Making Pastrami By Cold Smoking

This is the traditional way of making pastrami and many purists would argue as being “the only” way. It involves drying and cold smoking followed by cooking in water. If you prefer hot smoking which smokes and cooks all in one hit then use this link to the hot smoked pastrami recipe.

The first stage of the preparation is the curing (which takes 6 days) and this is no different whichever method you use.

You can use practically any cut of beef (although going down the filet mignon route might be a little costly) and I tend to favor brisket. If I'm at my usual butcher he'll normally just cut me a hunk but if you've bought your brisket as a roll, just cut the string, unroll it and cut it yourself into reasonable sized pieces.

Yield:- ¾lb

Preparation Time:- 15 minutes
Marinade Time:- 6 days
Cooking Time:- 5 hours

Total Time:- 7 days

Ingredients:-

• 1 lb brisket
• 1 tablespoon non iodized salt
• 1/16th teaspoon salt petre
• 2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 2 teaspoon sugar
• ½ teaspoon paprika
• ¼ teaspoon allspice
• ½ teaspoon powdered ginger
• ½ teaspoon dried oregano
• ½ teaspoon pepper
• 2 teaspoon dried coriander
• Coarsely ground black pepper

Method:-

Put brisket with all the other ingredients (except the black pepper) into a resealable polythene bag and mix them up thoroughly. Put the bag into the fridge for 6 days, turning and shaking the bag several times a day.

When the curing process is finished take each hunk of meat, wash it well in water, pat it dry and the roll it in the black pepper. Don't worry about how much pepper, too much is better than too little and once done, wrap the pieces up in paper towels and leave to refrigerate overnight.

The next morning you can start the drying and smoking.

Hand the pieces of meat in your smoker and dry (no smoke) for an hour at 60°C or 140°F - you'll find that when the hour is up, your meat is noticeably dry on the outside.

Cold smoke for 3 or 4 hours at 30°C or 85°F and then finish off with one or two hours at 63°C or 145°F dependent how dark you want your meat.

That's the first stage of making pastrami and you now need to cook the meat. I've two alternatives for this stage of the process and you can use this link to find out more

See Also:-

Cooking Homemade Pastrami (Stage 2)
Hot Smoked Pastrami Recipe
Traditional Pastrami Rub
What Is Pastrami?
Smoked Brisket Recipes

New! Comments