Costco Pastrami

[Nefarious]

So, I wanted to try to make pastrami and was in the middle of the process of curing some buckboard bacon. I was at Costco and they had already brined corned beef. I have seen some threads where people soak the store bought corned beef in water to remove the salt so I thought why not give it a try. We are a low sodium family, the only salt we/I use is for curing bacon.

I soaked the corned beef is water for 3 days. First 3 hours, we were eating and cleaning up from dinner, I replaced the water every 30 minutes. Then for the following 3 days I changed the water 3 times a day, morning, midday, evening.

I tested the result in the refrigerator for 3 days uncovered. First day no spice, then added the pastrami blend from TNJAKE in his thread to make this same pastrami.

Then smoked on my rectec @ 180° for near 7 hours, when the IT was 145°. Rested and the rest is history.

The pastrami was very good, everyone really liked it, but it was still too salty. Next time I will make my own corned beef. There is one advantage to extra salty meat, more beer.

Some pics:

 

[Colin1230]

Looks delicious!

 

[JLeonard]

Wait....You gotta have a reason to drink more beer?

Thats some good looking pastrami!

Jim

 

[tbern]

looks awesome, nice job!

 

[smokerjim]

Looks great

 

[SmokyMose]

Man that looks good! I'm picturing some marble rye bread, Russian dressing, kraut, a slice of Swiss and a pickle spear on the side....
The Mrs. had to go on a low sodium diet a couple of years ago (and of course I had to go on it, too) and it's amazing how "salty" a lot of things are to us now.

 

[Nefarious]

Man that looks good! I'm picturing some marble rye bread, Russian dressing, kraut, a slice of Swiss and a pickle spear on the side....
The Mrs. had to go on a low sodium diet a couple of years ago (and of course I had to go on it, too) and it's amazing how "salty" a lot of things are to us now.

Once the meat was cut it was a free for all. Both sons were there, and all of the sandwiches were made on a single one sandwich size panini press. We had both kraut and coleslaw with swiss cheese on Jewish rye bread. Next time I will make my own rye bread. Even though I tried to cook of the water from the sauerkraut, the bread was too thin to take on the remaining liquid. The sandwiches did not look good, only tasted good.

 

[Steve H]

Looks good. But, you only went to 145 IT? I always go to probe tender. 205-210 IT.

 

[Nefarious]

Looks good. But, you only went to 145 IT? I always go to probe tender. 205-210 IT.

Forgot to mention, it was not a brisket, but was a top round. Sould have mentioned that in the start, sorry.

 

[Steve H]

Forgot to mention, it was not a brisket, but was a top round. Sould have mentioned that in the start, sorry.

Ah! Now you really got my attention! I need to try this!

 

[SmokyMose]

Forgot to mention, it was not a brisket, but was a top round. Sould have mentioned that in the start, sorry.

I thought that looked a little odd for a Corned Beef, but I figured it was just a really lean point. I've never seen that in a store, but then there are still a lot of things I've never seen.

 

[seenred]

Lookin delicious! Nice going

Red

 

[Nefarious]

Ah! Now you really got my attention! I need to try this!

But buy the bottom round and corn it yourself, that's my next step.

 

[clifish]

I just did this last night with an Aldi corned beef, 4 hours of water changes and rubbed overnight. I took it to about 202 and it still seemed tough also lost at least 40% in size. I did not check the cut of meat though.

 

[Retired Spook]

I love pastrami - and I mean I love it. There is probably nothing I miss more from growing up in NYC than pastrami. A very large stack of pastrami on rye with coleslaw and Swiss and some Russian dressing (a Rachel) is magical. I get lightheaded thinking about it.

Great effort - looks good!

 

[TNJAKE]

Looks great ray. Nice work bud

 

[Nefarious]

Wait....You gotta have a reason to drink more beer?

Jim

Well, more just means MORE, no excuses required here.

 

[Fueling Around]

Looks good.

I've made pastrami from brisket a number of times, but just cannot get enough salt out of it for my taste.

I could see that was a corned round. Corned round and pastrami from round is what one finds mostly in the deli section of your local grocer.
Was your piece fully cooked by chance before you started the process?

 

[Fueling Around]

I just did this last night with an Aldi corned beef, 4 hours of water changes and rubbed overnight. I took it to about 202 and it still seemed tough also lost at least 40% in size. I did not check the cut of meat though.

That sounds to be a brisket. I don't shop at Aldo, but the few I have done with bagged brisket do lose a lot of moisture bulk.

 

[Nefarious]

Looks good.

I've made pastrami from brisket a number of times, but just cannot get enough salt out of it for my taste.

I could see that was a corned round. Corned round and pastrami from round is what one finds mostly in the deli section of your local grocer.
Was your piece fully cooked by chance before you started the process?

No, it wasn't cooked. I couldn't tell from the packaging if it had cure #1 in it. The color seems to look like it, the taste seems like it, but I thought that the gov ref made them have to specify if it had cure?