For those of you looking to do something different with a brisket than the usual, here's your idea. My second time making Pastrami and really enjoy how it turns out.

Got started by brining a brisket for 12 days. Curing salt, sugar, allspice, juniper berries, cinnamon, and more.

Pulled it out of the brine and coated with coarse black pepper and ground coriander. Then smoked for thirteen and a half hours on the pit with oak.



The end game? Lots of Rueben sandwiches. I also homemade some marbled rye bread, mixed up a Russian dressing, the only thing not homemade was the Swiss cheese, (yes, no sauerkraut on it as I'm not a fan).

Picture featuring my parents' dinner plates from the 1970s.

That looks great. This is something I have wanted to try but thought maybe just doing it with a flat.

Did you do anything different with your trim or is it the same as long a normal brisket?

Also you can't call it a Ruben if there isn't sauerkraut. Lol

Nice work! That looks incredible.

Amounts of ingredients?

Made duck breast pastrami this year out of redhead using hank Shaws recipe. Fantastic

Stringfellow Hawke said:

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Amounts of ingredients?

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45g Curing Salt
300g Salt
300g Brown Sugar
15g Mustard Seeds
10g Black Peppercorn
10g Ground Allspice

Take the above and add to half a gallon of water in a pot and heat up on the stove, you don't have to get it boiling, just enough to dissolve the salt and sugar. Once that's done pour into a large container and add another half gallon of cold water with ice to cool the brine down. Place the brisket in there, add more water if necessary but that should be enough to fully submerge a 12-14 pound brisket. Then add the following in with the water before sealing up.

3-4 Bay Leaves
4-5 Cinnamon Sticks
5g Juniper Berries
30g Minced Garlic

Let the brisket sit in the brine 10-14 days to make sure the cure and spices have time to fully penetrate the meat. You can flip to brisket every couple of days to ensure even brining throughout. Once done in the brine rinse the brisket off in the sink and then coat liberally with coarse black pepper and coarse coriander for the bark.

Cibalo said:

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That looks great. This is something I have wanted to try but thought maybe just doing it with a flat.

Did you do anything different with your trim or is it the same as long a normal brisket?

Also you can't call it a Ruben if there isn't sauerkraut. Lol

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Just a flat is probably a better idea to dip your toes in so you don't have quite so much product afterwards. But I can eat the same leftovers for days on end and took some to friends and family so it ended up going pretty quickly anyways.

Just trimmed like a normal brisket, and smoked like a normal brisket (225-250 pit temp). And I figured I'd have at least one hater about the sauerkraut, I can eat it but just not my favorite. So this is my version of a Rueben I guess.

That looks AMAZING.

I'd love to try this. But, I'm deadly allergic to cure salt (sodium nitrite).
Has anyone attempted to make a pastrami without it, or is it simply not possible?

I also add in a half cup of regular salt per gallon of water. That gives a salt flavor without getting too salty of a final product. In a normal brine i use 1 cup of salt per gallon of water but that is too much for such a long cure. This is assuming the curing salt you use is not the one with salt already mixed in.

We really enjoy it, but I have no interest to have it brining in the fridge taking up space for weeks.

I buy the ready to cook pastramis, give them an overnight water bath to draw out the salt (changing the water a couple times), then cook it like a brisket. Family favorite for something a little different and much cheaper than buying a full size packer brisket.

I made some pastrami out of one of the hams of a deer. It was way too dry unfortunately.

Stick with brisket, there is a reason it is so awesome.

normalhorn said:

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I'd love to try this. But, I'm deadly allergic to cure salt (sodium nitrite).
Has anyone attempted to make a pastrami without it, or is it simply not possible?

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Sorry to say, but you're screwed. The nitrites that are in celery juice and everything else that are alternatives to curing salt are the same thing chemically speaking.

I've done the Meat Church recipe using a Prime Whole Packer and it's also come out good

https://www.meatchurch.com/blogs/recipes/pastrami-brisket?srsltid=AfmBOop89hkgvoB7gsbB8BZCwMDDFZBWtkpSvSajv3QMIE7dljdcVXjA

Bought a 12lber going to smoke it for the 4th. Are all the ingredients available at HEB??

An HEB or Kroger should have most of the ingredients, but probably not the curing salt. You'll have to find a local meat market or butcher (Readfields has some if you're around B/CS), or order from somewhere online. Remember that curing salt is different from pink Himalayan salt, you need the salt that has nitrites in it that do the actual curing. Some places also call it Prague powder #1.

Stringfellow Hawke said:

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Bought a 12lber going to smoke it for the 4th. Are all the ingredients available at HEB??

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What agfan2013 said...but if you're doing it for the 4th you better get after it.

Watch this Meat Church video from earlier this week. Having done a number of these with my own cobbled together technique, I don't know that you need a whole week in the brine, but it won't hurt. Amazon can deliver some Prague #1 overnight to a lot of places.

normalhorn said:

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I'd love to try this. But, I'm deadly allergic to cure salt (sodium nitrite).
Has anyone attempted to make a pastrami without it, or is it simply not possible?

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Yes, you absolutely can. It's generally recommended a shorter cure time (5 days instead of 2 weeks). The meat will not retain its pink color and will taste a little bit different but if you can't eat regular pastrami/corned beef, you won't know the difference anyway.

For those that want to try the process with a lot smaller cut of meat, I have had incredible success with Chuck Roast. It is phenomenal and doesn't take up as much space or take as much time.

I did it the easy way a few weeks ago. Smoked a Corned Beef Brisket. Came out great.

Gave it a shot several weeks ago. Followed recipe exact, two weeks in brine. Smoking was a bit of a challenge because we had a pretty cool stretch weather-wise, low 40's. Probably could have let it rest a bit longer, was too eager to try it, but the results were excellent. Would make again.

Thanks for the thread.

agfan2013 said:

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An HEB or Kroger should have most of the ingredients, but probably not the curing salt. You'll have to find a local meat market or butcher (Readfields has some if you're around B/CS), or order from somewhere online. Remember that curing salt is different from pink Himalayan salt, you need the salt that has nitrites in it that do the actual curing. Some places also call it Prague powder #1.

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Correct on the curing salt. Bought a bag of it on Amazon. I make my own Tasso with it.

Watched the video and ordered the spices! Pretty excited! Question: have yall done the 12 hour rest as mentioned in the video?

Stringfellow Hawke said:

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Watched the video and ordered the spices! Pretty excited! Question: have yall done the 12 hour rest as mentioned in the video?

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Yes and you should rest every brisket you cook, as long as you can. Regular ones as well, not just pastrami briskets. There is a big benefit to tenderness and juiciness letting the meat rest for an extended time. 2 hours is better than 1, 5 hours is better than 2, etc. you can hold a brisket up to 20-24 hours before the quality starts to degrade, just set your oven to keep warm setting in the 140-170 temp range and you're good to go.

That's what many of the bbq joints are doing these days (and have been for a while). They aren't cooking briskets overnight to be ready for service at 11am. They start in the morning, cook during the day, pull them off in the evening, and let them rest in warming ovens overnight then serve to you the next day.

Can't stress enough that prague powder or curing salt or whatever name you call it is poisonous. The nitrites convert to nitric oxide (which is not poisonous) in the smoking process. One should really keep it in a place where it's not confused with pink salt.