A lil' careless pastrami - qview

[sea_munky]

Hi. I just thought I'd share a couple of pictures.

Well, I bought a small corned beef brisket meaning to smoke it for pastrami. I've done it in the past and it was a bit salty for my taste so I had it soaking in water overnight with the intention of smoking it the next day. Well, things came up and I had to leave for the weekend so the overnight soak became a 72 hour soak. Darn.

Rubbed it with onion powder, garlic powder, salt, brown sugar, and chile powder. I wanted some mustard powder but I didn't have any. But I do have lots of horseradish powder. Hmmmm....horseradish goes well with pastrami. Added some heaping teaspoons to the rub. Let the rub sit overnight, put on top crust of fresh black pepper, smoked over hickory at 250 until 160. Hoooboy! It's mighty tasty! You can taste the horseradish! The long soak robbed all the salt though so I have to sprinkle it on as I eat it.

Question: After searching the forum, I've noticed many people smoke the pastrami till 160* or thereabouts. But a regular brisket often goes to 180-210, depending sliced or pulled. Is this due to the curing in the pastrami's case? Would a pastrami become more tender taking it to 200 or would it just dry out? Thanks for reading.

 

[ronp]

Looks great too bad about the long soak though. MHO is it would dry out.

 

[sea_munky]

Thanks Ron. Your comments and support are always appreciated.

Does anyone take their pastrami over 160*?

 

[big game cook]

just rubbed a venison roast with the seasonings for cowgirls partrami. so i cant tell for sure. but in my experience with cured meats. theres no reason to cook for long periods of time. like summer sausage i would guess that when it reaches safe temp take it off heat.

ill post my pastrami results in a week.