would tell you to simply fish the wires from the oval holes to the square hole with an electrician’s wire snake.  Through the magic of TV wires would then appear where needed in mere seconds.

But this is real life, and it is not that easy when a soffit is involved.  Fortunately, in my case, there was a soffit vent located halfway between the speakers almost in front of the hole in the inside wall.  Removing it allowed for really easy wire access.

The next hurdle was how to fasten down the installed speakers & grilles.  Since the plan had always been for the speaker to rest on top of the soffit’s plywood, nuts & washers were hot-glued on before the speakers were set in place.

Since the garish grills that came with the speakers obviously provided no protection against mud daubers, Santa also brought me a more suitable set.

But in dry-fitting everything together, the hole patterns were found to not line up.  Fortunately, my toy box had a set of used, bland grills whose hole patterns were more accommodating.

Painting was the next step.  Normally I spray paint outside of the shop.  But a new water heater installed a day or two earlier came wrapped in a phenomenal amount of cardboard which made a great spray booth for the four items needing paint.

The speaker project itself turned out looking & sounding good.

The downside was the new paint covering up the boo-boo reminded me the shop’s original paint is now over 13 years old.  I think I know what one of next spring’s blog posts is going to be about.



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When Life Gives You Lemons, Make a 40,000 Btu Burner

After purchasing a huge pressure fryer many years ago, I looked long & hard for a reasonably priced, natural gas standalone burner to hook up to the patio grill’s gas connection since none of the kitchen cooktop outlets were sized big enough to heat the pot effectively.  Surprisingly, there really wasn’t a selection available, and the fryer ended up being heated by an LPG-fueled turkey cooker burner from the home improvement store.

The Internet did have a few tales of people using the burner out of an old water heater for outdoor cooking but no one had posted any pictures.  Since the whole idea sounded like a great way to re-purpose parts I hoped to one day try it out.

I got my wish the week before Christmas when Kim called mid-morning to tell me our gas water heater was leaking water from the top.



With 17 years use on an eight-year warrantee I couldn’t complain.  But I did start complaining about how slow the 40 gallons of water was draining until compressed air was hooked up to the opened relief valve to speed the operation.

After that, though, it was smooth sailing.  I even had time to replace the leaky shut-off gate valve with a new quarter-turn ball valve before the Boyz got home from school.

The old water heater’s next stop was my shop where the burner assembly came out with very little effort.

The burner itself was in great shape as was the tank bottom which contacts flame.  Although it makes sense, it surprised me to find the metal was better than 3/16” thick.

A box of spare parts provided a gas hose from an old grill for the effort.  After borrowing the charcoal rack from the Weber grill, my latest cooking accessory was one step closer to being realized.

Sadly, though, it is not to be.  Or, at least, it was not to be for this particular pot.  The burner’s flame pattern is too diametrically dispersed – most of the heat swirled out along the sides of the post instead of heating the bottom and looked like it was going to toast the handles.

If the flame’s pattern been more suitable, a needle valve would have been procured for heat control.

The burner would probably be perfect for heating a cast iron wash tub from the days of old.  Hmm, I should probably hold onto the burner for a while; ya never know.

On the bright side, now the Internet has pictures of an old water heater burner being used to heat a pot.


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TEN-X to the Rescue!

It has been especially rainy here today in North Alabama on this Veteran’s Day, and while we spent time appreciating our Service-People, I was happy my son’s Scout Troup was not scheduled to participate in today’s downtown parade because I usually walk with them.  We both were happy to stay warm & dry @home since the rain was accompanying 50 degree temperatures.

After getting an email earlier today from a fellow Airstreamer in which he confirmed that today’s rain had not leaked past his latest sealing attempt, I remembered a loose rivet found on the roof of my Airstream while repairing the air conditioner.

Hoping that this new leak path might be a contributor to a small puddle found in the bathroom after a good rain, the rivet was sealed with TEN-X, a sealer left in the Overlander by the original owner.

After Perry’s email exchange, I went out and found the Airstream’s bathroom countertop blissfully dry – something which I have been wishing for (after a good rain) for the last couple of years.  TEN-X kicked butt!

While it may be a miracle sealant, don’t go looking for the product; it does not appear to be made anymore.  Never fear, though - its good, squeeze-into-a-paper-bag type of smell reminds me a lot of Parbond.



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Briskenomics

Smoking beef brisket and pork butt “low & slow” is a pastime I get a big kick out of.  Although you will never see me at a BBQ competition with my Brinkmann water smoker, the challenge of getting good at smoking a meal over wood that my family looks forward to for a weekend meal really appeals to me.  But while selecting & trimming this past weekend’s brisket, I wondered if I needed to shift my thinking about bringing untrimmed brisket home from the store.

Normally, either Wal-Mart or Sam’s Club will sell me a Cryovaced side of untrimmed brisket for two to three dollars a pound.  Why I should ever pay even that much is beyond me because everyone used to all but GIVE away brisket.  But, be that as it may, on Thursday’s expedition, Star Market was the only player in the area offering a whole side of brisket on the day it had to be acquired & rubbed with spices, and they were asking $2.99/lb.  Sam’s meat counter had trimmed flats of reasonable size beef for around four & a quarter a pound.  Target wanted $5.99/lb for a wimpy 2-1/2 lb trimmed chunk of flat beef.

As I was not in the mood while standing at the counter to do the math to offset my mindset that paying for pre-trimmed food is a luxury reserved for rich people, Star Market got my business for this round of brisket.

After getting home, the side of brisket was trimmed, cut in two, and rubbed with seasonings – one half to cook the upcoming Saturday, and the other half to freeze for another weekend.

