Every year Superbowl Sunday has provided an opportunity to taste a great variety of food. This year was no exception. We enjoyed all types of food including Latino, Philipino, Thai, and a little American Chili to fit right in.
The Day has also given a few of us a chance to put on a Rib Cookoff for the 50 to 100 people who show up!
Four of us laid out our backyard smokers and spent the day in the middle of a beautiful BBQ cloud of smoke!
My son, Conor was staying with me for the weekend, so I made a pastrami in addition to the ribs. I wanted to cook something special for him since there isn’t a Jewish Deli in our neighborhood where I can find the perfect pastrami sandwich (his favorite). Superbowl Sunday was the perfect opportunity to smoke pastrami since I was using the smoker anyway. This was going to be a fun experiment!
I didn’t have the time on Game Day to spend 15 hours smoking a full-pack brisket, so I needed to find a shortcut. (Cooking just the flat or the point can be cooked on a smoker in 6 to 8 hours). Time to bring out my miracle machine, my Sous Vide! I love using my sous vide. Do I have to do a lot of pre-planning? Does that pre-planning include spending hours and hours of cooking time? The answer to both is yes. Brisket is such a tough meat, that it can easily take 15 hours or more to smoke at a low and slow temperature. Cooking with a sous vide takes much longer and can easily take 36 hours depending on the temperature used and the texture you desire.
Holy Crap you say!! 36 hours! Just remember once you set the time and temperature, there is no need to touch it again. Once I have completed my 36 hours of cooking time, my cooking time for my pastrami. Now you ask, I thought you were making a pastrami?
This is where my next shortcut gets put into place. Packaged corned beef can typically be found all year long, but especially during this time of the year, when St. Paddy’s Day is coming up, there is an abundant supply of pre-brined brisket flats all ready to be turned into corned beef. I bought a couple of these flats and put them into a sous vide bag with the seasoning that comes in the package and cooked them for approximately 40 hours (took them out on Superbowl Sunday morning before I left to go to the party. That’s why 40 hours and not 36. The 4-hour difference would not have had a significant effect on the outcome. The internal temperature will always be perfect.)
Before I put my pastrami into the smoker, I layered on a heavy dose of my Pastrami Seasoning. The result was probably the best pastrami I have tasted in the last couple of years. The ribs and the pastrami smoked for about 4 hours; the rest is history, A wondrous day of BBQ!! The following would be my version of a perfect recipe (with shortcuts), for your standard thick hand-cut New York Pastrami!
As always, thanks for Spending Time In My Kitchen!
Always love seeing what you’ve got smokin’ on your #270Smokers!! This pastrami looks amazing, as donthe ribs! Terry’s fav sandwich is a Reuben…time to pull out the sous vide, I think!!
Thanks Stephanie! Just love my 270Smoker (And so does everyone else I was cooking next to!)
I couldn’t ask for anything more in cooking with the sous vide; it saved me tons of time on the smoker and was able to get enough smoke on the pastrami in the 3-4 hours it was on. So very tender!
Brilliant method, I love your creativity. Going to be trying this.
Hi Steve…thanks for the good thoughts! You will have to let me know how everything turns out!
And thanks for Spending Time In My Kitchen!
Looks awesome David! I try this with my Sous Vide.
Thanks! You will have fun with the recipe!