Pastrami, 1st Attempt

[rob g]

My first attempt at pastrami and I've got a brisket flat curing per SmokinAl recipe and process. The flat is about 6lb and ranges from 1" - 1-1/2" thick. I plan on using one of the pepper/coriander/garlic spice recipes others have posted here for the final rub. I plan on soaking the flat after the first cure to remove any extra surface salt as I do this all the time with my bacon with good results. A few questions:
- Do you just towel dry the flat after washing off the cure and soaking or should I put it in the fridge for a day to develop a pellicle before adding the finishing rub?
- Do you use a binder i.e. mustard or worcestershire to help hold the rub?
- I plan on smoking to 150F. Normally the smoke given off from the limp charcoal on my kamado is sufficient for our tastes. Is there a preferred smoke wood for me to add to enhance the flavor? I have cherry, pear, pecan, mesquite readily available.
- I want to finish the meat in sous vide as I'm concerned about drying out such a thin piece of meat on the smoker.The meat will go into the sous vide with some bark from the smoker but I expect it will be somewhat soggy coming out based on my previous sous vide cooks. Do you do anything to try and reset the bark i.e. dry it in the oven on low temps?
- The brisket point ended up on the smoker for supper last week. Could have I also used it for pastrami or is it too fatty for that purpose?

 

[GrumpyGriller]

When I did mine a few weeks ago, I just patted dry and then applied the fresh rub w/o any binder. I did smoke it on my pellet smoker and it was not dry at all :) The only thing I will do next time is probably cut back on salt in the initial dry cure and add more pepper. You could certainly use SV to warm it up after it's been smoked.

Good luck and post pics!

I saved the point for burnt ends and just used the flat for the pastrami.

 

[SmokinAl]

My first attempt at pastrami and I've got a brisket flat curing per SmokinAl recipe and process. The flat is about 6lb and ranges from 1" - 1-1/2" thick. I plan on using one of the pepper/coriander/garlic spice recipes others have posted here for the final rub. I plan on soaking the flat after the first cure to remove any extra surface salt as I do this all the time with my bacon with good results. A few questions:
- Do you just towel dry the flat after washing off the cure and soaking or should I put it in the fridge for a day to develop a pellicle before adding the finishing rub? Just towel dry.
- Do you use a binder i.e. mustard or worcestershire to help hold the rub?
Yes, I use mustard.
- I plan on smoking to 150F. Normally the smoke given off from the limp charcoal on my kamado is sufficient for our tastes. Is there a preferred smoke wood for me to add to enhance the flavor? I have cherry, pear, pecan, mesquite readily available. Perfect IT. Any of the woods you mentioned will work. I like oak, & hickory. But I’m a big mesquite fan too.
- I want to finish the meat in sous vide as I'm concerned about drying out such a thin piece of meat on the smoker.The meat will go into the sous vide with some bark from the smoker but I expect it will be somewhat soggy coming out based on my previous sous vide cooks. Do you do anything to try and reset the bark i.e. dry it in the oven on low temps? I wouldn’t worry about the bark, just SV for 24 hours at 155. The bark will be a bit softer, but loaded with flavor.
- The brisket point ended up on the smoker for supper last week. Could have I also used it for pastrami or is it too fatty for that purpose?
Brisket point makes the best pastrami, IMHO
Hope this helps!
Al

 

[rob g]

Thanks for the feedback guys. I much prefer to learn from other people's mistakes lol. Now I wish I had of cured the point too but it was tasty off the smoker. I'll try to remember to add some pics as I go.

 

[bauchjw]

Good Luck! Cant wait to see it!

 

[thirdeye]

I guess I'll be the odd man out. I dry my corned beef after a short soak-out, then apply my pastrami rub without a binder. The seasoned corned beef is refrigerated for up to 24 hours before smoking. I pull the pastrami at 150°, provided the color is good, and use a pressure finish instead of sous vide finish or a steam finish. Any of the 3 finish methods will soften the bark, but it sets back up in no time at all. Here are 3 flats after a pressure finish, and the bark is still wet.

Here are some sample bites after a 20 minute rest. The bark has re-set nicely.

