Sous Vide Pastrami Recipe

Looking for a new take on a classic recipe?

Originally created as a way to preserve meat before refrigeration, pastrami is now a deli staple. Here's how you can make this classic sandwich meat with your immersion circulator.

Ingredients

  • 1 Brisket, whole - about 10-12 pounds
  • 32 oz Water
  • 10 oz Brown Sugar
  • 4 oz Kosher Salt
  • 14 g Curing Salt
  • 20 g Coriander
  • 13 g Mustard Seed
  • 40 g Black Pepper
  • 5 g Fennel Seed
  • 2 g Cinnamon
  • 2 g Chili Flake
  • 1 g Clove
  • 20 g Garlic Powder
  • 15 g Onion Powder
  • 2 g Smoked Paprika
  • 4 oz Soy Sauce
  • 3.5 oz Molasses
  • 2 oz Liquid Smoke

Time

9 days 1 hour total, 1 hour active

Yield

Recipe yields about 6-7 pounds pastrami, depending on the size of your starting brisket.

Equipment

Circulator

Vacuum Sealer  (Optional)


A few notes about the recipe:

What's the difference between Corned Beef and Pastrami?

Corned beef is just another name for beef that has been cured. "To corn" is to cure, or brine, for preservation purposes. 

Pastrami starts as corned beef, and is simply smoked to give it an added dimension of flavor and transform it to pastrami.

What Type of Meat is Best for Pastrami?

I've enjoyed the best success with brisket, but if you experiment with short rib meat or even other animals like salmon, you will not be disappointed.

For this recipe, we use a whole "packer" brisket like you would find at CostCo or similar grocery stores. You can adjust the recipe and use just the flat or point of the brisket, but if I'm waiting 9 days for pastrami, I want as much of it cooked as possible.

Not to mention, buying the whole brisket is almost always muchmore cost effective because the brisket flat is more popular but it leaves excess cuts of meat that customers don't generally want and leaves the grocery store with cuts of meat they can't sell. Trust me, buy the whole thing and if you can't eat all the pastrami, find a friend to donate to - they'll be ever-so-grateful.

Some Thoughts on Pastrami:

The world famous New York deli, Katz's Delicatessen, is known for their pastrami. They serve it stacked high on a rye bread with plenty of yellow deli mustard.

Our pastrami is damn good. And because we sous vide it, we can control the fat loss and make sure it's so tender and juicy when it hits bread that you'll go into a sandwich-induced coma.

The essential process is like this: cure > sous vide > crust in the oven > serve. What's even better, it will reheat sooooo well because the sous vide process doesn't cook all the fat out like a traditional cook. 


1. Trim the Brisket

  • Brisket

There's a hefty amount of fat on a whole brisket, so I look to trim off some of the excess. On the top of the brisket, I look to trim it down to about a 1/4-inch layer.

There's also a band of fat that runs deep in between the point and the flat and you'll want to remove as much of that as you can without digging too deep into the meat of the brisket. 

2. Prepare the Cure

  • 10 g Coriander
  • 10 g Mustard Seed
  • 20 g Black Pepper
  • 5 g Fennel Seed
  • 1 g Clove
  • 15 g Garlic Powder
  • 10 g Onion Powder
  • 14 g Curing Salt
  • 2 g Cinnamon
  • 2 g Crushed Red Pepper
  • 4 oz Kosher Salt
  • 8 oz Brown Sugar
  • 32 oz Water

Combine all of the whole spices and grind them coarsely in a spice grinder. Then combine the rest of the dry ingredients in a bowl before finally adding the water and stir well to combine.

3. Seal and Cure

If you have a vacuum sealer, use it here to seal your brisket with the cure. If you don't have a vacuum sealer, don't worry - you can use ziplocks but just be sure to place them in a container in your fridge so they don't leak.

Cure for 7 days to allow everything to set in.

4. Remove from Cure, Prepare for Sous Vide

  • 2 oz Liquid Smoke
  • 2 oz Soy Sauce
  • 1.5 oz Molasses

After 7 days, remove from the plastic bags and - this is important - rinse the brisket under cold running water to fully rinse the cure off. If you skip this step, your pastrami will end up way to salty and you'll be chasing your sandwich with gallons of water.

After you've rinsed it, combine the wet ingredients to create a "faux" smoke and place them in plastic bags to be sous vide.

5. Circulate

Set your immersion circulator to 155 F and place your beef in the bath. Cook for 48 hours for superior tenderness. You can adjust the time and temp if you'd like, but this is what I've found to be the sweet spot.

6. Mix the "Lather"

  • 2 oz Soy Sauce
  • 2 oz Molasses

Combine the two ingredients and mix - set aside until after you're done making the rub.

This lather serves as a base to create a "faux" bark found when smoked in a traditional smoker.

7. Mix the Rub

  • 20 g Black Pepper
  • 10 g Coriander
  • 3 g Mustard Seed
  • 5 g Garlic Powder
  • 5 g Onion Powder
  • 3 g Smoked Paprika
  • 2 oz Brown Sugar

Be sure to grind the whole spices, then combine everything in a bowl and mix thoroughly.

8. Dress the Brisket

Use a brush to lather the brisket with the liquids and then liberally sprinkle the rub over the brisket to cover it.

9. Bake to Crust

Once thoroughly rubbed and spiced, bake at 250 F for about 1.5 hours to create a nice crust or "bark" for a good contrast in textures.

10. Slice

After a run in the oven, your Pastrami is complete. Relish in your delicious product. Serve it however you like - but of course, slicing for sandwiches is the standard.

11. Sandwich-ify

Pile it high on rye bread with a good quality deli mustard for a signature deli sandwich.

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