I haven't had pastrami for close to 10 years and to be honest it wasn't that memorable for me. A new friend I made here on SMF convinced me that I absolutely have to make some pastrami. Not only did she convince me, she gave me her recipe for beef & turkey pastrami, homemade mustard & a DIY pastrami kit she put together with her own hands! Her kit came with the spices & cure for the brine, a super nice sealing container to cure it in and the dry rub to use before smoking.
So, thank you Smokin Vegas for opening my eyes to Real Pastrami!
Beef & Turkey Pastrami
Cure Brine
1/4 Cup Kosher Salt
2 tsp Cure #1
1/2 Cup Brown Sugar
1 Tb Garlic Powder
2 Tb Pickling Spice (I recommend Ivie's - link above)
8 Cups Spring Water
Trim your meat of thick pieces of fat. Beef Tri-tip is what I used and I'll be sticking to that cut because it was perfect. Mix all ingredients well and add your meet and make sure it's all covered by the brine. Inject some brine into the meat in a few places just to help the process.
Place in the fridge. Let beef cure in the brine for 10 days and the turkey for 5. I put my turkey breast in with my tri-tip for the last 5 days so I could smoke them together.
Remember to shake the container as often as you go in your fridge and each day it helps if you flip the meat over.
Dry Rub
Take the meat out. Rinse thoroughly and pat dry. I soaked mine in water for 40 minutes just to make sure it wasn't going to be too salty but I don't think it was necessary.
Rub some extra virgin olive oil over the meat and then rub on Ivie's pastrami spice mix nice and thick.
To the Smoker
I smoked my 2 lb tri-tip around 230° for 5 1/2 hours and an IT of 160°. Now, I live at 5,400 ft altitude so if you're closer to sea level then your time will be quicker.
The turkey breast cooked at the same temp but only took about 3 hrs to reach 180° IT.
I used cherry wood dust in my A-Maze-N-Smoker.
I let both sit for a few minutes to see if any juices were going to run but nothing did so I sliced them up right away.
They are obviously different animals so they have a whole different flavor profile. Tri-Tip wins for me. The turkey was awesome too but I'm a red meat kinda guy. The complexity of all of the levels of flavor was amazing. The light smokey, rich beefy flavor was meant for the spices.. it really was so complex in flavor but everything made more then perfect sense.
I'm no rookie when it comes to eating food all over the world and this was some of the best food I've eaten.
I highly recommend you go find some tri-tip and make some pastrami! The ten day wait is not fun!
How bout some Q-View? !
Tri-Tips
Dry Spices all measured up. Smells so good it's starting to make the mouth water... well it watered for 10 more days...
The perfect brine container with a tight rubber seal.
Mmm
Inject the brine in the center of the meat throughout the whole piece.
Ready for the fridge.
I had to chop off a little hunk of another tri-tip and throw it on the grill to test it out... alongside was some garlic bread, garlic mashed taters & white wine, cream caper sauce.
Day 10! I almost took a bite out of it right then. 6 lbs of Elk jerky is ready for the smoker too!
Turkey Breast looks great.
Tri-tip looks great.
Rinsed and soaked for 30-40 minutes.
Coated with EVOO and used a special pastrami spice mix for the rub
Got the AMZNS going with cherry dust.
Turkey is done!
MMmm
Unreal..
Scooted the tri-tip up top so my elk jerky could join in the fun.
I hope this wasn't the result in beginners luck because it was perfect!
Dark Forest Rye, Habenero Havarti, yellow mustard & sauerkraut. Plus some cornichon's.
so good I had to make another..
jerky also came out great as usual.
Lisa from Vacuum Sealers Unlimited sent my pack of vacuum bags just on time.
These bags with the zip lock on one side are super cool! and perfect for jerky.
So, thank you Smokin Vegas for opening my eyes to Real Pastrami!
Beef & Turkey Pastrami
Cure Brine
1/4 Cup Kosher Salt
2 tsp Cure #1
1/2 Cup Brown Sugar
1 Tb Garlic Powder
2 Tb Pickling Spice (I recommend Ivie's - link above)
8 Cups Spring Water
Trim your meat of thick pieces of fat. Beef Tri-tip is what I used and I'll be sticking to that cut because it was perfect. Mix all ingredients well and add your meet and make sure it's all covered by the brine. Inject some brine into the meat in a few places just to help the process.
Place in the fridge. Let beef cure in the brine for 10 days and the turkey for 5. I put my turkey breast in with my tri-tip for the last 5 days so I could smoke them together.
Remember to shake the container as often as you go in your fridge and each day it helps if you flip the meat over.
Dry Rub
Take the meat out. Rinse thoroughly and pat dry. I soaked mine in water for 40 minutes just to make sure it wasn't going to be too salty but I don't think it was necessary.
Rub some extra virgin olive oil over the meat and then rub on Ivie's pastrami spice mix nice and thick.
To the Smoker
I smoked my 2 lb tri-tip around 230° for 5 1/2 hours and an IT of 160°. Now, I live at 5,400 ft altitude so if you're closer to sea level then your time will be quicker.
The turkey breast cooked at the same temp but only took about 3 hrs to reach 180° IT.
I used cherry wood dust in my A-Maze-N-Smoker.
I let both sit for a few minutes to see if any juices were going to run but nothing did so I sliced them up right away.
They are obviously different animals so they have a whole different flavor profile. Tri-Tip wins for me. The turkey was awesome too but I'm a red meat kinda guy. The complexity of all of the levels of flavor was amazing. The light smokey, rich beefy flavor was meant for the spices.. it really was so complex in flavor but everything made more then perfect sense.
I'm no rookie when it comes to eating food all over the world and this was some of the best food I've eaten.
I highly recommend you go find some tri-tip and make some pastrami! The ten day wait is not fun!
How bout some Q-View? !
Tri-Tips
Dry Spices all measured up. Smells so good it's starting to make the mouth water... well it watered for 10 more days...
The perfect brine container with a tight rubber seal.
Mmm
Inject the brine in the center of the meat throughout the whole piece.
Ready for the fridge.
I had to chop off a little hunk of another tri-tip and throw it on the grill to test it out... alongside was some garlic bread, garlic mashed taters & white wine, cream caper sauce.
Day 10! I almost took a bite out of it right then. 6 lbs of Elk jerky is ready for the smoker too!
Turkey Breast looks great.
Tri-tip looks great.
Rinsed and soaked for 30-40 minutes.
Coated with EVOO and used a special pastrami spice mix for the rub
Got the AMZNS going with cherry dust.
Turkey is done!
MMmm
Unreal..
Scooted the tri-tip up top so my elk jerky could join in the fun.
I hope this wasn't the result in beginners luck because it was perfect!
Dark Forest Rye, Habenero Havarti, yellow mustard & sauerkraut. Plus some cornichon's.
so good I had to make another..
jerky also came out great as usual.
Lisa from Vacuum Sealers Unlimited sent my pack of vacuum bags just on time.
These bags with the zip lock on one side are super cool! and perfect for jerky.
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