Steamed Pastrami

[Habanero Smoker]

In an attempt to get a moister product, I left more fat on the meat, smoked it fat side up, and finished by steaming. Doing this you do get a better  finished product then smoking/cooking it completely in the smoker. I used two curing methods. I used a dry cure on one and a brine cure (pickle) on the other. I wanted to determine whether or not the brine cured one would be moister. I always felt that you get better pastrami from a dry cured brisket.

(Click on pictures to enlarge)

Steamed Pastrami

Dry Cure Method:
1/4 cup Basic Dry Cure or Morton Tender Quick
1/4 cup dark brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons granulated garlic powder
2 tablespoons ground coriander
1 tablespoon ground mustard
2 teaspoons juniper berries ground
This is enough for 4 – 7 pounds of brisket.

Directions:
Trim surface fat of an untrimmed brisket flat to 1/4", this is important so that the cure fully penetrates the meat; yet it leaves enough fat to keep the meat moist. If you do a whole brisket or thicker cut of meat, you will need to prepare a wet cure and inject the meat.

In a small bowl, mix the Basic Dry Cure or Morton Tender Quick, and remaining ingredients. Mix all ingredients well, making sure to break up any lumps of sugar, no matter how small. I found that the bare hands work best. Liberally apply and rub mixture into all sides of brisket, and work it in well (do not shake off any excess that is on the meat). If you have a 5 pound half flat, you will use about ¾ of the mix.

Next place brisket into a two gallon Ziploc bag; expel as much air as possible, and make sure the seal is secure. Refrigerate and allow to meat to cure.

If using Morton's Tender Quick cure it for 4 days, turning the brisket over every 12 hours, and rub down the meat (without opening the bag). After 4 days of curing, remove the brisket from the bag, and thoroughly rinse under cold running water; removing the cure and as much as the spices as possible. Rinse out the bag and save for later use. After rinsing the meat, place the meat in a container and cover with at least 3 quarts of cold water. Let the meat soak for 30 minutes, change the water, and let soak for another 30 minutes. This helps reduce the saltiness from the meat. After soaking, slice a small piece off, pan fry and test for saltiness. Keep in mind that the meat on the outer edge will be a little saltier then the interior part of the meat. This will equal out during the resting period. Place meat back into bag, expel as much air as possible, and return to the refrigerator, and allow it to rest for 12 to 24 hours. 

If using the Basic Cure, cure for 5-6 days, turning the brisket over every 12 hours, and rub down the meat (without opening the bag). On the last day of curing, remove the brisket from the bag, and thoroughly rinse under cold running water; removing the cure and as much as the spices as possible. Rinse out the bag and save for later use. After rinsing the meat, slice a small piece off, pan fry and test for saltiness. You probably won't have to soak it, but if it is salty, follow the above procedure for soaking, and resting. If soaking is needed, you may only need to soak if for 30 minutes.

Brine Cure: (I developed a brine recipe that would have similar flavors as my dry cure mixture)
4 Qts. water
12 oz pickling Salt (about 1C+1Tbs.), or 1 ½ C of Morton's Kosher salt
1 C. brown sugar (6 oz)
5 garlic cloves, medium size; mashed or coarsely chopped
1 Tbs. Black peppercorns
1 Tbs. whole coriander seeds
2 t. juniper berries, crushed
2 t. brown mustard seeds (or yellow)
1 ½ oz. Pink salt (InstaCure #1, Prague Powder #1)


Use the back of a wooden spoon to crush the juniper berries. Wood works better than metal. The wood seems to grasp the berries, while the metal spoon tends to shoot them out like marbles. In a 4 quart nonreactive pot, add 1 quart of water and all ingredients except the pink salt. Bring to a boil, and then simmer for 5 minutes; stirring to make sure all the sugar and salt has dissolved. During the simmering, a good amount of scum formed on the surface, but that cleared up after it had cooled and more liquid was added. After 5 minutes, and when the salt and sugar has dissolved, remove from heat and allow it to cool. I usually add ice until the pot is about ¾ full.

I then transfer the cooled mixture to my Rubbermaid 8 qt. food container; mixed in the pink salt, then added either ice or cold water to bring the mixture up to the 4 qt level. Refrigerate if necessary, and when the brine is cooled to at least 40°F place brisket into the container and brine for 3 days. If necessary, weigh it down with a plate to keep the meet fully submerged. Also, you can add up to an additional 2 cups of cold water, if necessary to cover the brisket.

The brisket may have to be bent to fix, because of the type of container you may have. So if a lot of the meat is touching the sides of the container; after the second day, removed the brisket, stirred up the brine, bend the brisket in the opposite direction and return it to the brine for the final day of brining.

Follow the procedure above for rinsing, test tasting, soaking (if necessary), and resting.


Dry Rub Ingredients:
3 TBS. coriander seeds (4 TBS. if you don't have white peppercorns).
2 TBS. black peppercorns
1 TBS. white peppercorns
2 TBS. of granulated garlic
1-2 TBS. dark mustard seeds (or yellow for a milder flavor)
Makes enough rub for one brisket flat.
This is enough for 4 – 7 pounds of brisket.

Directions:
After resting period, remove pastrami from the bag, to apply rub.

Toast coriander and peppercorns until fragrant, being careful not to burn. After spices have cooled, combine the first three ingredients, and coarsely grind in a spice grinder or coffee grinder. Pour ground mixture into a bowl, add the mustard seed, and granulated garlic and remix.

Generously apply the dry rub to the brisket, working the rub into the meat by pressing it in with the palms of your hands. To help rub to stick, you can apply a thin coat of olive oil over the meat first.

