Make Your Own Pastrami + Reubens with Homemade Russian Dressing (recipes included)
SMF is like having your own personal pool of outdoor cooking experts and knowledge right at your fingertips. Literally the best resource on top of a community of a lot of lovely people.
All the St. Paddy’s Day posts last month had me wanting a good reuben and that means I need some pastrami, and you’ve all got me believing in myself.
Turns out: I can make pastrami. And it’s pretty easy. Especially when a dozen or more people are walking you right through it. If I can do it, anyone can do it!
So here’s my own shortcut pastrami walkthrough plus these Reubens turned out perfectly, and why not whip up your own dressing while you're at it? Most of you will have the Russian dressing ingredients in your kitchen already.
What you’ll need for pastrami:
A smoker + wood chunks, pellets, or sticks. I used hickory.
A corned beef brisket. I grabbed a cheap one from Walmart. The one I bought was about 3.5 lbs.
Crushed salad-grind pepper or get some whole peppercorns and crush your own, Martha.
Garlic powder, onion powder, and ground coriander
A big bowl. Maybe a dinner plate.
What you’ll want for a Reuben:
Some good rye bread. Really any rye bread. I grabbed a loaf from Winco. But a nice rye bread from a bakery would be extra cool. I’m too lazy to go, and a little cheap.
Sauerkraut. I've been buying the Cleveland Kitchen garlic sauerkraut, and I love it. Buy your favorite, and to prep for a sandwich, rinse it and pat it dry a little (I know, I’m sorry. The brine is delicious, but we don’t want soggy sandwiches. Or maybe you do. I won’t judge you).
Provolone cheese slices
Russian dressing
Pastrami slices, sliced as thinly as you can, but thick slices are fine, too.
Pastrami Rub Recipe:
4 Tbs coarsely ground black pepper
2 Tbs garlic powder
2 Tbs onion powder
2 Tbs ground coriander
Homemade Russian Dressing Recipe:
2/3 cup mayo. NOT Miracle Whip. I will disown you.
2 Tbs ketchup (I’m going with sugar free; use the one you like)
1 tsp Worcestershire
1 tsp horseradish. Or a TBS. I use this generously and I like things a little spicy. But if you want a gentler sauce go with the tsp.
1 Tbs. Onion, finally grated. Don’t skip this. It makes the dressing extra amazing.
1/4 tsp smoked paprika
As much hot sauce as you like. I added a few dashes of Tabasco.
Should look something like this.
Cover and refrigerate the dressing until you're ready for it. Pro tip: this gets better as it sits, so making a day ahead (or more) is great.
First things first | Prep the brisket:
Day 1 - Rinse the corned beef off then put it into some cold water in a big bowl and in the fridge for 24 hours. I put a plate on top to keep it submerged.
Then I went ahead and mixed up my russian dressing and rub so everything was ready.
Day 2 - When I was ready for the brisket, I took it out of the fridge, rinsed it off again, patted it dry, and then coated it with the rub all over.
Generously. I used the whole batch.
Second things | Prep the smoker:
My friend @VanillaGorilla let me use his smoker for this cook. It’s a Smokin-It (#2D - Digital) and it’s definitely a set-it-and-almost-forget-it type of thing. That's perfect for me because I’m likely to forget that I’m smoking a brisket as soon as I walk into the living room and see a blanket I need to fold.
I used exactly 4 small chunks of hickory wood, because I was assured that it would be more than enough and I don’t have trust issues.
How much wood (chunks/pellets/sticks) is going to depend on your smoker. I did check the smoker every hour or so and made sure there was a thin line of smoke coming out the vent. I never had to replenish the wood chunks, and this cook took right at 7 hours. YMMV.
I set the smoker to 250 degrees and let it come to temp. Added the wood to the firebox like @VanillaGorilla instructed me, and put the brisket on the top rack with the temperature probe inserted into the thickest part. Added a little pan underneath with about a half inch of water in the bottom, and also to catch drippings.
The cook:
- Brisket went onto the smoker at around 11AM.
- At 2PM, the meat was at 155 degrees, so I removed it, wrapped it in foil, put the probe back in, and returned it to the smoker. I tried to do this quickly so as not to lose heat, and I kept the smoker door closed while I wrapped the brisket. I lost about 5 degrees in the process, but it came back up pretty fast.
- 6PM - the brisket reached 199 degrees. I took it off the smoker and let it rest for 20 minutes before opening the foil and slicing.
Note: it was actually pretty hard to save any of this for sandwiches. This turned out so good, we were gathered around the cutting board stuffing ourselves with warm, fatty, melt-in-your mouth slices. I think maybe we ate about half and the rest went into the fridge because reubens.
Last things, aka, the pay-off:
The Reuben.
I spread about 2 Tbs. of dressing on 2 slices of rye bread. Really who knows how much dressing I put on there. It was a good amount. I considered slathering on extra horseradish, and so I did.
2 slices of provolone cheese.
About half a cup of sauerkraut on top of that. I warmed it up a little in the microwave.
Slices of PASTRAMI. I went with three good-sized chunky slices, but this part is up to you. I’m pretty proud of myself for pulling this off, btw, and it was super easy because SMF has the best outdoor cooks on the internet coaching me through it.
Smash.
Cut.
Eat.
So good.
