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Recipes
Meat
Preserved Meats
Pastrami & Corn Beef
Pastrami is one of the most popular preserved meats. Pastrami is preserved
in much the way that meat has been for thousand of years, in a salt mixture to
prevent bacteria from growing. The great thing about pastrami is that it, like
ham, has the additional bonus of being also smoked. Pastrami starts with corned
beef (salted beef with spices) and is then smoked to add flavor and aid in
preservation.
The basic method for making pastrami from scratch is to start with a mostly
trimmed beef brisket. If you buy a trimmed brisket at the store or butcher it
will have no layer of fat on it. For the best results, it is best to have a very
thin layer of fat on your brisket to make pastrami, about 1/4 inch. This means
separating the flat and the point. For those of you who don't have a lot of
experience with brisket, a whole brisket is actually two pieces of meat
separated by a thick layer of fat that are referred to as the flat and the point
From this point you need to corn the beef. This is done in several different
ways. The easiest and safest in my opinion is to use a brine. The salt-water
brine preserves the meat and gives it the texture that we would call corned
beef. The basic brine consists of water, enough salt to float an egg and
seasonings like black pepper, coriander, juniper berries, garlic, etc. Or Brine
Recipe People who make their own pastrami usually end up with a recipe
unique to them. The beef brisket should remain in the brine stored in a cold,
dark place for anywhere from seven days to three weeks. You do need to regularly
check on the meat and turn it to prevent spoilage.
Once you have corned beef you need to rinse the meat off. If you have brined it
for a long period of time, like three weeks you might want to soak it overnight
in fresh water to lift some of the salt out. Now, apply a rub and place it in a
smoker. The old fashioned way of preparing pastrami is to cold smoke it. This
will give it a more pastrami like texture, but not that many people have the
smokehouse to do this. A modern, "hot" smoker will do the trick. Smoke
your brisket for about 45 minutes to an hour per pound. Keep this part in mind
when selecting a brisket. A ten-pound brisket can take 10 hours to smoke. Once
the meat has reached an internal temperature of 165 degrees it is done. You do
not need to smoke pastrami as long as you would a regular brisket. The long
brining time will make the meat tender.
Homemade pastrami is one of those things you need to be careful with. Because
you cure the meat for a long period of time the risk of spoilage is high
compared with other smoked foods. Make absolutely certain that everything,
including your hands, that come in contact with the meat is very clean. Make
careful observations of the meat during the whole process. And make sure that
every inch of the meat reaches 165 degrees before you remove it from the smoker.
Pastrami is kind of a hobby, experiment to find out what works best for you. I
guarantee that once you've found your method, you won't want to buy pastrami
again.