Pastrami?

OK, I have made Corned Beef a couple of times over the past two months–just fantastic stuff. Now I am about to mix it up and make a Pastrami. I am 4 days into my cure and will be smoking in a day or two.

QUESTION: what wood should I be smoking with?

I’d stick with something fairly neutral like oak, apple or cherry. Now, that said, there are places selling 40 and 50 pound bags of hazelnut shells for garden mulch, some of them in the Seattle area. It’s possible they aren’t available this time of year (I know I saw some at a local nursery in April) but if they are I might try those. I’m going to try to find some for my next brisket. I was curious about how they’d work since Tex uses pecan shells, and then I discovered that they’re used by the Rogue Creamery to create their smoked blue cheese.

Eric, I would go with oak or hickory.

There better be picts coming of this one! I am such a Pastrami whore!

OK, next question is where I find oak or hickory–can you say ROOKIE???

Do you have a Lowe’s or Home Depot even remotely close? If you do, then I would wager some serious coin that they have gallon sized bags of either or both in small chip form in the BBQ/Grilling section. If you don’t find it, send me your address and I’ll send you a mixed pack…shit is cheap in these parts.

Got it, have both a Lowes and Home Depot nearby and will hit them up in a few hours.

OK, got some hickory. The little baby is smoking now.

Oh man that was good. I used to prefer corned beef to Pastrami, but I have been converted. I only took a couple of pics at the end when I was slicing and will upload and post here.

Glad it worked out for you. Did you do a whole packer or just the flat or point?

It was just a little 4 pound piece I got from the Kosher butcher. I think it was the point. The pics below show half of it. The other half ended in a point.

Job well done…but you’re right, from the looks of it, you need to get some more fat in that thing!

It was still pretty darned good but yes on the lean side.

Hey Eric,

That looks really good. Care to share your cure recipe and smoking instructions? I’d love to try making my own pastrami. Also, what cut of meat do you use?

David

Brisket.

I did a wet cure for 5 days in a bath of water, salt, sugar, cracked black pepper and cracked coriander. Plus a few TBSP of prague powderas the curing agent. Then I rinsed the brisket off and coated it liberally in more black pepper and coriander. Smoked for 5 hours with hickory until I reached an internal temp of 165 degrees. Rested for an hour and then sliced. I put the sliced pastrami into the same foil had rested it in and then put the whole shooting works into a steamer for about a minute to bring the Pastrami to temp. Served on dark rye with mustard and some fresh made coleslaw. Happy, happy, happy.

BTW, this is my 3rd time curing a brisket. First two times were corned beef per this recipe: http://www.leitesculinaria.com/recipes/cookbook/homemade_corned_beef.html#Note" onclick=“window.open(this.href);return false;
This was my first pastrami and while I didn’t follow a recipe this one was influential: http://www.virtualweberbullet.com/pastrami.html” onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
I chose to stick with a 5 day wet cure, as that had worked well with my two prior corned beef preps. At some point I might play with a dry cure.

Even the flat cut comes to a point.

Judging from the picture, it looks like you may have the flat.

The point usually has the fat running through it, so that it looks like a fat sandwich - meat on the bottom , streak of fat, then more meat. This isn’t the best picture, but it will have to do.

Point or flat, your pastrami looks delicious.

From those pictures, I had the flat. And I still have some leftover Pastrami for lunch too!

I will take 2 lbs, sliced thick…just ship it overnight. I will compare to katz’s.

It will not compare well to the real thing. Better I just meet you at Katz’s for a sandwich so I can learn about the real thing.