Chill for at least 24 hours or up to 48 hours , turning it over and massaging the meat every hours or so. Remove the meat from the bag, discarding any liquid. Shake off the excess spices. Scatter the pink peppercorns over a plate and press the meat into them to coat evenly. Line a large, deep roasting tin with 4 layers of foil. Top with the smoking ingredients, followed by a wire rack, then the beef. Cover the whole tin tightly with 4 layers of foil. Place your home-made smoker across 2 hobs over a very low heat.
The trick is to use a heavy-based roasting tin as this will happily smoke on the hob without catching. Remove from the heat but leave in the smoker until completely cooled. Slice the pastrami. Serve with some English mustard, sliced gherkins and good-quality bread.
When I cut into it, the meat had good texture and was quite moist inside, exhibiting the pink color you associate with pastrami. It had a very peppery aroma and taste, which I liked a lot.
Surpassed my expectations! Blown away! Some people like to smoke pastrami, let it cool and refrigerate it overnight, then steam it before slicing and serving. This method is inspired by the way Jewish delicatessens prepared their pastrami back in the day. Place a small amount of water in a Dutch oven outfitted with a steamer rack with the handle removed.
Bring the water to a gentle boil. Place a chuck of pastrami on the rack and cover the pot. Remember, this is not barbecued brisket. It has an entirely different texture as a result of the curing process. This is why you want to slice the pastrami across the grain as thinly as possible. It takes some practice to slice pastrami thin across the grain using a knife. Of course, a sharp knife helps a lot. On a number of occasions, I have sliced cold pastrami from the refrigerator using a mandoline a tool used to slice vegetables set to the thinnest setting.
The next two photos show what a great job the mandoline does at making deli-style, thin-sliced pastrami. I like to portion the slices into 4 ounce servings, freeze them in a vacuum container, then move the frozen portions into vacuum freezer bags. This method avoids squeezing juices out of the meat when sealing the meat in bags.
Handle your pastrami the same way they do at the deli—slice off what you need, and wrap the remainder tightly in plastic wrap or vacuum pack using a FoodSaver and store in the refrigerator. This photo shows a brisket flat that did not cure all the way through. This happened because I did not cure the brisket long enough.
So the curing time of 7 days in this recipe seems to be a good rule of thumb for most dry-cured briskets. It is only after the curing process that corned beef and pastrami diverge in terms of their seasoning and cooking method. Corned beef—usually a whole brisket, brisket flat, brisket point, or bottom round—is seasoned with pickling spices that may include any or all of the following: cinnamon, allspice, mustard seed, coriander, bay leaves, ginger, chilies, cloves, black pepper, mace, cardamom.
Traditional corned beef is then boiled slowly for several hours over medium heat. Pastrami—usually a whole brisket, brisket flat, or bottom round—is seasoned with ground black pepper and ground coriander.
At some of the famous New York City delicatessens, pastrami is made using beef navel a cut located on the underside of the cow, starting where the brisket ends that is smoked at low temperature for a few hours, then steamed to complete the cooking process. Some pastrami is dry-cured, as I did in this article. In my opinion, this results in pastrami that tastes more intense and less like corned beef.
Around St. Curing agents help preserve meat and create the distinctive color and flavor we associate with cured meats. The two main curing agents are sodium nitrite and sodium nitrate. Pastrami usually gets brined and cured with a dry rub, while corned beef just gets a brine. I never knew that before I started making my own and had to do a little research as I had always wondered.
What you can do to make this easy is pick up prepackaged corned beef in the meat section of your local market or places like Costco, or cure your own using beef brisket see my recipe on How to Make Corned Beef first. I like the flavor of the corned spices so I often have one or two in the freezer for times when the need hits me.
I also do the same for smaller sized turkeys because they are hard to find after Thanksgiving time passes. But back to how to make pastrami.
I mean, home made pastrami may sound like an undertaking, but time is the big one here. Minimal effort really. Just think of it, sliced thin, stacked high on a sliced rye bread with your favorite toppings. So good! What you have is a wonderful, fall apart sandwich or dinner meat that is spectacular in flavor and aroma. Basic Chili Powder mixes or ones labeled American Chili Powder, include Ancho, New Mexico, California or any other mild chili pepper, cayenne powder, ground black peppercorns, cumin, coriander and Mexican oregano.
Place in a large stock pot and cover with cold water. Keep refrigerated overnight or 4 hours minimum to help remove the excess salt. This is the desalinating process. I like the corned beef flavorings so use this kind, but feel free to use a beef brisket of same weight. If starting with a beef brisket, see my recipe on How to Make Corned Beef first, then go straight to applying the dry rub. My brine uses less salt than store bought versions. In a small bowl whisk together the dry rub ingredients.
Rinse corned beef in water and allow excess to drip off and apply dry rub mixture evenly over all sides. Place on a platter and refrigerate over night or 8 hours. No need to cover with plastic wrap because when you remove it most of the dry rub sticks to the wrap and is wasted. Air cured is fine overnight, but feel free to go right to the smoker.
I have found overnight adds more flavor then straight to the smoker. Use your own discretion. You can read all about wood chips here in a previous post. Allow meat to cool and refrigerate overnight or at least 8 hours covered with a loose fitting pice of aluminum foil. See how much it shrinks during the smoking process? Can you smell how good this looks? Scratch and sniff here. There are a lot of opinions on keeping the vent open or closed during the smoking process. For me seeing as the smoker has limited smoke, unless you want to keep re-loading with wood chips, I keep it closed the first hour, then open it up for ventilation and constant airflow.
At this point you can cool and refrigerate for up to 5 days to steam later. After smoking, steam for 2 hours. I use a bamboo steamer with the meat resting on a bit of aluminum foil. In a large pot over medium low heat pour enough water in pot so that there is an inch gap between steamer rack and water and steam for 2 hours.
Check occasionally to make sure water does not evaporate and refill as needed. Just before it hits that I turn off the heat because the meat will continue to cook. Use the Instant Pot with the strainer made to fit the IP size. Feel free to discard whatever fat cap is still there and not rendered down completely.
Slicing across the grain will ensure a tender, fall apart piece of pastrami. Enjoy as a main course with side dishes or in a sandwich with rye bread and lots of mustard, Swiss cheese and whatever other topping you like!
Granted this may seem like a lot of work, but for those of you who always wanted to know, like to make things from scratch and enjoy the process, this is for you. The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist's advice.
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. Hi Kevin, I guess to most important thing about your post is that the recipe is just about totally fail safe. I got a smoker last year and immediately thought of making pastrami or Montreal smoked meat I am in Canada after all. After reading your instructions I summoned up the courage to invest in a full beef brisket and, voila, beautiful pastrami, first time, no fuss, no muss.
As previous comment said, I have now achieved cult status with friends and neighbours. I am on my third batch right now and have done a couple of tweaks with the rub, … Read more ».
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