You might want to go over to the Harvest Forum and post your question. I know Ken (Krogers) and several others over there make up their own pastrami, sausages, bacon, etc. I'd like to, but just haven't had the time yet.

chase, you can try this method in case you want to do a quickie pastrami. I haven't done it yet, but it sounds fairly easy and good. Not authentic, but a time saver. I've made a number of recipes from this blog and have liked all of them so far.

Marsha

Here is a link that might be useful: how to turn corned beef into pastrami

Um, Chase, there are a couple of members at Harvest that don't necessarily use the safest methods, I wouldn't eat some of their meat products, so be careful. I've given up trying to argue with them, they're always right. Not safe, but right, LOL.

Elery and I did Pancetta last year, basically cured for several days in the refrigerator, rolled and hung to dry for several more, then sliced and into the freezer. It was great and I used the recipe from Brian Polcyn's Charcuterie.

Here's his recipe for pastrami:

Pastrami

The brine:

1 gallon water
1 1/2 cups kosher salt
1 cup sugar
8 tsp pink salt
1 tbls pickling spice
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup honey
5 garlic cloves, minced

1 5 lb. brisket, with heavy surface fat removed
1 tbls lightly toasted coriander seeds
1 tbls lightly toasted black peppercorns

Combine brine ingredients and simmer until sugar is dissolved. Cool to room temperature and refrigerate until chilled.

Place beef in brine and place a plate on top of the meat to keep it submerged. Refrigerate for 3 days

Remove beef from brine, rinse and pat dry.

Combine coriander and pappercorns in a spice mill and grind coarsely. Coat meat with the mixture.

Hot smoke to an internal temperature of 150F/65C. (Traditionally, pastrami is cold smoked before it's hot smoked so try to get as much smoke as possible on it by holding it below the final temperature for as long as possible)

to prepare pastrami fore serving, heat oven to 175F/140c Place beef in an inch of water in a stockpot or on a rack above the same amount of water in a roasting pan. Bring water to a simmer, then cover the pot, place it in the oven and slow roast or steam for 2-3 hours until tender.

I love that book and it's never steered me wrong. Let me know how it comes out, I have two briskets in the freezer and Elery bought that smoker. Plus I have a steer to slaughter in the fall, more brisket!

Annie

Thanks Annie, that's very close to the one I was looking at except your recipe gives the amount of water for the brine and mine didn't. Nor did it give approximate smoking time! Same spices and process though.

I'm going to brine today and hopefully we'll be eating pastrami sandwiches this weekend!

Sharon, I've got to talk Elery into doing that, he keeps saying he doesn't want to "waste" a whole brisket. I tell him it can't be bad, and that we have a pasture with more brisket walking around in it, LOL.

Annie

Oooooooh, Sharon, I can't wait to hear the results! Can Dishesdone and I come up? We are both Pastrami aficionados! We'll bring up a great NY rye!

Um, Chase, I made a mistake in the recipe. The brisket should be steamed at 275F, not 175F.....

Annie

ovenbird, thanks for the clip. That looks like a great way to speed things up and I bet it's tasty but I'm on a mission to smoke my own.

Woodie you know darn well that you are both welcome any ole' time! I think that we should have an international cook off between NYC and Montreal for bagels, rye, pastrami and Montreal smoked meat! The three of us can volunteer as judges! Of course it would mean serious time in both cities!

Annie, thanks for the correction, I have adjusted. Seems like the secret is in the steaming...

I will keep you all posted on the results. My butcher told me it's really a trail and error thing and a bit tricky....I think he was trying to warn me.

Hey, now, wait just a minute. If Woodie and Dishesdone are going to visit Sharon, then I'm going too!!

Annie

Annie, sorry, I read threads from Harvest on making your own meat products and thought they were safe methods. Well, I don't recall reading any debates about the methods. I personally haven't ever tried doing my own sausage, pastrami, etc., but would have used the methods I'd read there not knowing they weren't the safest.

bcskye, most of them are just fine, but some are very "old fashioned" and involve curing meat without any regard to updating methods. And where in the world are you going to buy saltpeter, anyway? Well, actually, I can buy it on line but I'd rather not. (grin)

Truthfully, it's not usually the recipes, it's the storage issues that set me a bit on edge. You know, those "I made this summer sausage and I'm just going to set it in my cool basement for several months and then sell it at a garage sale, you don't need to freeze the stuff" posts. I'm sure somone is gonna get food poisoning....

Annie

Sharon, I've never made pastrami but if yours turns out good I'm going to try it. For those that are interested here is a site that goes into detail why you want to properly cure meat before smoking or holding at a temp that botulism multiplies at. The amount and type of cure is quite critical for safe preparation of smoked meats.

Here is a link that might be useful: Curing meats and sausage

Hey Annie! You can tell Ellery that you won't be wasting a whole brisket when making pastrami. In reviewing the recipe you posted, a 5 lb brisket is only about half a brisket. I don't think even a small steer would produce a 5 pound brisket. On average, a whole brisket runs 12 pounds and up. You could ask for the flat cut and he could have the point cut for other things. The point cut is much fattier than the flat cut and probably wouldn't be so good for pastrami.

We smoke flat cuts in about 6 hours and they come out fine. All fat and silver skin is removed before smoking. When we smoke a whole brisket (12-13 pounds), it takes about 14 hours. We don't trim the brisket then.

dees, I've taken to having Carl cut the brisket in half for me anyway, because it's just so darned much beef!

Good point, I'll tell Elery it's only HALF a brisket, and if it's good there's more we can make. he really wants to do a brisket in the smoker like Texas BBQ too, I think that's why he's dragging his feet, LOL.

Annie

dee,and other smokers...... maybe you can help me with an idea for the point. I am doing the flat for pastrami and am left with the point and no idea what I can do with it!

Sharon, you can smoke it for sliced or chopped sandwiches. It won't take as long as the flat end but the method is the same. As with the flat end...I trim the fat cap down to 1/4 inch and score it. Rub it with dry rub or marinate. Smoke it until it reaches about 160 and then double wrap in foil and continue cooking until it reaches 190 give or take. I wrap it up in a towel(still in the foil) and let it rest at least half an hour and up to a whole hour. I trim off what's left of the fat cap. Them I slice it against the grain or chop it up and serve with bbq sauce on buns or bread.

Glad to see you are having fun with the smoker. Hope your pastrami turns out...may have to take that on one of these days.

David

I agree with David on the method; we did almost the same thing this weekend. However, it might take longer to smoke because of the fat cap. The point has an inner fat cap that you can't get rid of unless you cut the point in half (and then it's more difficult to smoke). When smoking a whole brisket, the amount of time needed to smoke the whole thing allows for more of the fat cap to melt down. Using part of the brisket changes your method.

Ann - tell Elery (sorry for the misspelling in the first post!) that you want the flat for pastrami and he can have the point for the smoker. His Texas BBQ will turn out just fine with the point. The upside is you won't have 12 pounds of Texas BBQ to deal with (not that it's a bad thing).

Brisket done right is one of my favorite cuts of meat! I will have to try homemade pastrami as well!

Sharon, can't wait to see how your pastrami turns out.

Ann

dees, don't worry about the misspelling, Elery has kind of an unusual name and it gets just butchered. Nothing easy like "Annie", LOL.

OK, so we smoke the point, when he gets back up here with the smoker. My homegrown beef doesn't have much fat anywhere, so that middle fat cap shouldn't be too egregious.

He's working for the next three weeks, so we won't see each other until then.

Annie