Smoked corned beef

So I've been making corned beef in my instant pot for a few years and it's been awesome! The corned beef is great on it's own and it's also great in sandwiches. 2 slices of bread, a bit of cheese, heat up the sandwich in a sandwich maker and viola!

I recently learned (from in person discussion with an employee at Nena hardware) that it's better to do corned beef in a smoker. That way you get bark. 

I don't know much about how to get bark. I learned from the Nena employee that a pressure cooker can't produce bark because it's not dry, which is why a smoker can do it (it's dry).

I did some more research and I see that I'm not exactly sure how to get bark as opposed to char (unwanted), so that's something I should learn. Here's the article about that. From the article:

REQUIRED FOR BARK

- Good spice rub containing salt and sugar - other spices help to create spice crust that is thicker.

- Temperature – too low = no bark / too high = caramelization and char (bleh, bitter) a temperature of 200°F to 250°F is just right

- Smoke

THE SCIENCE-Y STUFF

Bark is formed through two chemical processes; Polymerization and the Maillard Reaction. Everything starts when moisture from the meat and water vapor from the smoke dissolve the water-soluble ingredients in the rub. Salt is molecularly small enough, when dissolved, to penetrate past the surface of the meat; which is part of the process of getting the smoke ring. The other rub ingredients are too big and will rest on top where they slowly melt and dissolve in the fat that bubbles to the surface. Because this process should be taking place at under 300°F caramelization will not occur.

Cooking low and slow, under 300°F slows the Maillard Reaction and prevents caramelization of the sugars in the rub. The rub that remained on the surface has been sitting in the warmed and liquefied fats from the meat*. This causes an intense boost in the flavor profiles of those spices which is why bark has such incredible flavor. The smoke sticks to the dissolved rub on the meat and changes the color of the bark through the process of smoking, until it has reached that rich dark color. Once the surface moisture of the meat has evaporated, it will allow the rub to begin to dry. The once moist slurry that was the dissolved spices and sugars begins to bake, hardening into a cocoon of tastiness.

Pellicle is a thin membrane that forms between the meat’s surface and the rub. Pellicle is permanent and cannot be dissolved. It will not form on fat, although bark will. Think of it like that skin you get on jello only very edible and tasty. (What is it with these articles and jello? For more on making meat jello – check out tender meat from tough cuts,) Pellicle is the perfect surface on which bark will form, it occurs when meat proteins clump together and into tightly bonded matrixes.

That was helpful but there's some I don't understand yet.

I looked for a recipe to try. I initially searched with the word "Traeger" (the brand of my smoker/grill). I found a Traeger recipe but it involves not using a dry rub, and I think I should find a dry rub recipe (based on what I learned above), at least for now.

I found another recipe that seems promising so far. Here's the recipe and my notes:

• I don't know what flat and point mean
• I think I'll use my own spice mix for the dry rub, the same spice mix I've used in the past.
• The rest of the recipe seems fine.

Here's my spice mix from my old recipe:

1 large onion cut in quarters

1 garlic head cut in half

1 tbsp yellow mustard seed

1 tbsp coriander seed

1 tsp cumin seeds

1 tsp dill seed

1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

10 peppercorns

1 tsp celery seeds

1 bay leaf

1 star anise

3 cardamom pods

1 cinnamon stick

3 whole cloves

I'll need to swap the onion for onion powder and garlic with garlic powder. Also I'll need to grind the peppercorns, the anise, the cardamom pods, the cinnamon stick, and the cloves.

Based on the latest recipe I found, the amounts of these things should be:

• 3 Tbsp freshly-ground black pepper 
• 2 Tbsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp onion powder

There's one more problem I have. The latest recipe says to use aluminum foil while the Nena employee said that using butcher paper is better because it allows some water to escape while aluminum foil does not. But the latest recipe says that I'll be putting liquid in the foil, which I don't think I can do with butcher paper. 

I just watched part of a video on smoking brisket (corned beef is a type of brisket) using butcher paper. No liquid is used. I think I should find a recipe that uses butcher paper.

Next steps: find a smoked corned beef recipe that uses butcher paper