Pastrami

[BarbaRosa]

I'm taking the plunge and making my own pastrami. I've had a brisket in brine for two weeks now. It's a basic brine I found on About.com/food, I made a corned beef with it before with good results, for the first attempt.

Question :- Do I put the brined beef on the smoke, or do I need to boil it first, making corned beef, then smoking it?

I've cruised the internets and found results advocating either approach.

So, what do you think?

[Warpy]

1. If both approaches are used, then both approaches have their merits

although they might not be interchangeable.

My guess is that brined beef cooked via hot smoking will have a more pronounced smoky flavor. Some people might like less of a heavy smoke flavor and precook it before putting it on to smoke.

The best suggestion I have is to experiment and find out which way you like it best.

[BarbaRosa]

2. That's what I'm thinking

So, for my first try:- brine, rinse, smoke.

[azurnoir]

3. just curious but what kind of wood are you using for the smoke?

[BarbaRosa]

4. I'm going to use charcoal with apple chunks.

I've read where hickory or mesquite are to strong for pastrami.

[azurnoir]

6. sounds yummy

I usually use the chips though and a mix of 3 parts apple to 1 part hickory as an all purpose mix, never made pastrami though, cloest would be a corned beef brisket done that way

[Lucinda]

5. I'm looking forward to hearing about your results!

I've never made my own