I just bit into my first pastrami. It tastes delicious, but it's too dry. I got an expensive and lean 2.25 lb piece of Waygu brisket (noone had brisket except the fancy store!), brined it 4 days, rinsed 1 day, and had the rub on overnight. I smoked it for about 4 hours and then wrapped it up in the pan with some water and drippings for a couple of hours (meat temp was ~200+), rested it, and FINALLY tried it. Like I said, delicious, it's definately pastrami, but too dry. I've made regular smoked brisket with great success before.
Whaddya think:
smoked too long?
not wrapped up for long enough? IF that's the problem then I could just pop it back in the oven!
brisket too lean?
cooked too hot?
I think maybe I should have smoked it for just a couple of hours, then wrapped it up and let it cook for much longer while wrapped up, and maybe it woudn't have dried out so much.
Thanks for whatever advice y'all got!