Pastrami is too dry - what happened?

[mrted]

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• mrted
• Feb 19, 2013

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!

 

[kathrynn]

It looks good to me....but when I made mine...(one time only) I pulled mine off when the temp was 185-190ish.  Then gave it a cooler nap.  Maybe that was it....but I will let the others tell you what they have done. 

 

[dls1]

It sounds, and unless it's the camera, looks like it's overcooked. To me, an IT of 200+ is way too much.

I've made pastrami many times and smoke the meat at 200 to an IT of 160-165, then cool and refrigerate it overnight. The following day I follow the traditional process of gently steaming the meat in an oven pre-heated to 250 and take it to an IT of ~170. Great results every time.

 

[BGKYSmoker]

Whadda i think is all i need is a roll.

Looks good to me too