House-Cured Pastrami – Steven Raichlen’s Project Smoke

like bacon pastrami is a dish most people would never think of making it home but in fact if you have a little time it's very easy the traditional cut of meat for pastrami is beef navel this is a cut from the underbelly of the steer it's sort of the beef equivalent of bacon and you can see the broad striations of fat meat fat and meat now prepare the brine bring half the water to a boil and a large stock pot then add your salt one teaspoon of pink curing salt sometimes called prog powder it's added as a preservative and it's responsible for the inviting pink color of pastrami now add 1/2 onion cut in quarters and a handful of garlic cloves cut in half whisk these ingredients together until the salt dissolves then shock chill the brine with an equal amount of ice water once the brine has cooled to room temperature pour it over the beef navel now cover the beef navel with plastic wrap you can also do this in a heavy-duty resealable plastic bag and cure the pastrami in the refrigerator for 10 days turning it over each day so here's the beef navel after it has cured for 10 days you can see the meat has already started to take on that pink color what you want to do is rinse the beef navel in hold water and blot it dry with paper towels next step prepare the rub the primary flavors of the rub are black pepper and coriander seed and coarsely grind them next add mustard seeds brown sugar and powdered ginger and mix the ingredients for the rub with your fingers it's a really interesting combination the spice of the black pepper the sweetness of the coriander it's one of the defining flavours of pastrami come back to your dried beef navel sprinkle half the rub on the bottom massaging it into the meat then turn the beef navel over and put the remaining rub on the top and on the sides so you're probably wondering where pastrami got its name I found out a few years ago at a meat market in Istanbul I saw long strips of spiced cured meat hanging from the rafters they called it by storm and it's popular throughout the Middle East and Turkey as buss storm ax migrated westward it took on the name pastrami to smoke the pastrami I'm using an electric smoker Electric smokers are great for long slow smokes for maintaining a consistent temperature I fueled the smoker with Applewood it comes in the form of these sawdust discs simply place them in the hopper set the temperature to 225 degrees put the pastrami in the smoker cooking time about eight hours target internal temperature 195 degrees electric smokers are really as close as you get to set it and forget it type smokers ideal for people who are results oriented they want smoked food they enjoy the convenience of turn of a knob heat control and push button fuelling and ignition it's been eight hours and look at that pastrami it's killer you always want to check the internal temperature I'll insert an instant-read meat thermometer 190 to 195 we're there take out the pastrami okay the moment of truth look at that gorgeous crimson pink color it slices beautifully and I suppose we could do a deli classic mustard one rye bread and we'll lay on some pastrami this is a pastrami sandwich that pepper and coriander crusts it's salty but not too salty the generous marbling gives it a luscious mouthfeel so there you have it from the Middle East to the deli to project smoke it's home cured home smoked pastrami

Channel: Steven Raichlen Public TV

Views: 167,743

Rating: 4.7473683 out of 5

Keywords: Pastrami, beef, coriander, brine, rub, cure, smoke, Applewood, electric, smoker, deli, basturma, basterma, middle, east, turkey, Turkish, meat

Id: NngFAsRJhWQ

Length: 6min 19sec (379 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 24 2015