EZ Pastrami Smoked & Steamed

Sept 26 2016

Being from Ohio I never had a taste of pastrami until I was 18 and stationed at the Homestead AFB in Florida. A small deli there served pastrami on rye sandwiches and they were delicious. Then after getting married and living in Wapakoneta there was a Jewish Deli in Lima Ohio that had great pastrami on rye sandwiches, then they went out of business. My wife usually had a Rueben.

After I got my smoker and joined LTBBQ Hub had a recipe for EZ Pastrami starting with a corned beef brisket and I have made quite a few of them; it shortens up the process with good results.

I watched a lot of TV shows about NYC Deli pastrami and brisket sandwiches; like Katz the most famous I think. Those sandwiches looked delicious with melt in your mouth pastrami. I wanted to duplicate them, how do you do that if you never tasted them? Well I can imagine what they must taste like!

I read all I could about them and the secret had to be steaming after smoking. Some smoke them for 10 to 12 hours and then steam for 3 hours. I recently bought a 6 quart Instant Pot 6 in 1 electric pressure cooker. I knew I could easily steam a 3 to 4 pound brisket flat in it. I wasn’t sure how steaming under pressure would work.

I got my pastrami cold from the fridge in the steamer and set for 60 minutes. I checked after that and was surprised the IT was at 185 deg. I set it for another 35 minutes of steam the IT was at 211 deg. and after resting for 35 minutes I sliced it and made our sandwiches. I fixed my wife a Rueben with just sauerkraut and Swiss cheese on lightly toasted rye bread. I just had mine with some mustard. Our side was some Bob Even’s double cheddar pasta with Applewood smoked bacon. It’s easy and about as good as any I can make!

The pastrami was moist and very tender; as good as I could imagine would come from a NYC Deli! I think this is my go to recipe for pastrami and want to try a plain brisket this way too. Eating the sandwich there was no tug, just bite through and eat; it was that tender!

Click Here for printable recipe

The corned beef

Seasonings for the rub

Fat Cap side

Meat side

Rub applied

After 2 days in fridge ready to smoke

3 hours in

4 hours in inserted temp probe

A night in the fridge and in the steamer

Done and resting

Resting more before slicing

Slicing

Wife's Rueben

My supper

Made Hub's EZ-Pastrami

Apr 13 2016

Hub is a moderator on LTBBQ forum; he is a very good BBQ cook and does a lot of judging at BBQ contests. He wrote up this method to make pastrami using a pre-corned beef flat. It saves that step and you can make some great pastrami in less time.

The past week-end one of the LTBBQ members found corned beef flats on sale for $2.99 a pound. I went to Krogers Monday morning to get one if they were on sale. They were $3.99 but I got one since I was hungry for pastrami. It was 2 .33 pounds and I probably should have bought two.

I got it soaking in a pot of water in the afternoon. It was in the fridge about 24 hours and I changed the water twice.  Tuesday afternoon I seasoned it well with the rub, double wrapped in plastic wrap and in the fridge overnight.

I had cleaned out my Traeger Tuesday and ran the auger out, empty, of pellets. This AM I had to refill the pellet bin and run until I got pellets dropping in the firepot. I then shut it down and replaced the heat shield, drip pan and grate.

It was 11:00 AM when I got the Traeger started and heated to 200 deg. and got the corned beef on. After two hours I inserted a temp probe and went to 210 deg. The meat was at 108 deg. IT. After an hour I went to 225 deg. this was giving me about 250 deg. grill level for the rest of the cook. It was 3:30 when it hit 150 deg. IT so I double wrapped in foil, fat cap up, and back on for another hour to get to 170 deg. IT and passes a toothpick test. That was a total of 5 ½ hours.

It went in my microwave to set for about 45 minutes then took it out and let cool some and then in the fridge. I will slice it up tomorrow.

I just finished slicing the pastrami and it tasted great! I kick myself now for not doing two of them, I ended up getting about 1 ½ pounds from the 2.3 pounds. I froze up some for our son in law and we will probably eat the rest over the week-end.

Click Here for printable pastrami recipe

The corned beef

Ready for the smoker

After 2 hours

At 150 deg. IT ready to wrap

Wrapping in foil

Ready to slice after a night in the fridge

Slicing thin on my slicer

Plate weighed 3/4 pound