Binging with Babish: Pastrami from When Harry Met Sally...

so because I don't want you to get in trouble with your spouse or employer I'm gonna keep talking over the scene until she's done making all the noises and there we go I'll have what she's having hey what's up guys welcome back to binging with babish where this week we're taking a look at be positively orgasmic astre me When Harry Met Sally now never mind that Sally appears to be actually eating a turkey sandwich but also that we're talking about the world-famous pastrami from Katz's which there's no way we're gonna be able to recreate but at the very least we can imitate to do so I have a whole brisket here that is comprised of two parts the leading flat and the fat each points Katz's lets you choose between either/or so we're gonna do a little bit of both you'll notice that I'm cutting the brisket clean down the middle which is enough to make any butcher shudder but I'm doing that so I can have a manageable piece that has both flat and points all in one package that will still fit into my largest curing container don't worry this guy will not go to waste I will turn him into some texas-style barbecue but for my flat end point piece I'm going to trim away as much excess fat and sinew as I can still leaving about a half an inch of fat to keep everything moist and fatty now it's time to contend with our cure which we're gonna do by weight using meatheads curing calculator at amazing ribs com first an astonishing 1.5 cups are about 420 grams of kosher salt followed by about a tablespoon and a half or 27 grams of pink curing assaults I'm also gonna add three or four crushed bay leaves maybe about a tablespoon each of coriander seeds and mustard seeds 1 tablespoon of allspice berries 2 or 3 sticks of cinnamon broken up to the best of your strength and ability about 2 tablespoons of whole peppercorns 1 or 2 teaspoons of whole cloves 4 or 5 dried arbol chilies and about a tablespoon of juniper berries then we gotta add some sweetness I'm going with about 3/4 of a cup or about 150 grams of dark brown sugar and whoops I almost forgot three cloves of crushed garlic now most recipes call for boiling your brine for safety but if you start with distilled water you can skip this step at least I think again go me on that so I'm whisking our sugar and spice and everything nice together with 1 in 1/2 gallons of distilled water tiny whisk was neither available nor willing to participate in this task once everybody is good and dissolved it's time to drop in our brisket and to make sure that it stays submerged we're gonna weigh it down with a plate or bowl or whatever you got that's heavy food safe and won't be chafing into the water then this guy's headed into the fridge for at least 5 in up to 10 days only emerging once every other day to be flipped to ensure even grind exposure then on day 10 we're taking it on a field trip to my house because that is where I keep my smoker now Katz's cures their pastrami for a month smokes it for three to four days and then boils it for four to six hours now we obviously can't do that so I'm gonna try two different methods of cooking this brisket turning it first into corned beef and then into pastrami now remember we have two different parts of the brisket here we have the lean flats and the fatty point because of their vastly different volumes of fat and connective tissue that makes them excellent candidates for two different cooking methods so I'm going to carefully separate them trimming off any excess remaining fat or silver skin and then I think the points or fatty cut is going to respond better to the traditional boiling in order to keep the lean flat nice and tender I think it's a better candidate for sous-vide so after thoroughly rinsing both cuts in an effort to desalinate them we're placing the points in a large stockpot and covering it with a few inches of water we're bringing that to a boil and keeping it there at a gentle simmer covered for three to four hours the flat we're gonna place in a vacuum sealing bag and then after thoroughly scrubbing my brining container I'm gonna fill it halfway with water drop in the brisket set my sous-vide do a hundred and eighty degrees cover it with plastic wrap and let it go for at least 10 hours or until extremely tender but not falling apart the next day remove the bag from the water remove the fat from the bag and dump out your homemade corned beef as you can see both of these cuts have gone from a pallet gray to a lovely pink but they are not rare this is a result of the pink curing salts and they are extraordinarily tender this is what you want to see muscle fiber separation not falling apart not mushy just dastardly tender but corned beef is merely the chrysalis from which the pastrami butterfly emerges the into a spice grinder I'm combining about three tablespoons each coriander seeds and black peppercorns grinding until just cracked not fully ground and dumping into a bowl along with a tablespoon of white sugar and then some optional flavor add-ins a tablespoon of sweet paprika to awaken the mind a teaspoon of garlic powder for the sole a teaspoon of onion powder for the heart and a teaspoon of mustard powder for the loins mix this guy all together and rub it thoroughly upon your beefs make sure your beef is warm or run it under some warm water for a few seconds to make sure that the spice rub adheres don't worry so much about the sides it's most important to get the top and bottom then out onto a 225 degree fahrenheit smoker it goes loaded to bear with cherry wood and Hickory once these guys are placed you can smoke them for anywhere from one to four hours depending on how much smoky flavor you want and how robust of a bark you want on the exterior me I want lots of both of those things so I'm going for the full four once your pastrami emerges from the smoker let it rest at room temperature for about ten minutes before carving and serving you could also steam it for a few hours for extra tenderness and to further imitate Katz's method but I think you'll find that after all the love we've given it it's extraordinarily tender juicy and flavorful and it is primed and ready to make a sammich upon looking at pictures of Katz's after this I realized that I'm cutting mine way too thick so just a heads up my sandwich is not gonna look totally legit but it's gonna taste totally legit stacked high atop two slices of Jewish rye make sure you stack it really really high Katz's tends to test the theoretical limits of structural integrity and sandwiches slice it in half and there you have it folks some true-blue homemade pastrami served as God intended uh none toasted rye with lots and lots of spicy brown mustard and an unreasonable amount of garlic dill and half sour pickles at your disposal and I was worried about the thick slices being chewy but they're so tender it hardly makes a difference how thick you slice it this pastrami is silky and soft without being mushy profoundly flavorful and completely worthy of all the food shaking of approval that I'm doing I'm gonna go ahead and induct this bad boy into the clean plate club off camera trust me you do not want to see my meg Ryan impression [Music]

Channel: Babish Culinary Universe

Views: 3,839,812

Rating: 4.9611063 out of 5

Keywords: homemade pastrami, how is pastrami made, how to make pastrami, how to make corned beef, katz's pastrami, katzs, katz, katz's delicatesen, when harry met sally, Meg Ryan, Billy Crystal, cured beef, cold cuts, sandwich, pastrami sandwich, rye, deli, binging with babish, babbish, cooking with babish, pear qwerty horse, pastrami recipe, corned beef recipe, katz's deli pastrami

Id: hFeDKLt4P-Y

Length: 6min 41sec (401 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 09 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/rocket_monkey]

Oh man, so much work, but looks so yummy . . . But so much work . . . But looks so yummy . . . But work . . . But yummy . . . Work . . . Yummy . . .

[u/grrzzlybear1]

I love how liberal his teaspoons are.

[u/Lonesome_Wanderer90]

Babish is awesome

[u/rukiddingmeagain]

“I’ll have what he’s serving..”