Pastrami
Pastrami has it’s origins in New York; introduced by Jewish Romanian immigrants in the 1880’s. The pastrami cut comes from the navel portion of the whole beef brisket, but the brisket flat is a suitable choice if you can’t find just that part of the muscle. The brisket gets cured for 6 days, rubbed with a dry rub consisting of coriander, mustard, black pepper, allspice, cloves, crushed red pepper, cinnamon, garlic, ginger, and bay leaves for 3 days. It is then smoked for many hours, then steamed, then broiled quickly to form a crust. A 10 day process to make the best cured meat you’ll ever eat.
Equipment
- large bin for curing
- Electric Smoker
- Probe Thermometer
- roasting pan with rack
Ingredients
- 6 lb flat cut beef brisket
- 1 gallon water
- 1 cup sea salt
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 2 tsp pink curing salts
- 1 tbsp mustard seeds
- 1 tbsp coriander seeds
- 1 tbsp allspice berries
- 1 tbsp whole cloves
- 1 tbsp crushed red pepper
- 2 cinnamon sticks
- 4 bay leaves
- 3” ginger sliced
- 6 garlic cloves minced
Wood Chips
- 1/2 cherry wood
- 1/2 pecan
Pastrami Sandwich
- pastrami sliced
- rye bread
- pickles
- brown mustard
Instructions
- Place the brisket in a bin large enough to cure.
- Mix together the brining ingredients.
- Pour the brine over the brisket, making sure that it is completely submerged. Cure the brisket for 6 days in the refrigerator.
- Once the brisket has cured, rinse off the brine and place on a rack.
- Mix together the dry rub ingredients.
- Rub the dry rub on all sides of the brisket. Let rest in the refrigerator for 3 days.
- When ready to smoke, let the brisket rest at room temp for 2 hours. Preheat your smoker to 250 degrees. Place the brisket in the smoker.
- Smoke the brisket for 8 hours.
- Fill up a roasting pan with a rack with 2” of water. Bring to a boil. Place the pastrami on the rack, making sure that it doesn’t touch the water. Cover. Reduce the heat to medium. Steam for 2 hours.
- Turn on your oven’s broiler. Place the brisket fat side down on a rack on a baking pan lined in foil. Broil for 10 minutes until a crust forms on the pastrami.
- Let rest for 30 minutes before slicing.
