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!
Sous Vide / Smoker NY Style Pastrami
6
servings2
hours30
minutes44
hoursIngredients
1 Corned beef flat
1 Tbl yellow mustard
- Pastrami Seasoning
3 Tbl coarsely ground pepper
1 Tbl coriander powder
1/2 Tbl coriander seeds
1 1/2 Tbl smoked paprika
1/2 tsp yellow mustard seeds
1/2 tsp black mustard seeds
1 tsp mustard powder
1 1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 1/2 tsp onion powder
1 Tbl turbinado sugar
Directions
- Sous Vide Instructions
- Take your “corned beef” out of the package and dry it off with a paper towel.
- Put any seasoning that comes with the corned beef in your sous vide bag along with the corned beef.
- Set the temperature for the sous vide to 155° and your time to 40 hours. (see note below for further discussion)
- When time is up, take the meat out of the sous vide bag; rinse the spices, and dry it off.
- Smoker Preparation
- After you have dried off the meat, brush on the top of the meat a thin layer of mustard and add a layer of the Pastrami Seasoning.
- Put meat in the refrigerator and let it sit uncovered for a couple of hours. The longer it sits the better. No longer than overnight.
- Set up your smoker with your own preference for wood and charcoal. I used a combination of hickory and cherry wood with Royal Oak Charcoal.
- Set up your smoker for 250°. Add a layer of Pastrami Seasoning to the meat and place it in a disposable aluminum pan. Smoke the pastrami for 4 hours, or until the internal temperature is 203°
- Enjoy!
Notes
- As I mentioned earlier, I sous vide my flat for 40 hours. I left the meat in the sous vide only because I was still sleeping! As you smoke your pastrami you should check to make sure the texture is as you want it. After about 3 hours of smoke time, you can always foil wrap your meat and let the meat steam a little for 30 to 45 minutes before the pastrami is”done”. Take it out of the foil wrap and put it back into the smoke for an additonal 15 to 30 minutes to finish.
- There are two things I didn’t try that I will in the future: 1) Finish off the pastrami by steaming it. This might get you to a closer texture from what you expect at a Jewish Deli. 2) If you are sensitive to salt, you might take the brined corned beef and let it soak in water for a few hours to help reduce the amount of salt in the meat.
- Never slice your meat right when you take it out of the heat/smoke. Let the meat rest to ensure that the liquid juices stay in the pastrami and not left on your cutting board. Please leave any comments and questions! Enjoy!
Did you make this recipe?
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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!