[USA] Make your own pastrami for great sandwiches

el Ducko · Post by **el Ducko** » Sun Feb 12, 2012 03:38

Best pastrami I ever had was on a Reuben sandwich in Stamford, CT. I was there on an interview trip. The problem was, the sauerkraut gives you a serious case of "duck breath" after lunch.

...didn't get an offer (you can imagine why), but it was well worth the trip just for that sandwich.

NorCal Kid · Post by **NorCal Kid** » Mon Feb 13, 2012 20:13

I picked up one of these off Amazon:

...and after trimming off a boat-load (almost 4 pounds for all 3 briskets) of hard backside fat and inner layer fat (to 1/4"), I then injected all with the cooled brine. 10% of total weight.

Wedged them all into a food-grade lug, submerged & weighted down. Now they're resting comfortably undisturbed in the second fridge. I had to adjust the fridge temp as it was waay too cold (31°) up to 38°

Next Saturday is the day. Wife wants two for corned beef & St Paddy's day; the rest will get "pastrami-ized."

-Kevin

JerBear · Post by **JerBear** » Tue Feb 14, 2012 01:44

You didn't mention but you're planning on moving them around daily correct? If they're wedged too tight you might get uncured areas.

NorCal Kid · Post by **NorCal Kid** » Tue Feb 14, 2012 03:51

JerBear wrote:You didn't mention but you're planning on moving them around daily correct? If they're wedged too tight you might get uncured areas.

I did promise the briskets I'd take them for a nice stroll around the block if they behaved....

I do plan on flipping 'em occasionally a few times between now & the final day.
Thanks for the reminder.

-Kevin

NorCal Kid · Post by **NorCal Kid** » Wed Feb 15, 2012 16:09

Had to adjust the temp in my second refrigerator again.
The first two days the inside temp hovered around 32° until I dialed it back as far as I could. Last night, it was up to 37.5°-so I'm guessing I may need to keep the briskets in the brine a bit longer than the prescribed 5-days as the first two days the temp may have been too cold & inhibited the curing process.

-Kevin

NorCal Kid · Post by **NorCal Kid** » Tue Feb 21, 2012 00:04

Here's a shot of the beef about 3 days into the soak...The load is weighted down with a 10-pound plate on the lid so they are entirely submerged in the brine. They 'bob' to the surface (in these shots) when the weight is removed.
Shown here are the 3 smaller briskets. They'll be flipped and go on the bottom next as I rotate the pieces in the brine.

The two larger briskets now on top. Since I took these shots a few days ago, I've continued to move them about to ensure good brine saturation.

At the end of the six day brining period, I pulled the briskets and rinsed them well.
The 3 smaller 'corned' briskets I 'food-savered' for next month's St. Paddy's Day festivities...

The remaining two biggies I gave a generous rub-down of coarsely cracked black pepper, coriander seed & mustard seed. Also mixed in a bit of turbinado sugar to the rub.
I let these dry for a bit before placing them into a pre-heated smoker:

At 140° I began giving the pastramis a good dose of hickory smoke. This continued for the next 60 minutes or so at 140.° Following the smoke, I wrapped them in foil & oven-roasted them at a temp of 200° About 4.5 hours later the meat reached the IT of 165°. I then chilled the two in the refrigerator.

Smoke beginning to roll...

Next day, I broke out the slicer and took the well-chilled pastramis out to begin the 'pre-packaging' process...

Good uniform color in the meat; a bit on the salty side, but after steaming some & applying mustard & kraut on a sandwich, the pastrami is quite good!

Ready to eat or be packaged up for later...

Thanks for lookin!

-Kevin

Chuckwagon · Post by **Chuckwagon** » Tue Feb 21, 2012 00:15

Beautiful work my friend! Are you going to try a "Rachael" as well as a "Reuben"? (See the MRI index here: http://wedlinydomowe.pl/en/viewtopic.php?t=5146 )
Did it snow there yet Kevin?

