Pastrami from scratch

I had a brisket in the freezer so I decided to make a pastrami last week.I have done a couple of pastrami's from store bought corned beef before but this is the first one that I tried from scratch. I trimmed most of the fat off of the brisket. I can't exactly

remember how much it weighed.



I made a brine consisting of salt, sugar, garlic, and pickling spices that I made. I let it brine for a week.



After brining for a week I soaked it in water overnight to remove some of the salt.

I created a rub of mostly coarse black pepper and corriander, but added garlic powder, oinion powder, mustard seed, and smoked paprika as well.



Here she is all rubbed up and I put it in the refridgerator overnight.



I started smoaking in my MES at 225 degrees about 8:30 in the morning.



About 5:30 the internal temperature hit 165 degrees and then I pulled it to steam.



Here it is ready to steam. I steamed my last one over water in the oven but this one I decided to steam over boiling water on the stovetop. I steamed for 3 hours and the internal temp was about 190 after the steam bath.



I let it rest in foil in a cooler for about an hour and then sliced a little off the end to make a reuben. Cheers!