Homemade Sausage Making

I love pastrami but not the salt laden leather sold in grocery stores.

Traditional pastrami (ie. Katz) is made from beef navel. I have not been able to source beef navel at a reasonable price, so I've experimented with several cuts. Many use brisket, but I find the flat too lean. The point is good, but I don't know where to get just points. I've tried chuck, but the grocery store chuck roasts have the grain going the wrong way. I've settled on boneless chuck short ribs.


Here's a typical boneless chuck short rib from a local ethnic super market. (These can also be cut from the chuck eye portion of the chuck roll)

The Recipe that I use is here:

A couple of notes
1. I go light on salt (doctor's orders)
2. Most would a LOT more pepper in the rub, but my family are not fans of a lot of pepper.

I trimmed the silver skin and the gristle where the bones were attached, here are the 3 ribs:


After curing with salt and cure#1 only (11 days), they were rinsed, patted dry, slathered with yellow mustard and applied the rub:


Then refrigerated uncovered for 3 days and smoked at 225ºF - 250ºF until a nice bark formed (internal temperature was about 150ºF:


After smoking, the meat was returned to the vacuum bags and sous vide "poached" at 135ºF for 3 days.


Then it was seared on the gas grill to harden the bark:


And sliced, meat was fall apart tender and still nice and moist:

That looks perfect. I like the searing on the BBQ idea. I have another day to go in sous vide and then I’ll try searing it like you did. I agree the flat of a brisket is a bit too lean. How does the price of chuck rib compare to brisket? For being in cattle country beef is ridiculously expensive here

Albertaed wrote: ↑

Sun Apr 18, 2021 23:17

How does the price of chuck rib compare to brisket

The price of beef has spiked around here lately, but this is tourist trap land. All local beef is grass fed. Anyway, brisket is about $3.70/pound and chuck roll $4.00/pound. The Seabra beef ribs were $5.99/pound. The price difference is somewhat compensated for trim loss. My records show brisket between 25% and 35% trim. The one chuck roll I did was 13% trim with a lot of different cuts. There is essentially no trim on the ribs. In addition, Seabra is about 4 miles from my house, purveyors of brisket and chuck that I quoted are 20+ miles away.

It really looks phenomenal, but I still hesitate to sous vide...its the plastic plus heat thing even though the latest info claims it really is a nonissue

Scogar wrote: ↑

Mon Apr 19, 2021 12:33

but I still hesitate to sous vide

When you do it will be one of those I should have done this sooner moments. Steaks always cooked to perfection...mashed potatoes without the taste boiled out of them.....its a great tool in the kitchen arsenal.
That looks delicious JP!!

Will it be the leaching plastic stuff or the nitrites or the fat or something yet unknown that gets us first? At least we will not die miserable and emaciated like vegans.

By the way, that pastrami looks great.

What is a beef navel? In the famous delis they usually ask if you prefer fatty or lean, and I always assumed that translated to brisket point or flat. Like you, I prefer fattier pastrami and corned beef.

Lorenzoid wrote: ↑

Mon Apr 19, 2021 15:06

What is a beef navel

It is more or less the equivalent of pork belly on a steer. Comes from the lowest part of the short plate.

alright youse guys are making a good sales pitch

I always wanted to make pastrami. I think I will give it a go now. I am curious as to why you brought the temp up to 150 degrees in the smoker which was higher than the sous vide temperature of 135 degrees.

Dumoine wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 22, 2021 07:00

brought the temp up to 150 degrees in the smoker

I just smoke it until the outer bark looks well formed. In this case the IT was about 150ºF, but temperature was not the criteria.