 

[SmokinEdge]

I guess I'll be the odd man out. I dry my corned beef after a short soak-out, then apply my pastrami rub without a binder. The seasoned corned beef is refrigerated for up to 24 hours before smoking. I pull the pastrami at 150°, provided the color is good, and use a pressure finish instead of sous vide finish or a steam finish. Any of the 3 finish methods will soften the bark, but it sets back up in no time at all. Here are 3 flats after a pressure finish, and the bark is still wet.
View attachment 527469
Here are some sample bites after a 20 minute rest. The bark has re-set nicely.
View attachment 527470

I do the same but prefer the steam finish. It all works well.

 

[rob g]

I think I'll have to stick to the sous vide to finish it. The wife bought an instant pot a couple years ago and it's still in the box out in the garage. Too much invested in this to screw it up at the end with something I've no experience using.

 

[negolien]

lol boiling meat never will get it lol. yea not boiling I get it but pretty damn close wtf the difference lol. cook that in a bbq or smoker for goodness sake lol

 

[thirdeye]

lol boiling meat never will get it lol. yea not boiling I get it but pretty damn close wtf the difference lol. cook that in a bbq or smoker for goodness sake lol

He who masters the finish.... masters the pastrami.

 

[tallbm]

My first attempt at pastrami and I've got a brisket flat curing per SmokinAl recipe and process. The flat is about 6lb and ranges from 1" - 1-1/2" thick. I plan on using one of the pepper/coriander/garlic spice recipes others have posted here for the final rub. I plan on soaking the flat after the first cure to remove any extra surface salt as I do this all the time with my bacon with good results. A few questions:
- Do you just towel dry the flat after washing off the cure and soaking or should I put it in the fridge for a day to develop a pellicle before adding the finishing rub?
- Do you use a binder i.e. mustard or worcestershire to help hold the rub?
- I plan on smoking to 150F. Normally the smoke given off from the limp charcoal on my kamado is sufficient for our tastes. Is there a preferred smoke wood for me to add to enhance the flavor? I have cherry, pear, pecan, mesquite readily available.
- I want to finish the meat in sous vide as I'm concerned about drying out such a thin piece of meat on the smoker.The meat will go into the sous vide with some bark from the smoker but I expect it will be somewhat soggy coming out based on my previous sous vide cooks. Do you do anything to try and reset the bark i.e. dry it in the oven on low temps?
- The brisket point ended up on the smoker for supper last week. Could have I also used it for pastrami or is it too fatty for that purpose?

Here's my 2 cents.

- Do you just towel dry the flat after washing off the cure and soaking or should I put it in the fridge for a day to develop a pellicle before adding the finishing rub?

I just pat down with paper towels to keep it from dripping or being sopping wet. I wouldn't worry bout a pellicle at all. I've done bacon and salmon lox experiments where I didn't form a pellicle and couldn't' tell the the difference when compared to the ties I did do a pellicle so I say save the time especially on this dish where a pellicle doesn't matter like it might for salmon lox.

- Do you use a binder i.e. mustard or worcestershire to help hold the rub?

I never use a binder. I just let the juice/blood/water do the binding for me. A brisket Flat muscle along is thin enough to where you can easily oversalt it just like pork ribs. Many people may not think that but I average smoking about 1.5 briskets a month being here in brisket country.
When you rise the meat and pat dry, just remove enough water so it's not dripping all over but will easily take some seasoning. Once it stops taking seasoning that will be a good indicator that you have seasoned it well :)

- I plan on smoking to 150F. Normally the smoke given off from the limp charcoal on my kamado is sufficient for our tastes. Is there a preferred smoke wood for me to add to enhance the flavor? I have cherry, pear, pecan, mesquite readily available.

In my reading, Maple is the preferred wood for pastrami and other sandwich meats like bologna done in the smoker.
Of your choices I would lean pecan since it can be quite mild. I've never used pear so I can't give you any input on it. Cherry would be my back up to Pecan.
Most importantly is to go with what you feel will make you happiest with flavor :)

- I want to finish the meat in sous vide as I'm concerned about drying out such a thin piece of meat on the smoker.The meat will go into the sous vide with some bark from the smoker but I expect it will be somewhat soggy coming out based on my previous sous vide cooks. Do you do anything to try and reset the bark i.e. dry it in the oven on low temps?

