Homemade pastrami is a recipe that involves a lot of waiting, but the end result is delicious.
Course: Main Course
Keyword: brisket, cured meat, deli meat, pastrami, smoked meat
Ingredients
about 6 pounds beef brisket
2cupskosher salt
2ouncescuring saltthe stuff I found was called a “home meat cure”
2quartswater
1/4rounded cup garlic powder
4tablespoonsblack pepper
2rounded tablespoons onion powder
1tablespoonmustard powder
1tablespoondried thyme
1/2tablespoonground cloves
Around 2 to 3 tablespoons coarse ground pepper to finish
Instructions
In a large mixing bowl or pitcher (something you can pour from is a huge help), whisk the brine ingredients (everything on the ingredients list from the kosher salt to the cloves) until everything is well combined and the salt is dissolved.
Meanwhile, rinse the brisket and pat it dry with paper towels. With a sharp knife, slice off almost all of the fat layer that should be on one side of your brisket. You'll only want to leave a thin layer—maybe a 1/8th inch.
Once the meat is trimmed, place it in a deep roasting pan. Take a meat injector and inject some brine every two to three inches along one side of the brisket, inserting the injector about halfway into the meat. (Be careful. I managed to squirt myself in the face during this step because I didn't insert the injector far enough down.)
Pour the rest of the brine over the brisket and cover the top of the pan tightly with plastic wrap. Find a spot in your refrigerator and let the brisket sit for four to five days.
When you're ready to cook your pastrami, remove the brisket from the brine and pat it dry with paper towels. Press the coarse black pepper all over the outside to help make a nice crust.
Now, either cook this low and slow on a wood smoker—Joey kept ours at around 250 degrees—or place it in the oven in a roasting pan or on a rimmed baking sheet at 250 degrees for about five hours.
(It might take longer, so don't make any plans while you're cooking pastrami.) The pastrami is done when the internal temperature reaches somewhere between 195 and 200 degrees.
Once the pastrami is done, let it cool down for a couple hours, wrapped in foil, and then you can slice it thinly or place it in the fridge for a bit to make it even easier to slice.
If you want something traditional, try this on rye bread with some brown mustard.