As a gift I was given CHARCUTERIE The Craft of Salting Smoking and Curing by Michael Ruhlman and Bryan Polcyn. It’s packed full of excellent recipes. This is how our home-made pastrami turned out.
To make this you will need some beef brisket with most of the fat removed. For a 2¼kg (5 lb) brisket make a brine of 4 litres (1 gallon) of water, 1½ cups of kosher salt, 6 teaspoons of pink curing salt, 1 cup of sugar, ½ a cup of dark brown sugar, ¼ of a cup of honey, 5 minced cloves of garlic and 1 tablespoon of pickling spice. Place the beef in the brine with a plate on top so that it is completely submerged and refrigerate for 3 days. Next, remove the beef, rinse and dry it and discard the brine. In a spice mill or mortar and pestle grind 1 tablespoon of black peppercorns and 1 tablespoon of coriander seeds. Coat the beef evenly with this mixture. Now the beef needs to be hot smoked, or cooked very slowly over a charcoal barbecue with some wood chips for extra smoke. The internal temperature should be 66ºC (150ºF) when it’s cooked. The final step is to steam the pastrami. Heat your oven to 140ºC (275ºF) and place the beef on a rack over a tray with 2.5cm (1″) of water in it. When the water is simmering, cover the pastrami and steam it in the oven for 2-3 hours. Now it’s ready to serve.
Try it in a Pastrami Reuben, a classic American sandwich served hot on toasted rye bread with pastrami, sauerkraut, Swiss cheese and Russian dressing.
michelle picker cooks 