In my never-ending search for things to smoke on my BGE, I had someone suggest trying smoked pastrami. I've honestly never considered it up to now, and I've found a couple of recipes online, but the instructions vary significantly.

Has anyone on here ever smoked pastrami that could offer some guidance?

The biggest variables seem to be the cut of brisket - whole vs. flat, prime vs. choice - and brining time - I've seen as little as 3 days and as long as 4 weeks.

Appreciate any feedback!

I've done a number of pastrami cooks on my BGE over the last year. It really isn't that complex and produces a fantastic product.

I've been using the corned beef/pastrami recipe from Charcuterie on Choice brisket flats. My local bbq joint does whole brisket pastrami on Saturdays but he has a continuous injection gun. My next pastrami will be a flat and a point so that the cure can get to everything in a reasonable time. My cure time so far have been 5-6 days. Typically in the brine on Saturday or Sunday, rinse and fresh water soak Friday night, coat and smoke on Saturday.

Your local BBQ joint doesn't happen to be Intrinsic, does it?

It does. We're gonna head downtown in a bit and wander the Urban Flea thing and sip a beer.

I've done it before too. The only real change is that I tend to cool it to about 180 instead of 200+ for a typical brisket. That will give you pastrami that is easier to slice thin without it crumbling to bits, but it's still plenty tender.

Urban Flea was a success! We upgraded the 5-year-old's art station.



And the pastrami mac-n-cheese was excellent.

I've done done brisket pastrami with good results. It's a little bit of a PITA to have to keep brining brisket in a some sort of receptacle in the fridge for over a week, though.

Well, just got lost on amazingribs for the last hour and corned beef/pastrami will next up after this week's bacon is done

I've been wanting to try this for a while.

Killin Me Smalls said:

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I've been wanting to try this for a while.

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Damn I'm going to find an excuse to do this.

If you really want to do it right, start a batch of sauerkraut fermenting when you brine the brisket, and you will end up with the two most important ingredients to an awesome Reuben sandwich. It's ridiculously easy to make kraut.

Got a good recipe?

Absolutely. Follow this to the letter. Read the story that goes with it too. https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2016/12/homemade-fermented-sauerkraut-recipe.html
If you have half gallon mason jars (order from Amazon), the airlocks ( also on Amazon), and the glass weights (Amazon), you're halfway there. Just get the salt correct (you have to weigh everything), keep it between 70-75 dF, use good sanitation, and keep the airlock closed, in a week you will have great kraut. If you can wait another week, you can have really great kraut. Pack it as tight as you can in the jar (a bar muddler works really well for this). It will start out clear, get really cloudy, and then clear up again. When it clears up, it is ready, but if you can wait another week or two, it gets better. Trim one of the outer leaves so that it just fits inside the jar. Put that on top of the kraut, then add the weight, and then add enough bribe to cover by 1". This helps ensure that the kraut stays submerged, since exposed cabbbage is susceptible to mold. I've always found that I've had to add brine. I've bad five batches so far and haven't lost one.

Go eat at Roegels in Houston. It's on Voss. He does a Ruben on Thursday and Pastrami beef ribs on Friday.

Really freaking good. Do what he does.

Trying the Meat Church smoked pastrami. Started the brine yesterday and will cook for Memorial Day.

I recently made some for the first time using a 7lb elk roast. It was probably the most labor intensive thing I've ever made, but it was totally worth it. I followed Brad Leone's recipe on YouTube, except I used pink salt instead of celery juice.

Bump. Anyone ever tried to smoke the pre-brined corned brisket flats you can buy in stores around St. Patrick's Day?

If so, any tips, recipes recommended?

Agz_2003 said:

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Bump. Anyone ever tried to smoke the pre-brined corned brisket flats you can buy in stores around St. Patrick's Day?

If so, any tips, recipes recommended?

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Yes. I use these all the time. You have to soak them in fresh water for about 24 hours and change the water twice to remove the excess salt (boiling them for corned beef and adding vegetables solves the extra salt problem for corned beef). Dry it off, coat it with crushed coriander and black peppercorns (you can add some mustard seeds and red pepper flake if you want to change the flavor profile), and then put it on the smoker.

What a bump. The 5 year old mentioned above just turned 13 and her sister, born 7 months after this thread started, is headed to second grade.

Anybody want a really cool old school kids desk and chair? We just moved it out of a room for other activities inbound.