Pastrami on Rye with Horseradish Mustard
pastrami sandwich, home made horse radish mustard, onions, pickled banana peppers… which sides am I missing???
Four things and one of them you make. The pastrami is the week's work; the mustard is ten minutes and it is what people remember.
Horseradish mustard, made at home, is just mustard, fresh grated horseradish and vinegar, and the difference between it and anything in a jar is that the heat is still alive. Horseradish loses its fire within an hour of being grated unless acid hits it, which is the entire reason vinegar goes in immediately.
No cheese and no lettuce. The only things on this sandwich besides meat and bread are there to cut it: mustard for heat, raw onion for bite, pickled peppers for acid.
- Makes
- 4 sandwiches
- Hands-on
- 20 minutes
- Mustard
- 10 minutes, ahead
- Needs
- Pastrami
What you need
The horseradish mustard
- 1/2 cup coarse brown mustard
- 3 tbsp fresh horseradish, grated fine
- 1 tbsp cider vinegar — in the moment the horseradish is grated
- 1 tsp honey
- A pinch of salt
The sandwich
- 1 1/2 lb pastrami, carved by hand, warm
- 8 slices rye bread, seeded
- 1 white onion, sliced into thin rings
- Pickled banana pepper rings, well drained
- Butter for the pan
How it goes
1 — Grate the horseradish and hit it with vinegar at once
The heat in horseradish is a chemical reaction that starts when it is cut and burns itself out in under an hour. Vinegar stops the clock. Grate it straight into the vinegar, then stir in the mustard, honey and salt.
2 — Let the mustard sit at least an hour
Overnight is better. It is raw and shouting on day one and properly sharp on day two.
3 — Carve the pastrami by hand, warm
Against the grain, about the thickness of a pencil, every slice carrying a piece of the black crust. A machine cuts it thinner and more evenly and it is worse — hand-cut slices hold together and have texture.
4 — Warm it in a covered pan, not a microwave
A splash of water in a pan, pastrami in, lid on, two minutes. Steam loosens the fat and wakes the spice back up.
pro tip — If it has been in the fridge a few days, steam it longer — five minutes — and it comes back almost the way it was on the day.
5 — Mustard right to the edges of both slices
Both slices, corner to corner. A sandwich with mustard only in the middle is two different sandwiches depending on which end you bite.
6 — Pile it high and press it once
All the meat on one slice, onion rings on, banana peppers over the top, the second slice on and pressed down with your palm for a second. Cut on the diagonal.
Which sides am I missing? Pickles. The answer is always pickles. LFG.