Place brisket on a tray, fat side up, and allow to air dry at least 4 hours in the refrigerator, or 2 hours at room temperature using a fan to help air dry. Next place the pastrami in a pre-heated Bradley Smoker, at 220°F. Apply 4 hours of smoke. After the first two hours, bring the cabinet temperature to 220°F. Cook until the internal temperature reaches 150° F. I used 2 hours of oak, and finished with 2 hour of apple.

When the brisket reaches an internal temperature of 150° F, take it out of the smoker. And allow meat to  rest and cool down, before steaming. It's better if you allow it to cool down 24-48 hours, in the refrigerator. During cooling, wrap the brisket in one layer of plastic; fat side up and place in the refrigerator. If you going to refrigerate 24 hours or more, cover plastic with one layer of  aluminum foil.

After pastrami has sufficiently rested and cooled, it is now time to steam it. Place rack in the second position from the bottom, and preheat the oven to 275°F. In a roasting pan, place one inch of hot water in the bottom of the pan, and place meat, fat side up, on a rack to keep it out of the water. On the stove top tightly cover the pan with a tight fitting lid or use heavy duty aluminum foil. Bring liquid to a boil, and transfer to the oven, and allow it to steam for 2-3 hours.

Both pastramis' after resting for about 36 hours. The toothpick is to help me keep track of the brine cured pastrami :)

If you do not have a rack to elevate the meat to keep it out of the liquid, you can use an inverted Bradley rack (if it will fit in your pan). Or you can tightly wad up aluminum foil into four one inch balls, and place a cooling rack on top of the aluminum balls. Make sure that the pan you use, can withstand the heat of the burners. Thin roasting pan may warp.


After steaming again wrap in plastic wrap, and a layer of foil. Then place in the refrigerator for at least 1 day, two is better. When ready to eat thin slice the pastrami across the grain for a tender slice. You can either eat it cold or warm it up.

Although not too noticable in the picture, the pastramis' shrunk in length and plumbed up.
   
Final results:
This is far from being scientific. Different characteristics of individual cuts of meat may produce different results. Both pastramis' were moister then any I have fully cooked in the smoker. The pastrami that was brine cured was smaller then the dry cured pastrami. The brined pastrami came out more salty, and not as moist. After steaming the internal temperature was 177°F. On the other hand the dry cured was moister after steaming, and its final internal temperature was 174°F. Because I was steaming two, I decided to go for 3 hours of steaming, Next time I will use a probe, but I'm not sure if keeping it to a lower temperature would have improved or made the end result worse. When steamed, all the flavors, especially the smoke becomes mellower, that is why I choose to apply four hours of smoke for this application. What I liked is that during steaming the pastrami shrinks in length and plumbs up, which gives you wider slices without having to cut it on the bias. Other then it being more moist, the texture was about the same as the pastramis' I fully smoke in the smoker.

One source suggested to press the pastrami (apply some weight to the meat) after it has been taken out of the cure, and again after it has been taken out of the smoker. One chef gave an explanation for doing this after it is taken out of the cure. He stated; "I imagine it is to press down any swelling, at the molecular level, of the cells in the protein. A lot of osmosis and reverse osmosis occurs when you are curing a protein and this leads to excess, unwanted moisture diluting the final product." Well any way, I didn't press my pastrami, and just let it rested so that the cure had a chance to equally distribute itself. This seemed to work fine; there was no unwanted moisture in my finished product. I couldn't find an explanation for why it should be done after smoking.

Pastramis' were sliced after a 1.5 hour resting period. The dry cured pastrami is on the left. I'll have to conclude that I will continue to dry cure my pastrami. The flavor is richer, and the texture is better then the brine cured.

[Wildcat]

Very impressive Habs!

[HCT]

Way to go Habs. Both look great! Hope you have lots of rye bread for the ruebans.

[Mr Walleye]

Absolutely awsome job on the pastrami and the write up Habs!!!

Big Two Thumbs Up!  ;)

Mike

[MWS]

Thanks Hab, As always, great job detailing your procedure. I was planning on trying to do pastrami soon and now I have a great resource to follow. Cheers

[Bad Flynch]

HS--

Absolutely wonderful job, both on the meat and on the write-up!

Since you occasionally use Morton's TQ, I'll mention that TQ can be used for the brining method, too. Simply use it at a rate of about 1 Lb per gallon of brine. No other salt or curing agent needed. After that, I boil/braise the meat until just barely meat-fork tender and finish it up in the smoker. The heat of the smoke generator, especially in the summer, is enough (after about 4 hours of smoke) to finish cooking the meat.

[mybad]

Absolutely beautiful....thx very much. Defiantly my next project! ;D ;D

[Habanero Smoker]

Thanks for the comments.

Bad Fynch, thanks for the information on using TQ in a brine.

[iceman]

Great job Hab. You probably just got another dozen folks hooked on making pastrami from scratch from now on. Sooooooooo much better than anything you could buy. Thanks again for all the detail. Sure helps out. ;)

[LilSmoker]

Great post Habs, the pastrami looks delicious!

I'm already addicted to your original pastrami so i'll definately be trying the steamed version



LilSmoker

[Carter]

Thanks for the great info Habs.  I'm really looking forward to trying your Pastrami.

Carter

[Consiglieri]

always love the experiments!  Particularly the ones that make me hungry.  Thanks for the post and suggestions.

[Stickbowcrafter]

Wow, that looks tasty. Nice work.

-Brian

[La Quinta]

I followed this recipe step by step (no deviations) and the pastrami was to "die for"! The only "advice" (if I even qualify to do that) to someone who hasn't tried this is DON'T use one of those cryovac briskets...it's really not the same. Get your butcher to cut you one fresh (if that's possible)!

It's a rather long process but well worth it!!! Thanks Habs!! :)

[Habanero Smoker]

You're welcome. But I have to say if it weren't for the feedback I've gotten from forum members, I would have never tried steaming the pastrami.