Smoked Oven Pastrami Preparation
Making homemade pastrami is a delightful adventure, quite similar to concocting your own DIY bacon or corned beef. It starts with a whole beef brisket, slathered with a scrumptious blend of spices, sugar, and salt, which is then refrigerated for a week. After that, the meat is oven-smoked using a straightforward method devised by the folks over at the CHOW Test Kitchen - all you'll need is wood chips, foil, a roasting rack, and a roasting pan. The final stage involves "steaming" the pastrami by braising it in a bit of water to make it tender and mouthwatering. This tantalizing pastrami can find its way into a plethora of dishes, from the classic Reuben sandwich to breakfast hash, a savory pie, or even pastrami-topped latkes.
What's the deal with the equipment?You'll need a roasting pan fitted with a roasting rack (at least 1 1/2 inches above the bottom) or a wire cooling or steaming rack. Giant resealable storage bags work wonders for the curing process. For smoking and steaming, ensure you have around 4 yards of 18-inch-wide heavy-duty aluminum foil, a very clean coffee or spice grinder, kosher salt, curing salt (colloquially known as pink salt or saltpeter), and either apple wood or hickory chips for the smoking process.
How to get your hands on the right ingredients?It's crucial that you use kosher salt to measure correctly - we suggest the Diamond Crystal brand, available in most grocery stores. If you aren't fortunate enough to locate this brand, look for other kosher salt varieties and weigh out 55 grams. Curing salt, containing 6.25% sodium nitrite, is essential and can be found online at Butcher & Packer. Wood chips can be purchased at most hardware and grocery stores or online.
The whole process takes at least 10 days, so plan accordingly. The smoking and steaming stages each take a few hours, so we've included instructions on how to pause after smoking and resume the next day with the steaming phase.
Savor every bite of your delicious homemade pastrami creation, whether it's in a traditional Reuben sandwich, breakfast hash, savory pie, or even fancy pastrami-topped latkes. Happy cooking!
Servings: Approx. 2 1/2 poundsDifficulty Level: MediumTotal Time: 1 hr 30 mins, plus 10 days curing time and 9 hrs smoking and steaming time
- The curing process for homemade pastrami benefits from the use of giant resealable storage bags.
- It's important to use kosher salt, such as Diamond Crystal, for accurate measurements, but if unavailable, other kosher salt varieties can be used after weighing out 55 grams.
- For the smoky flavor, use either apple wood or hickory chips, which can be purchased at most hardware and grocery stores or online.
- The recipe for homemade pastrami yields approximately 2 1/2 pounds of uncategorized nutrition-packed dishes like pastrami-topped latkes, Reuben sandwiches, breakfast hash, and savory pies.
