These days there aren't many first for me in the world of meat smoking but this was one of them. I got two 15lbs briskets for sale $1.67/lb a few weeks ago and made the decision to make pastrami out of the Flat muscles. I have made Pastrami from ground venison meat + beef fat but never made Pastrami the traditional way.
It has come out almost perfect!!! My only changes might be a tad less salt like maybe 1.75% vs 2% and way less cracked black pepper on the outside (mine is pretty strong hahaa).
Here's the QView and then a little write up.
I separated Flat from Point and made pastrami out of just the flat muscle. I ate the point doing other things with it.
The two flats added up to a hair over 10 pounds just over after having 90% of all the fat removed from them.
I brined and cured in 1 gallon of water in one of my meat totes. I added all of the below brine+cure seasoning with water to the meat in the tub and covered with saran wrap.
Brine + Cure Seasoning:
I let it cure for over 5 days in my garage fridge and it cured all the way through no problem.
After curing I took the meat out and rinsed and then seasoned with course ground black Pepper and some more ground Coriander. Wow my black pepper is strooooong which i knew, but spice sensitive people will think this pastrami is a bit spicy! Next time I will do like only 1/4 the amount hahaha.
I put in the smoker at 2am at a smoker temp of about 250F because I wanted to make sure it went long enough for me to sleep without having to full with it until I was well awake haha.
I used Lumberjack 100% Maple because I read somewhere that pastrami historically was done with maple. I applied around 3-4 hours of maple smoke which is about right for me for a sandwich meat.
I took them out at about 11am where the larger flat was at 181F and the smaller one was at 164F.
I did ask about temps people took them to which was everything from 150F to 190F.
I tested for tenderness like it was a regular brisket and they were not regular brisket tender BUT I could tell that they were at risk of drying, especially with 90% of the fat removed and I didnt want to wrap them so I figured this would be a learning lesson. If people do fine in that temp range then I was hopeful I would be fine where I pulled mine and learn some stuff.
They were both fine and what i learned is that the slicing thickness almost makes tenderness concerns a moot point as someone mentioned when I asked for info on pastrami.
The taste was about right on for what I'm looking for!
Should I do this again I will reduce the salt from 2% to 1.75% and maybe kick up the pickling spice a little in the cure. Also I am going to use only 1/4 of the black pepper on the outside as my black pepper is very good quality and has 10X more kick to it than the average stuff you buy in the grocery store.
I took all the crumbs and ends and stuff that didnt make the cut as slices and I made a hash with them! I don't do much in the way of carbs these days so made the hash with riced cauliflower instead of potatoes so that is the last of the pics you see above is my hash. Man the stuff is gooood but it is LOADED with black pepper hahahah.
I'll make some low carb wraps either tomorrow or sometime during the week to do pastrami wrap or almost a pastrami melt and enjoy it that way.... that's if the ol' lady doesn't steal or hide it all hahaha. She is a major Reuben lover which inspired me to make this stuff to begin with!
Thanks everyone for all your help in my other post asking for information and I hope some of this experience helps you or anyone else with your traditional pastrami efforts :)
It has come out almost perfect!!! My only changes might be a tad less salt like maybe 1.75% vs 2% and way less cracked black pepper on the outside (mine is pretty strong hahaa).
Here's the QView and then a little write up.
I separated Flat from Point and made pastrami out of just the flat muscle. I ate the point doing other things with it.
The two flats added up to a hair over 10 pounds just over after having 90% of all the fat removed from them.
I brined and cured in 1 gallon of water in one of my meat totes. I added all of the below brine+cure seasoning with water to the meat in the tub and covered with saran wrap.
Brine + Cure Seasoning:
- 10lbs brisket flat
- 1 gallon of water (8 pounds)
- 20.4gm of Cure#1 (enough for 10lbs meat and 8lbs of water)
- 144gm of Salt (2% of 18lbs of meat +water)
- 81gm of Sugar (1% of 18lbs of meat + water)
- 2 Tablespoons ground Pickling Spice
- I ground up this one here:
- 3 Tablespoons granulated Garlic
- 2 Tablespoons course Black Pepper
- .8 teaspoon ground Juniper Berry
- 2 Tablespoons ground Coriander
I let it cure for over 5 days in my garage fridge and it cured all the way through no problem.
After curing I took the meat out and rinsed and then seasoned with course ground black Pepper and some more ground Coriander. Wow my black pepper is strooooong which i knew, but spice sensitive people will think this pastrami is a bit spicy! Next time I will do like only 1/4 the amount hahaha.
I put in the smoker at 2am at a smoker temp of about 250F because I wanted to make sure it went long enough for me to sleep without having to full with it until I was well awake haha.
I used Lumberjack 100% Maple because I read somewhere that pastrami historically was done with maple. I applied around 3-4 hours of maple smoke which is about right for me for a sandwich meat.
I took them out at about 11am where the larger flat was at 181F and the smaller one was at 164F.
I did ask about temps people took them to which was everything from 150F to 190F.
I tested for tenderness like it was a regular brisket and they were not regular brisket tender BUT I could tell that they were at risk of drying, especially with 90% of the fat removed and I didnt want to wrap them so I figured this would be a learning lesson. If people do fine in that temp range then I was hopeful I would be fine where I pulled mine and learn some stuff.
They were both fine and what i learned is that the slicing thickness almost makes tenderness concerns a moot point as someone mentioned when I asked for info on pastrami.
The taste was about right on for what I'm looking for!
Should I do this again I will reduce the salt from 2% to 1.75% and maybe kick up the pickling spice a little in the cure. Also I am going to use only 1/4 of the black pepper on the outside as my black pepper is very good quality and has 10X more kick to it than the average stuff you buy in the grocery store.
I took all the crumbs and ends and stuff that didnt make the cut as slices and I made a hash with them! I don't do much in the way of carbs these days so made the hash with riced cauliflower instead of potatoes so that is the last of the pics you see above is my hash. Man the stuff is gooood but it is LOADED with black pepper hahahah.
I'll make some low carb wraps either tomorrow or sometime during the week to do pastrami wrap or almost a pastrami melt and enjoy it that way.... that's if the ol' lady doesn't steal or hide it all hahaha. She is a major Reuben lover which inspired me to make this stuff to begin with!
Thanks everyone for all your help in my other post asking for information and I hope some of this experience helps you or anyone else with your traditional pastrami efforts :)
