I had a pretty good sized brisket flat in the freezer I got back in February of this year on clearance. About 8 lbs. When I thawed it out, the fat had oxidized a bit, so I trimmed it all off. I'd been saving it for pastrami, but since it had zero fat left on it, and I want a little speck with my pastrami, I decided it was going to become a pastrami sausage. I'd busted open 2 belly slabs for bacon and to my dismay, whoever was trimming bellies that day at Swift had cut one of them damn near all the way through and right dead center. So the fat for this sausage came from that belly. Still got a good couple of lbs of bacon from it, and I'll post up a bacon pic at the end of this post. A little extra food p0rn never hurt anyone. Unless you don't eat pork for religious reasons, but your God will forgive you for looking ;)
I fully also admit that this had WAY too much fat. I did say I like my pastrami with a bit of speck, but I went overboard. It's rich. Good, but rich. Going to go for 80/20 in batch 2, this had to be 70/30, maybe 65/35.
Standard corned beef dry brine. 1.5% salt, .25% cure, .75% sugar (bacon only gets .5% sugar) and an eyeball of McCormick's pickling seasoning. I will say that I needed more pickling seasoning, and test batch #2 will have a nice chunk of chuck added that I've got curing right now with extra heavy pickling seasoning to make up for this being a bit light. I always add a few extra coriander seeds to my brine, and extra mustard seed and black pepper.
Ratios as follows. This was a 1350g batch (3lbs)
Black pepper - .5% (going to back that down to 4% in batch #2, it's super stout)
Gran Garlic - .4%
Gran Onion - .2% (going to go with 3% in batch 2)
White pepper - .025%
Mustard powder and mustard seed both at .3% (going to back down to 2.5% in batch 2)
Red pepper flakes - .025% (same as white pepper)
25g nfdm
Shredded Tillamook sharp cheddar, I forgot to write down my amount but I think it was about 6oz (this was a last minute addition that I'll skip in batch 2) and it is delicious but I think it takes away from the pastrami flavor.
Cold smoked for 4 hours, ambient temp about 60. Hot smoked for 30 minutes (220) just to kind of set it. Hot water bath (170-175) until 145 internal.
This stuff is soooo good cold. I ate a link last night and a link earlier today. Today's link I just stood at the counter slicing it and dipping it in spicy brown mustard.
Bonus bacon shot.
I fully also admit that this had WAY too much fat. I did say I like my pastrami with a bit of speck, but I went overboard. It's rich. Good, but rich. Going to go for 80/20 in batch 2, this had to be 70/30, maybe 65/35.
Standard corned beef dry brine. 1.5% salt, .25% cure, .75% sugar (bacon only gets .5% sugar) and an eyeball of McCormick's pickling seasoning. I will say that I needed more pickling seasoning, and test batch #2 will have a nice chunk of chuck added that I've got curing right now with extra heavy pickling seasoning to make up for this being a bit light. I always add a few extra coriander seeds to my brine, and extra mustard seed and black pepper.
Ratios as follows. This was a 1350g batch (3lbs)
Black pepper - .5% (going to back that down to 4% in batch #2, it's super stout)
Gran Garlic - .4%
Gran Onion - .2% (going to go with 3% in batch 2)
White pepper - .025%
Mustard powder and mustard seed both at .3% (going to back down to 2.5% in batch 2)
Red pepper flakes - .025% (same as white pepper)
25g nfdm
Shredded Tillamook sharp cheddar, I forgot to write down my amount but I think it was about 6oz (this was a last minute addition that I'll skip in batch 2) and it is delicious but I think it takes away from the pastrami flavor.
Cold smoked for 4 hours, ambient temp about 60. Hot smoked for 30 minutes (220) just to kind of set it. Hot water bath (170-175) until 145 internal.
This stuff is soooo good cold. I ate a link last night and a link earlier today. Today's link I just stood at the counter slicing it and dipping it in spicy brown mustard.
Bonus bacon shot.
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Looks good and waiting on round 2...
