Almost pastrami jerky?

[fxsales1959]

It's been a minute since I attempted cheater pastrami with store bought corned beef. Was wandering thru Sam's and saw some corned beef. so Why not?
All they had was flats but my mind was already set. 3,75 lb chunk. Over- nighted in a water bath.
Made my own rub, coarse Black Pepper, coriander, dash of onion powder, and a smidge of paprika.
Set WSM at 247 with a chunk of cherry (mostly for color)
This is where I got concerned. Had planned on setting a bark and butcher wrapping at 165-ish.
got to 165 in about 3 hours. wrapped tight in butcher paper. put back on. then the stall happened,. 4 hours of it.
All afternoon waiting for it to start climbing to pull at 203. WSM held temp perfectly. Waited and waited.
Thought for sure I was going to end up with pastrami jerky. Finally about 11 hrs in it crept up to 203.
I've done brisket before, but never thought this little chunck of meat would take 11 hrs.
Pulled and rested in cooler still wrapped. It all worked out and was delicious. Chilled over night and got out the deli slicer. Threw a few pieces in the steamer for a sammy.

 

[normanaj]

I'd wait 11hrs for that!

 

[gmc2003]

Well worth the wait John. That is one pretty sammy.

Point for sure
Chris

On the next one. Try grilling the sandwich. Next level goodness.

 

[jcam222]

Looks great! I did 5 last month and thought I had cleaned them all out of my freezer. Voila digging out stuff for today and found 3 more.

 

[Steve H]

Nice! I've had this happen too. It does make you nervous!

 

[sandyut]

Well worth the efforts! look amazing!

 

[indaswamp]

Awesome job! Looks great to me! Not as big a concern drying out cured and salted like that with the corned beef.... but 11 hrs. seems long to me. Glad it worked out for you.

 

[chef k-dude]

Nice!

Pastrami is one of the few things I still smoke. Usually a couple times a year. The grocery store "Giant" here (not one I shop at regularly) always has the best corn beef sale around St. Patrick's day. Always significantly less than Sam's or even any of the other stores during the same time. I buy up flats for pastrami and points for pressure cooker corned beef to go with cabbage, potatoes and onions I do on the stovetop (much easier to cater to the cooking times of the veg that way).

I make killer Reuben's every 4-6 weeks. I started slicing the pastrami in to 1/4" matchsticks before loading on the sandwich, not because the meat is tough, but even with fairly tender pastrami, it doesn't take much for it to pull out of the sandwich if the bite is not perfectly clean through. Slicing it up smaller makes for a great sandwich bite. Probably my most favorite sandwich of all.

It's kind of funny. Back early on when I joined this site I did Q-views of all the stuff, the butts, ribs, chucks, pastrami, salmon, I think I smoked almost everything. And now I feel like I am the "been there, done that" and I shouldn't post anything I've already done before. But seeing all these pics makes me want to...even if I'm doing my umteenth butt! It's all still culinary eye candy

 

[crazymoon]

FXS1959, Nice job and it looks well worth that wait!

 

[Gonna Smoke]

Very nice John...

I'll take one of these...

 

[Fueling Around]

Very nice.
What do you have have planned for the December gathering?

 

[Chris_in_SoCal]

That looks great, another thing for my too do list.

 

[fxsales1959]

Very nice.
What do you have have planned for the December gather

still on the fence food wise. depends on what the verdict is on food night. probably just bringing my WSM 18. ( unless a 22 falls in my lap before then), will most likely do a butt..will also have my B/S griddle. if butts go on sale will probably make my biggest crock pot of freshly ground sausage gravy for biscuits and gravy.

 

[chopsaw]

That's a nice hunk of goodness . Nice work on that , and a great looking sandwich .

Thought for sure I was going to end up with pastrami jerky.

I'll slice some thin and further dry it out post smoke . It makes good jerky .