Best Wishes,
Chuckwagon

NorCal Kid · Post by **NorCal Kid** » Tue Feb 21, 2012 03:04

Chuckwagon wrote:Beautiful work my friend! Are you going to try a "Rachael" as well as a "Reuben"? (See the MRI index here: http://wedlinydomowe.pl/en/viewtopic.php?t=5146 )
Did it snow there yet Kevin?

Best Wishes,
Chuckwagon

Thanks, CW! I saw the 'Rachael' recipe-looks good!
I like colesalw, but I may skip the 1000 island....

As per the weather situation, forecast is for partly sunny with a high of 67 tomorrow.
Probably a bit too warm for the winter white stuff. A good thing too, as I have no idea where my wife put my mukluks....

Kevin

JerBear · Post by **JerBear** » Tue Feb 21, 2012 03:11

Very nice!

HamnCheese · Post by **HamnCheese** » Wed Mar 14, 2012 17:02

Thanks to everyone who contributed to this thread. I'm now in the process of my first corned brisket....and it was way easier to contemplate after reading what the experts had to say. Was going to call this corned beef (vs. pastrami) but I am intrigued by Cranky Buzzard's idea to smoke a small piece.

This may turn into a half and half!

Post by **Butterbean** » Thu Mar 15, 2012 00:38

Very nice job indeed!

HamnCheese · Post by **HamnCheese** » Thu Mar 15, 2012 14:45

Calling all experts!!!

If I decide to make half pastrami/half corned beef - how should I cut the brined tip brisket - long ways or crossways? I'm thinking across the grain...

As always, thanks for the help!

Chuckwagon · Post by **Chuckwagon** » Fri Mar 16, 2012 05:19

I'm no expert but.... yup mam!

Across the grain.
Take photos!

Best Wishes,
Chuckwagon

HamnCheese · Post by **HamnCheese** » Fri Mar 16, 2012 16:26

Hey CW.....The brisket is still being baptized. I used your pastrami recipe brine - thanks for that. It smells amazing.

After I got the brisket tip into the pool, I read the rest of the thread...which explained how to properly trim the darn thing. So back to the brine, remove and retrim the meat, then back into the brine.

Meanwhile, back at the sink, I trimmed out that little nugget of muscle imbedded in the fat, covered it with the fat I had just removed it from and roasted it at 200* under foil. Cooled it under weight, sliced it thin, added to home made bread with a schmear of mustard. Gotta say it was pretty darn good.

As for the smoker. YES! I have a lovely brown cardboard box complete with vents and a solid oak smoking stick. I've already worked out how to suspend a rack from the smoke stick using some metal hangers and have some chips ready to go. I'll split this tip in half and smoke half for pastrami and bake half for corned beef. I'll send along pics once things get rolling - Sunday or Monday.

Having a difficult time sending PMs....they sit in the outbox without going anywhere. Suggestions?

Chuckwagon · Post by **Chuckwagon** » Fri Mar 16, 2012 23:38

Lynn my dear, there are more cardboard box smokers than any other type. And they work just fine. The great thing about them is you can just jam a stick through them for hangin' stuff. To suspend something on a string, just jab a hole through the top with a nail, feed a string through the whole and tie a washer on the end of the string on top of the box. A cheap hotplate works great for sawdust. A stainless steel pan will last forever whereas other metal types will quickly burn-out. When you sprinkle the moistened sawdust in, move some away from the center with your finger. (Rytek's trick) Oh, and yes... turn up the heat until it starts to smolder, then turn it back down just so it barely smolders once it has started to burn. Most beginners tend to burn it up too quickly.

You aren't the only one having trouble sending photos with imageshack. Me too. I just bought half a dozen briskets this afternoon that will be pastrami soon. I'll shoot you some pics if I can get the !@*%#@!* thing to work.

PS. If you can get the code into the outbox, you're doing better than I am. Mine won't upload to Imageshack for some reason. Make sure you make only one slightly elongated, firm click on the button when you send. Good luck kiddo!

Best Wishes,
Chuckwagon