Pastrami from scratch

[Huhwhat?]

Started a batch of pastrami ten days ago.


The recipe...


Pastrami

Weights are a percentage of the weight of the meat

3% Kosher salt

1% Turbinado sugar

.5% of each of the following:

Onion powder
Garlic powder
Mustard powder
Paprika
Coriander powder
Black pepper

.25% Cure #1

Mix and rub spice mix on meat. Use all of the spice mix. If it won’t all stick, throw it into the bag with the meat and try to distribute it.

Vacuum pack meat and cure in refrigerator for ten to fourteen days. Or you can put it in a zip-loc and place in a container in refrigerator. Flip the packages every day.

After curing, it is corned beef.

Rub with cracked pepper and cracked coriander, wrap tightly and let chill overnight.

Smoke with oak at 225 till stall. Wrap in foil and continue to cook until tender – around 200 to 205. maybe more, maybe less. Cool completely before slicing.


Post curing brisket. It is corned beef at this point.

Rubbed with cracked pepper and cracked coriander and ready for the smoker.

Post smoke - I wrapped it in foil after about 3 hours.

The finished pastrami...

 

[phonejack]

Mercy, I'll have to try that !

 

[contender]

That makes me HUNGRY!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Captain America]

Ooooooooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhh....that looks really good, now I'm gonna need to get a Rueben for lunch!

 

[Cooperhawk]

We also make our own Pastrami. In my opinion it's far better than from the store. Maybe cause you're involved in the process. :D

 

[coach]

Looks delish. I never thought about making my own.

 

[NixieTube]

Oh. Ohohoh. Wow. Looks really good. Thank you.

 

[ProfessorWes]

That just looks scrumptious. :mrgreen:

 

[WendyZXZ]

That does look very tasty!

 

[RSIno1]

What time is lunch? We'll be there and bring the beer.

 

[coach]

"Smoke with oak at 225 till stall"
What's that mean? A term I'm not familiar with or auto correct. :)

 

[Huhwhat?]

Sorry - smoker term. When smoking big hunks of meat, the internal temp will rise until it hits around 150 to 160. Then it'll suddenly stop going up and sit there, sometimes for hours, before it starts going up again. This is called the stall. It is caused by moisture in the meat coming to the surface and evaporating off, which cools the meat. One way to avoid the stall is to wrap the meat tightly in foil when it hits the stall. This keep the moisture from evaporating off and cooling the meat. It greatly reduces cooking time for smoked meats. It also prevents the formation of bark, which is the crispy exterior on smoked meats.

I like the bark, so I don't normally wrap my briskets and pork shoulders.

Wrapping the pastrami doesn't matter, because you're not looking for bark formation anyway, and the pastrami comes out juicier.

 

[coach]

Thanks for the lesson. I do smoke meat from time to time, but my experience is limited. I kind of like the bark too.