Do yourself a favor and make this. Happy spring, happy smoking. ;)
SMF is like having your own personal pool of outdoor cooking experts and knowledge right at your fingertips. Literally the best resource on top of a community of a lot of lovely people.
All the St. Paddy’s Day posts last month had me wanting a good reuben and that means I need some pastrami, and you’ve all got me believing in myself.
Turns out: I can make pastrami. And it’s pretty easy. Especially when a dozen or more people are walking you right through it. If I can do it, anyone can do it!
So here’s my own shortcut pastrami walkthrough plus these Reubens turned out perfectly, and why not whip up your own dressing while you're at it? Most of you will have the Russian dressing ingredients in your kitchen already.
What you’ll need for pastrami:
A smoker + wood chunks, pellets, or sticks. I used hickory.
A corned beef brisket. I grabbed a cheap one from Walmart. The one I bought was about 3.5 lbs.
Crushed salad-grind pepper or get some whole peppercorns and crush your own, Martha.
Garlic powder, onion powder, and ground coriander
A big bowl. Maybe a dinner plate.
What you’ll want for a Reuben:
Some good rye bread. Really any rye bread. I grabbed a loaf from Winco. But a nice rye bread from a bakery would be extra cool. I’m too lazy to go, and a little cheap.
Sauerkraut. I've been buying the Cleveland Kitchen garlic sauerkraut, and I love it. Buy your favorite, and to prep for a sandwich, rinse it and pat it dry a little (I know, I’m sorry. The brine is delicious, but we don’t want soggy sandwiches. Or maybe you do. I won’t judge you).
Provolone cheese slices
Russian dressing
Pastrami slices, sliced as thinly as you can, but thick slices are fine, too.
Pastrami Rub Recipe:
4 Tbs coarsely ground black pepper
2 Tbs garlic powder
2 Tbs onion powder
2 Tbs ground coriander
Homemade Russian Dressing Recipe:
2/3 cup mayo. NOT Miracle Whip. I will disown you.
2 Tbs ketchup (I’m going with sugar free; use the one you like)
1 tsp Worcestershire
1 tsp horseradish. Or a TBS. I use this generously and I like things a little spicy. But if you want a gentler sauce go with the tsp.
1 Tbs. Onion, finally grated. Don’t skip this. It makes the dressing extra amazing.
1/4 tsp smoked paprika
As much hot sauce as you like. I added a few dashes of Tabasco.
Should look something like this.
Cover and refrigerate the dressing until you're ready for it. Pro tip: this gets better as it sits, so making a day ahead (or more) is great.
First things first | Prep the brisket:
Day 1 - Rinse the corned beef off then put it into some cold water in a big bowl and in the fridge for 24 hours. I put a plate on top to keep it submerged.
Then I went ahead and mixed up my russian dressing and rub so everything was ready.
Day 2 - When I was ready for the brisket, I took it out of the fridge, rinsed it off again, patted it dry, and then coated it with the rub all over.
Generously. I used the whole batch.
Second things | Prep the smoker:
My friend @VanillaGorilla let me use his smoker for this cook. It’s a Smokin-It (#2D - Digital) and it’s definitely a set-it-and-almost-forget-it type of thing. That's perfect for me because I’m likely to forget that I’m smoking a brisket as soon as I walk into the living room and see a blanket I need to fold.
I used exactly 4 small chunks of hickory wood, because I was assured that it would be more than enough and I don’t have trust issues.
How much wood (chunks/pellets/sticks) is going to depend on your smoker. I did check the smoker every hour or so and made sure there was a thin line of smoke coming out the vent. I never had to replenish the wood chunks, and this cook took right at 7 hours. YMMV.
I set the smoker to 250 degrees and let it come to temp. Added the wood to the firebox like @VanillaGorilla instructed me, and put the brisket on the top rack with the temperature probe inserted into the thickest part. Added a little pan underneath with about a half inch of water in the bottom, and also to catch drippings.
The cook:
- Brisket went onto the smoker at around 11AM.
- At 2PM, the meat was at 155 degrees, so I removed it, wrapped it in foil, put the probe back in, and returned it to the smoker. I tried to do this quickly so as not to lose heat, and I kept the smoker door closed while I wrapped the brisket. I lost about 5 degrees in the process, but it came back up pretty fast.
- 6PM - the brisket reached 199 degrees. I took it off the smoker and let it rest for 20 minutes before opening the foil and slicing.
Note: it was actually pretty hard to save any of this for sandwiches. This turned out so good, we were gathered around the cutting board stuffing ourselves with warm, fatty, melt-in-your mouth slices. I think maybe we ate about half and the rest went into the fridge because reubens.
Last things, aka, the pay-off:
The Reuben.
I spread about 2 Tbs. of dressing on 2 slices of rye bread. Really who knows how much dressing I put on there. It was a good amount. I considered slathering on extra horseradish, and so I did.
2 slices of provolone cheese.
About half a cup of sauerkraut on top of that. I warmed it up a little in the microwave.
Slices of PASTRAMI. I went with three good-sized chunky slices, but this part is up to you. I’m pretty proud of myself for pulling this off, btw, and it was super easy because SMF has the best outdoor cooks on the internet coaching me through it.
Smash.
Cut.
Eat.
So good.
Do yourself a favor and make this. Happy spring, happy smoking. ;)
