After reading a bunch of reports from those who have roasted a corned beef
brisket, I decided to have a go at it on my recently acquired Weber Smokey
Mountain. First, I soaked the brisket in water for six hours, changing the
water halfway through the soak. Then onto the top grate of the WSM. The
water pan was not used. To have indirect heat a pizza stone on top of a
foiled pizza pan fit relatively snugly onto the water pan receptacle. Using
the Minion mode, the temp. held stable between 250-275F throughout the seven
hour cook. At this point the internal temp of the brisket was 180F.

The brisket turned out much drier and saltier than we had hoped for,
compared to the traditional simmering method of preparing corned beef. One
could argue that it could/should have been roasted to 195F. I'd be
concerned that it would be drier and saltier than ever. A bit of a letdown,
to see the least. I'm going to simmer the remaining corned beef for a couple
of hours to see if the usual texture and moistness of braised corned beef
reappears. We'll see.

Smoking the corned beef over a water pan might have helped the dryness. I
don't think anything would have helped the saltiness. I think you need to
simmer the salt away as most recipes call for. It's somewhat like braising a
dry cured Smithfield ham.

Next time: I'm going to roast the corned beef after brief soaking in the WSM
on the top grate at 350F over wood, browning all sides, and catching the
drippings on a drip pan below the meat. Then I'm going to deglaze the drip
pan, combine that with beer, and simmer it on the stsove for the usual three
hours to the fall apart stage. I'm hoping the smoke flavor won't dissolve
away, but will be retained in the meat.

I'd appreciate and be thankful for any thoughts from u-pros.

Kent
--
,constantly struggling with my level of ignorance