eye of round pastrami ?

[bflosmoke]

I can get a nice eye of round for about 50 cents cheaper than a brisket flat. How might this work for pastrami?

[FLBentRider]

I think so.

I was looking at a top round to do pastrami with.

Bear in mind that curing times are done by the thickness of the meat.

I would probably cure 7 to 10 days.

[Habanero Smoker]

I believe Mike (Mr. Walleye) uses eye of round for his pastrami. I have a rule if it is more then 4" thick, the I will wet brine (pickle). You should either use that method, or if you are going to dry brine, slice it into 3" - 3.5" thickness.

Edited:
I made an error in my first post and have modified the thicknesses.

[FLBentRider]

Habs,

Do you have the recipe modifications for doing pastrami with the wet brine ?

[Habanero Smoker]

I have included a wet brine in my pastrami recipe. Scroll down past the direction section and you will see the wet cure instructions. With this I decided to go with a lower amount of cure #1, using the amount that "Charcuterie" uses. The brining times are for a brisket, but you could probably cut down on a day or so. "Charcuterie recommends only 3 days, but mine was not salty. Me personally, I prefer using a dry cure.

Beef Pastrami

For eye of round I would use the full 4 - 5 days.

[DTJ]

I have used eye of round for corned beef, it works well.  When I make it I cut the eye in half so I have two pieces that fit in the container I use.  I use Habs wet brine/cure.  The first one I tried I did for 5 days and it was not long enough.  I had a brown spot in the middle when cooked...you could tell  since ot was not pink or red and taste the cure did not make it in that far. I now go typically 7 - 9 days.

Daryl

[Habanero Smoker]

As FLB stated it really depends on the thickness of the meat.