Last month I made corned beef, cabbage, potatoes and carrots...a favorite comfort meal of ours.
Today I smoked some corned beef...the first step in making pastrami out of it. First, I rubbed all sides of the corned beef with a mixture of ground juniper berries, black peppercorns, garlic powder, and salt...then wrapped in plastic wrap and tossed in fridge for 28 hours. I rigged up my own "stove-top smoker". Those are hickory chips. I put a large piece of foil over the above chips and platform..poked holes in it then put the beef down on top. Then I wrapped it all tightly with more foil...turned up the burner! I let it smoke for about 30 minutes.
After smoking it...I added a bit of water (discarded the chips, etc) and let it cook at 240 degrees for 4 hours...covered.
I then tried to cut it thinly and then put it back in that lovely, smokey au jus. I needed a real meat slicer. It was okay...but not really good pastrami. I might try it again one day...from a beef brisket....but that means curing it for 13 DAYS before smoking it. Whew!! Now I know why Jewish Deli's are dying! Some of those East Coast deli's pile a pound of pastrami between two pieces of rye. Pastrami-making is NOT for sissy's. We did have a sandwich with stone ground mustard on Jewish Rye....I didn't hate it!That little bit of "pastrami" took me 2.5 days to make and it cost me (not including my labor) about $16.00. Don't gripe the next time you pay over 10 bucks for a deli pastrami sandwich!