Store-bought, pre-trimmed brisket is new to me, and out of curiosity, the amount of fat trimmed off of Star Market’s good-looking, 12-lb 11-oz brisket and was collected & found to weigh in at 2-3/4 lb – That’s $8.22 worth of fat at the price paid for this particular hunk of beef.

After pointing out the sheer volume of fat destined for the garbage can to Kim, I was hoping she would feel similarly aghast & agree to render the commodity into candles or soap for the family.  After interpreting her slight grin & cackle to mean “no”, I decided to run numbers on the economics of continuing to purchase untrimmed brisket.

Adjusted for waste, Star Market’s brisket’s true cost was $4.60/lb.  This is more per pound than what Sam’s was going to sell me that day.  But, the only trimmed brisket sold by anyone around here appears to be flats, and I find the non-flat part of the brisket makes better Slider-sized sandwiches.  Extrapolating, I guess the stores must know what the best part is, and keep it for other purposes because the trimmed, selling price would be too high for most people.

Or maybe most people just like the flats.  Who knows?  My plan for now is to keep purchasing the whole brisket so I can both have the part I want, and dictate how much fat gets left on the halves.

I’m thinking strongly though of collecting the next few rounds of fat in the freezer for a future purpose.  The smell of those froofy candles Kim keeps bringing home is starting to get old, and the Internet is full of directions on how to cut the Yankee Candle Company out of the picture.

Waste not, want not!


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Yet Another A/C Repair

2012 will go down in our family’s history book as “the year of one refrigeration repair after another”.  The cooling season opened up with the Suburban being out of refrigerant due to a leaky compressor seal.  As the temperature went up, the house’s air conditioner went down four times, and the Airstream blew a refrigerant line on our way to the Florida Keys.  A small window A/C from Home Depot set in the doorway saved that vacation.

Fortunately, by the end of June the breakdowns subsided, and after several out-of-state camping trips confidence had been restored in the Airstream’s 45 year-old air conditioner.

Earlier this month, I was finishing loading the Silverado in preparation of a family trip to Disneyworld/Fort Wilderness when I noticed a spot in the bed just big enough to accommodate the window A/C.  Mentally going back & forth with myself, although no problems were expected with the camper’s A/C, the unit was loaded simply because I knew how mad I would be if something were to go wrong and we did not have the unit even though there had been space for it.

On every trip we have made to Florida, the Airstream’s air conditioner always sweated on one side, and the condensate would drip on Daniel’s comforter.  Just before this trip, I had finally looked at the issue (after a mere eight years), and determined that moving one of the unit’s two condensate drain holes would probably resolve the issue.

It did.  All was well until mid-way through the trip, when we returned from one of the Disney parks to hear the fan motor making a terrible racket.  After verifying there was no easy fix to the noise, the window unit once again came to our rescue.

The annoying thing was that the fan motor was only eight years old, and its bearings should have lasted a lot longer.  Luckily EPCOT’s seasonal Wine & Food Festival helped take the edge off the situation.

Other than the trouble of stepping around the air conditioner in the doorway, the rest of the vacation was, as expected, a lot of fun.

In a “first” for a Disney trip, we made the trip back home in one 13 hour drive instead of splitting it into two days.  While everyone rode amazingly well for our longest family drive ever, we were all happy to be home.

The only real bad thing about towing with the Silverado is having to take precaution against gear loaded in the bed getting rained on.  When the vacation-saver was initially loaded before the trip, it did not appear to me that a little rain would hurt anything.  So it got to sit in the bed uncovered.

The first time it was plugged in at Fort Wilderness, the unit would not come on.  No idiot light, no nothing.  Nowadays, window units have GFCI’s built into the plug to protect the consumer from electrical shock due to water.  It had a “test” and a “reset” button of which neither would do anything.  After consideration, the plug was shaken, and it sloshed.  Oops.  And, I did not have the right tool to dis-assemble the device to dry it out.

Daniel was close by and I asked him to unplug the six-foot extension cord while I got wire-working tools & duct-tape out.  After cutting the GFCI plug off of the unit’s cord, and the outlet off of the extension cord I proceeded to strip wires to join the two cords together.

Daniel’s eyes got wide and he asked, “Is that safe?” to which I replied, “You did unplug the cord, didn’t you?”

He slowly nodded, and moved away.  I guess that was the first time he had ever seen bare wires.

While the duct-tape worked fine, a more permanent repair will be made before the unit’s next use.

While spraying rusty unions with WD-40 before disassembly is always a good idea, the A.O. Smith-brand motor I installed right before the Overlander was returned to operation did not put up much of a fight.

After inspection, I can’t decide exactly why the motor bearings went out.  Maybe they needed oiling more often.  Maybe it was running gear imbalance.

A Fasco-brand motor was chosen as a replacement.  If nothing else, its bearings looked better sealed against the elements than the old motor’s.

The new motor installed without any problems, and cool was once again returned to the Airstream.

Just in time for the cool to leave the house’s refrigerator after it iced up.

The problem was traced to a defective defrost heating element.

I wonder what the theme of 2013 will be.  Locusts?



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Pickled Eggs

On a whim, I decided to pickle some eggs a few weeks ago.  The Internet suggested using leftover pickle juice as a time saver.

Surprisingly, after commenting on the effort on a food forum I visit, many people were not familiar with pickled eggs.

After a a couple weeks of standing time in the fridge, the eggs were enjoyed immensely.  This was an effort worth repeating.

In anticipation of the next batch of pickled eggs, leftover hot peppers & such from other cooking efforts were added to the brine before hard-boiling the next batch of eggs today.

I hope I can wait for the couple of weeks the eggs need to absorb the flavor.

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