Pastrami from scratch on the Smokin It #3

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I have been wanting to do a Pastrami. I don't mind telling ya, I have never cured anything that ended up edible. Butcher laughs at me, Did a corned beef, a Canadien bacon, the dogs wouldn't even eat 'em...... Its one of the reasons I bought that little electric smoker. LOL Gonna copy yours, remember its the sincerest form of flattery! I just want one to come out right, just once! I am snake bit using cures!

Been wanting to try making a ham too, but the weather has changed and we no longer get any winter, we didn't have a freeze last winter. Pop said he never used a cure or a brine on hams, just salt the first week and sugar the second. But when he was doing 'em they had cold and snow. Been wondering about trying to make one in the beer cooler. But hate to lose the space.

That stuck in my head, Briskets and Beer, sounds like a Rodney Carrington song. It just sounds so right....

BTW Thats a nice looking pastrami. How much flavor was imparted, would you consider it mild, strong?
 
Looks great! I made my own pastrami before but I did it low and slow in the oven. I'm jealous of the nice crust that formed on yours in the smoker!  I also got excited and took it out too soon so it was pretty tough... but tasty. Nice looking fiesta ware too! Got the same orange bowls at home I use for my rub mixes! :)
 
 Over curing leads to Nitrate burns.  Not sure, but it seems that it could not be the healthiest way to eat, and may certainly affect the flavor...  I am planning to do pastrami as well.  One from a round of beef and one from a cut of venison that a friend is dropping off..    Your recipe looks nice..   

I have always heard, no longer that 7 days, I have a book on charcuterie that as a formula, I have to look it up..  But my rule of thumb is use 5 lbs. pieces, give or take a few and go for at least 5 days..  Bigger, go to 7 days. Thick pieces make sure you inject the brine into the meat as well.  Not wholly scientific, but I guess that is why they call it the art of charcuterie.
 
Tasty!
th_anim_burp.gif
 
That looks great, thanks for sharing. I have done pastramis out of corned beef (commercial) and they were good, so I imagine from scratch they would be awesome.
I was at Sam's Club yesterday after work and they had a packer there, $2.29 a pound. Only had the one and I thought perfect for pastrami, so I found your posting and said awesome. The girlfriend heard me and asked me what was up. She goes "I never had a smoked brisket"... I reckon it is going to be smoked brisket it this time.
Probably a good thing, because next weekend when it would come out of the cure I will be camping for a week.
Again, thanks for sharing, this is going on my to do list.
Matt
aka Rocky
 
Looks AWESOME!

I have one question - is it necessary to trim the point off the brisket when making pastrami? Why did you decide to do it? Just curious - I'm going to try this very soon!
 
Looks AWESOME!

I have one question - is it necessary to trim the point off the brisket when making pastrami? Why did you decide to do it? Just curious - I'm going to try this very soon!

Probably not necacery but I was making snack sticks and needed the fatty beef. Also wanted to make the product as uniform as possible.
 
[SIZE=10pt] Over curing leads to Nitrate burns.  Not sure, but it seems that it could not be the healthiest way to eat, and may certainly affect the flavor...  I am planning to do pastrami as well.  One from a round of beef and one from a cut of venison that a friend is dropping off..    Your recipe looks nice..   [/SIZE]
[SIZE=10pt]I have always heard, no longer that 7 days, I have a book on charcuterie that as a formula, I have to look it up..  But my rule of thumb is use 5 lbs. pieces, give or take a few and go for at least 5 days..  Bigger, go to 7 days. Thick pieces make sure you inject the brine into the meat as well.  Not wholly scientific, but I guess that is why they call it the art of charcuterie.[/SIZE]

I pierced the meat with a knife every inch or two to ensure the brine went throughout.
 
I have been wanting to do a Pastrami. I don't mind telling ya, I have never cured anything that ended up edible. Butcher laughs at me, Did a corned beef, a Canadien bacon, the dogs wouldn't even eat 'em...... Its one of the reasons I bought that little electric smoker. LOL Gonna copy yours, remember its the sincerest form of flattery! I just want one to come out right, just once! I am snake bit using cures!

Been wanting to try making a ham too, but the weather has changed and we no longer get any winter, we didn't have a freeze last winter. Pop said he never used a cure or a brine on hams, just salt the first week and sugar the second. But when he was doing 'em they had cold and snow. Been wondering about trying to make one in the beer cooler. But hate to lose the space.

That stuck in my head, Briskets and Beer, sounds like a Rodney Carrington song. It just sounds so right....

BTW Thats a nice looking pastrami. How much flavor was imparted, would you consider it mild, strong?

The flavor was definitely cured and smoky... Some excellent pastrami. The pepper really mellowed out after smoking considering I used brand new tellicherry peppercorns from Costco. Not mild and not strong...so medium?

Copy away, I know I will. Cannot think of any better recipe or additions/ subtractions. This really was good stuff. I'd like to use my slicer at work and shave it really thin...next time.
 
I only joined a couple of days ago, hence the gap in replies, but I have to say your Pastrami looks great a beautiful even wine colour throughout,  I've yet to get my smoker built, but Pastrami will definitely be one of the first things I try.  Can I ask - after the curing you put the Brisket in cold water and 'spice' is this a mixture of your own?

Thanks

Gary
 
Definitely want to follow this thread. I found a pastrami recipe in Ray Lampe's "Slow Fire" book I plan to try. There's also another one that's a copy of Katz'sDeli in NYC that I want to try. What recipe are you using?
 
Definitely want to follow this thread. I found a pastrami recipe in Ray Lampe's "Slow Fire" book I plan to try. There's also another one that's a copy of Katz'sDeli in NYC that I want to try. What recipe are you using?

My recipe was listed at the top...
 
Ended up with 78oz of finished product...after a meal for four.

So probably just over 5#... $70 for meat, plus spices, time and electricity...somewhere north of $14/ pound and lots of time invested.

Money well spent, as this was fantastic pastrami!

Lessons learned:

1. Buy bigger briskets, 8.5# is not enough
2. Start before 10:30 AM

Brine/ salt/ spice was perfect!
As I have said before, you know its good when the cook complains that they should have bought more. LOL
 
Thanks for the costing. I always take that into consideration. You can't put a price on the fun, learning, bragging rights or superior quality though. You know you are feeding your family quality foods without all of the additives. Nice job
 
Awesome looking pastrami ... I'm assuming you pulled off smoker at around 190 ish ?... I'm just getting ready to make some brine now ... Last pastrami I used boneless short ribs from Costco and were fantastic .. Like your pic color was intense and maybe a little more red in pic than they we're ....flavor was amazing and very tender..

 
Great looking Pastrami! I'm trying my first one this weekend. I had to get a corned beef brisket that I'm soaking the flavor out of so I can convert it to Pastrami. Is there a dry rub I can use or is brine the only way to go? I was also wondering at what IT did you take the pastrami off the smoker? Any help from anybody would be greatly appreciated.
 
Nothing to brine as you are already using a corn beef...make you soak and rinse that corn beef to get the salt out ... Soak at least for three or four hours changing the water a few times ... The rub could be as simple as cracked pepper ... I usually add garlic , some cumin and Montreal steak seasoning ... Good luck on your cook...
 
Thanks for the reply Putt. I do need to put that corned beef back in the sink for another few hours just to get the salt out. Should I go with the MES or the OkieJoe?
 
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