Questions about Pastrami

riotburn · Joined: 04 May 2011 Posts: 7

So I am taking a try at pastrami. I am corning it for 2 weeks which is done in 2 days. The brine was like a weak mace when boiling it. I am from NY and am trying to make a pastrami like the type one would get from Katz's (the best pastrami ive had to date). I've researched to the end of the internet, but still have some questions. If you've had or seen pictures of Katz's pastrami, it almost looks like it was painted with black paint. But what ive seen from most homemade pictures, they never look quite like that. Does anyone have thoughts on how to accomplish that? I have figured two ways to do that. One is the crust sort of melts when it is steamed, creating that finish. The second is maybe they put sugar and that caramelizes the pepper/coriander onto it.

I have two 5lb points corning. My current plan is to wash it off, cut a tiny piece off, quick sear and eat it to gauge the saltiness. When I've made corned beef from packages before, i never soaked it to get out the salt. Maybe im used to it growing up with it? Then im going to chop up a bunch of garlic to almost a paste and smear it over the beef. Then a medium sprinkle of paprika. Then a liberal coating of a 2:1 coarse ground black pepper to coarse coriander. Wrap it in plastic wrap, stack the two and put a weight on top for 24hrs. Going to smoke it with cherrywood to an internal temp of 165F. Wrap and refrigerate for another 24hrs. Finish with a 2-3hr steam. Im more or less following this: http://www.hungrybrowser.com/phaedrus/m0216W05.htm

But since I have two, I was thinking of changing the proportion of the pepper/coriander and maybe adding some brown sugar to test it out.

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SoEzzy · Posted: May 04 2011 Post subject:

PMPNLT650pxOTLS!
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riotburn · Joined: 04 May 2011 Posts: 7

Is that picture size ok? I chose 320x240 in tinypic, not sure if that equates to 650px. If not Ill just leave it as a link. Sorry.

Harry Nutczak · Posted: May 04 2011 Post subject:

your technique seem solid to me, instead of brown sugar, maybe they are using molasses to get everything to stick? That would look like black paint.
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riotburn · Joined: 04 May 2011 Posts: 7

Idk since its kosher-style, I know molasses wouldn't be used and is also why im skeptical about sugar too.

riotburn · Joined: 04 May 2011 Posts: 7

took the corned beefs out yesterday. Cooked a tiny piece and it was a little too salty so I let it soak in water with some leftover rice for an hr.

Then I put on the rubs, ended up using both with 2:1 pepper to coriander except added some brown sugar to one. Wrapped them and gonna smoke em tomorrow.

Dr Obvious · Posted: May 06 2011 Post subject:

cool, looking forward to the pics
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riotburn · Joined: 04 May 2011 Posts: 7

Smoked the pastrami today for about 4-5 hrs. Tried a little piece but it was still a little tuff but had a nice strong salty spicy peppery taste. Do you think that steaming it for 2-3 hrs will take care of that?

riotburn · Joined: 04 May 2011 Posts: 7

Pastrami was good. Was eaten so fast, didnt get pics. I'll get a picture when i steam the rest. Steaming it completely melted the fat and made it fall apart tender but was still able to slice it. In my opinion it was a little too salty and either the salt made it seem too peppery or it just was too peppery. Though the crust could just be scraped off if needed. Everyone else said it was fine the way it was. Though I think ill make the rub less coarse, maybe change it to a 1:1 ratio or just not make the crust so thick. Overall it was pretty damn good, especially for my first attempt. Next time itll be awesome.

Stang6990 · BBQ Fan Joined: 16 Jan 2010 Posts: 121

how did you steam it? this is my project later this year for the locals. i havnt really got around to researching though.
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riotburn · Joined: 04 May 2011 Posts: 7

ummm just found some way to suspend. One of the pieces was small enough to fit on a vegetable steamer in a pan. I think the other way i did it was put the pastrami in a aluminum pan and then put that in a larger aluminum pan that had water in it. Need to get creative with what you got.