I'm not sure what the best approach is BUT if you smoke to an IT of 180F then you should have more bark to survive with your steps later.
Though going that for for an IT of the meat you may as well just wrap in some foil with a spritz of some liquid and commit to finishing in the smoker so it may defeat your goal to SV it unless you still want to do it in SV to ensure tenderness which would work too after 180F IT hahah :)

- The brisket point ended up on the smoker for supper last week. Could have I also used it for pastrami or is it too fatty for that purpose?

I've eaten super fatty pastrami and it was awesome. They made it from the point.
I think that as long as you clean off the fat from the outside of the Point muscle all over you would be fine to go with it. I find I prefer the Point to the Flat in every application of brisket out there :)


I hope all this info helps and I can't wait to see what you make! :)

 

[MJB05615]

I pat dry with paper towels til it's just damp, similar to tallbm . I then put the rub on, and let it sit for 1-2 days in the fridge. I used Maple pellets last year and it overpowered the flavor. This last time, which was the first successful one I've done in over 2 years of trying, I went with only Hickory. I'm sure with any milder wood, Pecan, etc, you'll be fine. I take the IT to 175, then wrap and refrigerate til the next day.

Slice as thin as possible, and steam. Comes out moist, bark intact (whatever's left after slicing, lol.) very tender from the steaming. Can't wait to see how yours turns out.

 

[chopsaw]

I think I'll have to stick to the sous vide to finish it.

You won't be sorry . Last one I did I dried cured a small flat using a pickling spice recipe I have , then followed Al's method for smoking and SV finish .
Came out fantastic .

The wife bought an instant pot a couple years ago and it's still in the box

Get that out of the box . A lot of uses for an instant pot .

 

[rob g]

My brisket has been curing for 9 days and I'm soon getting ready to wash the cure off. I've noticed the cure/ spices I put on the brisket are damp but no liquid in the bag. When I do bacon there is usually noticeable liquid in the bag. Is this normal?

I used digging dog's calculator for my cure/salt/sugar. I've trimmed the brisket of most of the fat while any of my bacon (belly, loin, shoulder) tends to have more fat. Or is this just the difference between pork and beef? Does the fat content allow more liquid to be extracted?

 

[rob g]

Got my flat washed and the finishing spices (Thirdeye recipe) applied. Into the fridge for two days before the smoker.

 

[Gonna Smoke]

Got my flat washed and the finishing spices (Thirdeye recipe) applied.

I've used thirdeye recipe and it turned out great...

 

[rob g]

About 5 hours @200F-215F with pecan chunks added for smoke. The meat came off at 248F. I figured 24 hours in the sous vide @155F will take care of the last 2 degrees lol. The finish rub might have been put on a little heavy as it was caking off a bit when I handled it. The best part was I was able to turn up the temp and put on a pork tenderloin for supper.

 

[rob g]

My meat has come out of the sous vide after 18-1/2 hours @ 155F. It's into the fridge to cool before slicing.

It didn't get the full 24 hours because my Anova unit started acting strange. Random numbers were appearing on it and the screen was going black. I tried to unplug it and restart it but that didn't seem to help. I've had the unit about 3 years but this is only the 3rd or 4th time I've used it. I'm going to have to get online and see what I can find for solutions.

 

[rob g]

I finally got my pastrami sliced tonight after an afternoon in the fridge. The coriander flavor of the finish rub is fairly light. I used ground powder vs seeds. The pepper has a bite. I'm thinking the slices might be a bit dry. They bend without breaking though. The pecan chunks made a very enjoyable smoke flavor. Even my wife likes it. By the time we parcelled out little packages for friends to try I managed to get two packages vac packed and into the freezer for us with one in the fridge for the next couple days.

Not to be outdone by others on this forum I made my first loaf of dark rye bread to accompany the meat. It's great and will definitely be making more.

 

[MJB05615]

Looks good. Did you steam the slices after slicing? That will make it more moist. If the slices didn't break while bending, it isn't that dry. That Rye looks great, do you need a machine to make that? We love Rye bread here, can't get great ones though. Nice work all looks good.