Make Your Own Pastrami

From Dr. BBQ’s book Slow Fire: The Guide to Lip-Smacking Barbecue

Pastrami… what’s not to love? I could pretty much stop typing now, couldn’t I?

The last time I made this my wife announced, “We’ll never have to go to Harold’s again!” Harold’s is this next level bananas delicatessen(sandwiches as long as your arm!) in Edison, NJ that has some of the best pastrami around so I took this as the ultimate compliment. Two days later and this family of four had finished a 3 pound brisket.

I made this again for my father-in-law’s birthday (who, like his daughter, loves pastrami too), and again everyone was thoroughly enjoying it. This is quickly becoming one of my favorite things to make on the Big Green Egg.

EGGcessories

Dual Probe Thermometer

ConvEGGtor

Chef’s Flavor Injector

Ingredients

Brine Injection

• 1 cup water
• 2 tablespoons Morton’s Tender Quick
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander
• ½ teaspoon black pepper
• 1 cup of ice water

Dry Cure

• 2 tablespoons Morton’s Tender Quick
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon ground coriander
• 1 USDA Choice graded flat cut beef brisket about seven pounds, untrimmed

Pastrami Cooking Rub

• ½ cup coarse ground black pepper
• 6 tablespoons ground coriander seeds

Directions

To make the brine, in a small saucepan over medium heat combine one cup of water, two tablespoons of the Tender Quick, one tablespoon brown sugar, two teaspoons garlic powder, and ½ teaspoon black pepper.

Bring to a simmer stirring often to dissolve the salt and sugar.

Remove from the heat and pour into medium bowl. Add the ice water and mix well. Refrigerate until very cold.

To make the dry cure, in a small bowl combine two tablespoons Tender Quick, 2 tablespoons brown sugar, one and a half tablespoons garlic powder, and 1 tablespoon coriander. Mix well and set aside.

Pastrami has brown sugar in the dry cure. Who knew?

Lay the brisket in a sheet pan fat side down. Cover loosely with plastic wrap.

With a kitchen injector inject the brine deeply into the brisket in a grid pattern at one inch intervals.

Continue until all of the brine liquid has been used.

This is kind of fun because the brisket bulges up as the brine is injected. So much briney goodness!

Remove the plastic and dry the brisket and the sheet pan.

Flip the brisket over and season the fat side with half of the dry cure mixture. Press the mixture into the fat. Flip the brisket and season the other side with half the dry cure and press it into the meat.

Put the brisket in a heavy plastic bag. Push out as much air as possible and seal the bag. Refrigerate for three and a half days, flipping and massaging it through the bag twice a day.

And now we playing the waiting game. This is definitely one of those recipes that needs a little pre-planning.

Take the brisket out of the bag and rinse well under cold running water.

Place the brisket in a large pan of cold water for a half hour. Dump the water and replace with fresh water and soak for another half hour. (This will keep the pastrami from being too salty)

Prepare your cooker to cook indirect at 235° using medium oak wood smoke for flavor.

I started up my Egg while waiting for the brisket to finish soaking. This website has time saving tips and everything!

To make the Pastrami Cooking Rub combine the pepper and coriander in a small bowl and mix well.

Take the brisket out of the water and dry it well.

Season the fat side with half of the Pastrami Cooking Rub pressing it into the meat. Flip the brisket and season the meaty side with the other half of the rub pushing it into the meat.

Get a good push on. Really get that rub into the meat.

Put the brisket in the cooker fat side up. Cook for four hours.

A lot of this recipe is waiting. 3 ½ days for curing. An hour in the water bath. It really isn’t a complicated recipe, it’s just time consuming. But anything worth doing is going to take time, and this is definitely worth doing. 🙂

Then flip the brisket to fat side up. Cook until it reaches an internal temperature of 170°, about another one or two hours.

Lay out a big double thick piece of heavy duty aluminum foil. Take the brisket out of the cooker and lay it on the foil fat side up. Wrap the foil up around the brisket adding the water to the package. Close the package up tightly pushing out as much air as possible.

If you’re using the Dual Probe Thermometer make sure the foil isn’t touching the probe. Mine was at first and the thermometer was going crazy. Large jumps in temperature, then reading HHH, then reading LLL. Once I moved the foil away from the probe it was fine.

Return to the cooker until the internal temperature of the brisket reaches 200°, about another one to two hours.

Take the package out of the cooker and open it to allow the steam to escape. Let rest for fifteen minutes.

Take the brisket out of the foil and discard the juices. Slice thinly across the grain to serve.

This is where a deli slicer comes in handy. Total control over how thick or thin the slices come.

I like to make Pastrami Reuben sandwich. Pastrami topped by coleslaw with a slather of Russian dressing between two pieces of Rye bread. Mmmm, good.