Pastrami time

[MartinB]

So for the first time, I didn't smoke my pastrami to completion. I slow smoked it to 150F and then let it spend overnight in the refrigerator.... And then steamed it in the oven. Simple to do in a roaster pan in the oven just put a rack in the bottom and pour in a little bit of water cover it all tight with foil and put in a 300 F oven even put in a temperature monitoring probe so I can monitor the temperature of it from my workstation. Went to 203 in the steam pan.

Okay in the past taking pastrami to 200 plus led to crumbly pastrami when done in the smoker after slicing. Like a well done brisket would be if you tried to slice it a 1/16th in thick on a meat slicer. This is not crumbly at all . The pastrami is still quite moist as you would expect. The steaming is probably a much quicker way to heat it and so it doesn't break down as quickly by reaching that 200 plus temp as it would if you did it slower in the smoker, keeps it moisture too. Not as much trouble as I thought it would be either.

Going to slice her up soon .

edit: tastes like pastrami .. the only question is do I want a Reuben or a hot pastrami for for dinner?

Edit: looks like the first sandwich was just a hot pastrami melted Swiss with a good amount of Coleman's mustard

 

[Brett-EDH]

pics? words just don't do it.

 

[Bob Bailey]

So for the first time, I didn't smoke my pastrami to completion. I slow smoked it to 150F and then let it spend overnight in the refrigerator.... And then steamed it in the oven. Simple to do in a roaster pan in the oven just put a rack in the bottom and pour in a little bit of water cover it all tight with foil and put in a 300 F oven even put in a temperature monitoring probe so I can monitor the temperature of it from my workstation. Went to 203 in the steam pan.

Okay in the past taking pastrami to 200 plus led to crumbly pastrami when done in the smoker after slicing. Like a well done brisket would be if you tried to slice it a 1/16th in thick on a meat slicer. This is not crumbly at all . The pastrami is still quite moist as you would expect. The steaming is probably a much quicker way to heat it and so it doesn't break down as quickly by reaching that 200 plus temp as it would if you did it slower in the smoker, keeps it moisture too. Not as much trouble as I thought it would be either.

Going to slice her up soon .

edit: tastes like pastrami .. the only question is do I want a Reuben or a hot pastrami for for dinner?

Edit: looks like the first sandwich was just a hot pastrami melted Swiss with a good amount of Coleman's mustard

Nice looking pastrami!

Most of my pastrami is dry cured and smoked at 225 F to an IT of 155 F. After a short cool down it goes into the fridge, uncovered, and then sliced thin the next morning. We use a lot of it as cold cuts but a nice steamed hot sammich with American cheese, mustard and some dill slices is also great. Steaming with pickle juice makes it even better.

When I do a wet cure, I treat it just like a brisket.

 

[Dustin Dorsey]

I think it's all in how you want to present it. You have to slice it thicker if you cook it to brisket temps. If you want to go with traditional thin cut pastrami what you did makes sense and it's really the only way. I cooked it to 200 and served it like brisket and it was great too.

That looks fantastic and I think I want to try it that way for sure!

 

[MartinB]

I dry cure as well. Ive smoked to everything between 203 and 165 in past.
I kind of like going to 150 and then steaming . I think it worked well. I stretched the smoke time out this time using lower temperature, i like it. It had more of a smoke flavor to it.

 

[MartinB]

Sadly, the pastrami is all gone. It fell victim to Reuben sandwiches.
This was basically half a brisket..... Lasted a couple days.

If I had never eaten one, I would have never thought sauerkraut on a sandwich could be that good. .... I mean, it never would have crossed my mind to put sauerkraut on a sandwich...... We grew up eating sauerkraut with some meals..... Used to bake pork chops in the oven on a bed of sauerkraut too.... And sausages on sauerkraut. I recently looked into making it it's a lot easier than I thought. Cabbage ,salt and let it ferment.

 

[Bob Bailey]

Sadly, the pastrami is all gone. It fell victim to Reuben sandwiches.
This was basically half a brisket..... Lasted a couple days.

If I had never eaten one, I would have never thought sauerkraut on a sandwich could be that good. .... I mean, it never would have crossed my mind to put sauerkraut on a sandwich...... We grew up eating sauerkraut with some meals..... Used to bake pork chops in the oven on a bed of sauerkraut too.... And sausages on sauerkraut. I recently looked into making it it's a lot easier than I thought. Cabbage ,salt and let it ferment.

The great thing about fermenting your own sauerkraut is it's loaded with probiotics.

 

[Brett-EDH]

The great thing about fermenting your own sauerkraut is it's loaded with probiotics.

I’ve been drinking a shot glass worth of my sour garlic pickles’ juice daily. The probiotics are good.

 

[Bob Bailey]

I’ve been drinking a shot glass worth of my sour garlic pickles’ juice daily. The probiotics are good.

You bet! I keep a jar of Sauerkraut and a jar of Kimchi in the fridge at all times. When they start to get low, I ferment another batch. Also keep fermented hot sauces on hand. Right now I've got last season's green Jalapeño and some Ripe Jalapeño/Habanero from this year's crop. Peppers are about the only thing that produced well this year.

 

[CaseyMcC]

So for the first time, I didn't smoke my pastrami to completion. I slow smoked it to 150F and then let it spend overnight in the refrigerator.... And then steamed it in the oven. Simple to do in a roaster pan in the oven just put a rack in the bottom and pour in a little bit of water cover it all tight with foil and put in a 300 F oven even put in a temperature monitoring probe so I can monitor the temperature of it from my workstation. Went to 203 in the steam pan.

Okay in the past taking pastrami to 200 plus led to crumbly pastrami when done in the smoker after slicing. Like a well done brisket would be if you tried to slice it a 1/16th in thick on a meat slicer. This is not crumbly at all . The pastrami is still quite moist as you would expect. The steaming is probably a much quicker way to heat it and so it doesn't break down as quickly by reaching that 200 plus temp as it would if you did it slower in the smoker, keeps it moisture too. Not as much trouble as I thought it would be either.

Going to slice her up soon .

edit: tastes like pastrami .. the only question is do I want a Reuben or a hot pastrami for for dinner?

Edit: looks like the first sandwich was just a hot pastrami melted Swiss with a good amount of Coleman's mustard

I got a piece of beef belly from Porter Road Ranch and copied your technique for my first ever pastrami. I was glad I followed your lead. It turned out great. It probed like melting butter. The one draw back I found about using belly is that there was a seam of fat over an inch thick between the muscle layers. That reduced the yield a little bit. I am going for round 2 this week. Using a tri tip this time though.