Putting a hold on uncooked cured meat


 
Pete Z

Pete Z

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Here's the situation - I have had a brisket curing for pastrami since Wednsday night. I felt great when I put it in, but I feel like crud this morning. The last thing that I want to do is smoke this meat today . My plan is to rinse the meat and then put in the freezer for use on a later date. Anybody see a problem with that or can anybody suggest a better solution. I probably won't have time to put it in the smoker until next week at the earliest. Thanks for your help.
 
Thanks. I'll report back with results of the frozen pastrami (hopefully good) next week or so.
 
I like to go with at least a 7 day cure, lots of folks go 14 days and some recipes recommend 21, if there is nothing needing the space in the fridge, I would just leave it in there, there will be nothing wrong leaving it till next weekend, if that's when you get round to cooking it.

If you think it will be oversalted, you can rinse it several times before you smoke it, another tip is once you have smoked it, you can put it on a cooling rack in a pan with water up to the bottom of the rack, cover tightly with foil, simmer for 3 - 4 hours, remove, cool, then refridgerate over night, slice thin the next day.

This extra step helps to relax the beef when the smoking alone can tend to make the pastrami tougher, it is a simple way to retenderize the meat.
 
I've cured briskets for 15 day in a sub 40F fridge. No issues. I'll agree with Chris, if it were me I wouldn't worry about leaving it in the fridge until next weekend.
 
Well, I overstated and certainly there is a choice but given one I'd not opt to cure substantially longer than needed unless I truly had no choice--but it can be done with no harm.

A lot of folks do a lot of unnecessary things when it comes to food and recipes reflect this, and curing a relatively thin piece of meat for three weeks, or even two, is not necessary. There is no benefit to curing longer than required for the salt to penetrate. This can be delayed if temps are too cold thus requiring one to add more time, but curing past the point of penetration offers no benefit. Much past it and one must soak the meat in cold water to remove the excess salt--not merely rinse it--often for a while with a few water changes depending on how overcured it is.

This surely is an option though and I should have said so.

Pastrami isn't made tougher by smoking; it simply never reaches tenderness during the smoking process as most people follow recipes that call for a finish internal of ~165. A steam finish will take the brisket to the point where it becomes tender: the point where the internal connective tissue has rendered/gelatinized. Many delis (and me!) steam-finish to tenderness beacause this does not occur in typical pastrami smoking. Best to fork-test if steaming. It is quite possible to overcook pastrami even if steaming.
 
Just wanted to report back on this one - I know that enquiring minds are dying to know how things turned out.

Smoked the pastrami yesterday and ate it for supper. Everyone thought that it turned out quite well. The kids even said that it was better than their uncle's version (same recipe - I think that they are probably buttering me up in this Christmas season). The kids liked it better because my pepper wasn't as hot. I'm guessing that this was because I bought cracked pepper instead of cracking it myself.

Anyway, I don't think that freezing the uncooked meat for a few weeks hurt the quality at all. The smell of roasting black pepper and pecan smoke was great all afternoon.
 
Congratulations, on having kids that are so wise so young!
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Oh! And on the successful conclusion to the worry of your 'strami.
 
I know what to get your kids for christmas this year. A big ol' bag of nothin.

As far as I'm concerned not grinding your own black pepper for pastrami is a crime against humanity, however I woulndn't expect spawn of an inferior sibling to understand this concept.
 
You'll be buttering me up too after you see the 15+ gallons of apple wood chunks that we made last weekend
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. Whenever I get the images off of my camera and onto the web, you should prepare to be impressed.
 
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