Overnight Pastrami
just pulled 3 pastramis from an overnight smoke
Three at a time, because the brine takes a week and the smoke takes a night, and doing all that for one piece of beef is a poor use of a week.
What makes it pastrami rather than smoked brisket is the cure. That even pink right out to the crust in the picture is not doneness — it is a week in salt and pink curing salt, and you cannot fake it with heat. Measure the curing salt. It is the one ingredient in this entire file that is dangerous to eyeball.
The crust should be thick enough to crunch. Half an inch of cracked pepper and coriander looks absurd going on and comes out exactly right.
- Makes
- About 24 sandwiches
- Hands-on
- About 2 hours
- In the brine
- 7 days
- On the smoker
- Overnight
What you need
The brine — seven days
- 3 brisket flats, about 5 lb each
- 1 gallon water
- 1 1/2 cups kosher salt
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 5 tsp pink curing salt (Prague powder #1) — weigh it, do not guess
- 8 cloves garlic, crushed
- 3 tbsp pickling spice
- 2 tbsp coriander seed
- 2 tbsp black peppercorns
The crust
- 1 cup coarse cracked black pepper
- 3/4 cup coriander seed, cracked
- 2 tbsp granulated garlic
- 1 tbsp brown sugar
How it goes
1 — Boil the brine and cool it completely
Water, both salts, sugar, garlic and spices up to a simmer until everything dissolves, then down to cold — properly cold, in the fridge. Warm brine on raw beef is how you ruin five pounds of it.
pro tip — Weigh the pink curing salt. It is what makes the meat pink all the way through and safe through a long low smoke, and more of it is not better.
2 — Seven days, submerged and turned
Flats in a non-reactive tub, brine over, a plate on top to hold them under. Fridge for seven days, turned once a day. A thin flat is cured in five; a thick one wants the full week.
3 — Soak the salt back out
Out of the brine, rinsed, then into clean cold water for 8 hours, changing the water twice. Skip this and the finished pastrami is a salt lick. Cut a sliver, fry it, taste it — that is the only real test.
4 — Dry overnight, uncovered
On a rack in the fridge, uncovered, overnight. The surface goes tacky. That tack is what holds half an inch of pepper on.
5 — Crack the crust coarse and press it on
Pepper and coriander cracked to gravel, mixed with the garlic and sugar. Press it onto every surface with the flat of your hand until the beef has disappeared. It will look like far too much. It is not.
6 — Smoke overnight at 225°F
Fat side up, oak or hickory, thin smoke. Eight to ten hours to an internal temperature of about 165°F. The crust sets black and the inside is still firm — it is not finished yet.
7 — Steam it tender
Into a covered pan with an inch of water, or a steamer basket, and hold it there until a probe slides in clean — about 203°F, usually two to three hours. This is the step that separates pastrami from a dry smoked brisket, and it is the one everybody leaves out.
pro tip — The crust survives the steam. It sounds like it should not and it does.
8 — Rest, then carve across the grain
An hour on the counter. Slice against the grain, about as thick as a pencil, straight down through the black crust so every slice carries a hard edge and a bright pink middle.
Mustard, rye, a pickle. Do not put cheese on it and do not let anyone tell you otherwise. LFG.