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Tri-tip pastrami from scratch

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73saint

Master of the Pit
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Near New Orleans La
Two weeks ago, I bought a couple of prime Tri-Tips from Costco. I’ve been wanting to do pastrami from tri tip, so this was my chance.
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I weighed each tri tip in grams, and used the bacon calculator to determine the proper levels of cure, salt and sugar.

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To that, I added 1/4 cup pickling spices, granulated onion & granulated garlic. Then I evenly added the seasoning and cure mix to a 2.5 gallon ziplock w one tri tip per bag.

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Then into the fridge for two weeks, rotating and massaging every day or so.

Fast forward to yesterday afternoon, I fired up my Lang with hickory wood, while I took the tri tip from the cure, rinsed, rubbed w olive oil and my pastrami rub blend (black pepper, garlic powder, paprika, coriander, brown sugar).

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rinsed and ready for a rub down.

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rubbed down and ready for the pit.

I ran between 235-250, for just under 3 hours. Pulled at 150 internal temp.

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Ready for a cool down. My plan was to chill them before I even cut into it, but the smell was just too good not to try a few samples. Flavor was just right!

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so this morning I took my chunks and froze for about an hour, then thin sliced on the berkel.
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I cannot say enough how pleased I am with how this turned out. I normally do brisket pastrami, and don’t get me wrong it’s wonderful. But the tri tip texture is very much like deli meat, which I like. Not to mention under three hours cook time is an absolute breeze. So anyone wanting to make pastrami but not wanting to invest in the time necessary to do a full brisket, I would highly recommend giving this a shot.
 
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OMG!! Tat looks fantastic. I love a good pastrami but my god friend Ricky (@woodwindricky ) is obsessed with it. I got him started making it a year or so ago and it's been Katy bar the door ever since. Great job on this batch!!

Mmmm mmm good!!
Robert
 
just WOW! WOW WOW WOW! nice work
 
ok wait - What is this bacon calculator you speak of? So this can be used to calculate the mix of salt sugar and cure for corned beef? can you link me to this?
 
Delicious looking pastrami! I normally do my pastrami with store bought corned beef...it’s cheaper than brisket and TT is scarce around here.

If TT was cheap and more available, I’d make this in a heartbeat.

Like!
 
73 Looks like a 100 to me very nice from start to finish. Points
Richie
 
@73saint - does that calculator work for any cut of meat for or does the cut matter? I have been tempted to corn some beef - but haven't pulled the trigger just yet. I have smoked a CB that I soaked to desalinate. but thats as far as I have gone...so far.
 
@73saint - does that calculator work for any cut of meat for or does the cut matter? I have been tempted to corn some beef - but haven't pulled the trigger just yet. I have smoked a CB that I soaked to desalinate. but thats as far as I have gone...so far.
As far as I know, yes. It’s simply giving you measurements and percentages based on weight in grams. So I don’t see why not.
 
OMG!! Tat looks fantastic. I love a good pastrami but my god friend Ricky (@woodwindricky ) is obsessed with it. I got him started making it a year or so ago and it's been Katy bar the door ever since. Great job on this batch!!

Mmmm mmm good!!
Robert
Thanks Robert!

just WOW! WOW WOW WOW! nice work
Thanks Sandy!
Delicious looking pastrami! I normally do my pastrami with store bought corned beef...it’s cheaper than brisket and TT is scarce around here.

If TT was cheap and more available, I’d make this in a heartbeat.

Like!
Thanks X-ray!

73 Looks like a 100 to me very nice from start to finish. Points
Richie
Thanks Richie!
 
Looks fantastic!! I can almost taste a Reuben looking at those pics!! I did some from scratch last year from a knuckle. Flavor was great but too much gristle. I’ll have to give a cleaner cut a go this year.
 
Man you nailed that . Fantastic . I like the Deli texture too . I use eye round when it's on sale .
Nice work .
 
very, nice. congrats on the rotator
 
Wow Great post. Wish I could get TT here.
 
Looks fantastic!! I can almost taste a Reuben looking at those pics!! I did some from scratch last year from a knuckle. Flavor was great but too much gristle. I’ll have to give a cleaner cut a go this year.
Thanks jcam!
Man you nailed that . Fantastic . I like the Deli texture too . I use eye round when it's on sale .
Nice work .
Thanks Chop! Next time I’m going to try eye of the round. The bigger slices would work even better. Great idea.

very, nice. congrats on the rotator
Thanks flatbroke!

You knocked it out of the park!
Never considered using TT for pastrami.
Thanks secondhand!

Wow Great post. Wish I could get TT here.
Thanks Adam!
 
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