Pastrami//reubens

Decided to take advantage of the usual cheap prices on corn beef this time of year and make some pastrami. Found a number of different recipes for making pastrami and decided on one that is supposed to replicate what you would find in a deli. Bought two 3.5lb briket points ($1.99lb) and soaked them 24-36 hours to remove all the extra salt.. Rub is a pepper/coriander/garlic powder/brown sugar mix (heavy on the pepper/coriander) Smoked for 12 hours yesterday with hickory wood until the briskets hit 195.. Rested in fridge overnight and the last step is to steam the briskets to 200. I used a roasting pan/cooling rack and covered in foil and it took about 2 hours. Meat was fall apart tender and had a nice pepper kick.. Had a family gathering and some made traditional reuben sandwiches and some had it plain. All loved the pastrami.. Lot's of work and will probably only do this when corn beef is so cheap this time of year.  

Made pastrami again using corned beef points and will be making reubens tomorrow. Followed the same process/recipe from the original post. Always a hit.. My quality control team is always in the kitchen hoping for scraps to hit the floor..  

Tried it again using a big chuck roast that some one gave us,again awesome result. This time I used half gallon spring water so I only used 2 1/2 tsp pink salt. and half the other ingredients. that chuck roast was 26 bucks so it was either jerky, Italian beef or or corned.

Sounds absolutely amazing!  May have to give that recipe a try!

The 5 tsp pink in the brine really made the difference best Ive ever made. Brined the bear and deer neck for six days soaked for 24 hours in clear water. Pressure cooked two hours. Pastrami style smoked bear brisket turned out tough off the grill /smoker, so Iam steaming it in the pressure cooker now. gonna be chowin when my guests get here. Meat was pink all right.

EZ-   I smoked the corned beef points at 225. Used 225 for several years on all my briskets but increased to 265 on my last two smokes and it reduced the smoke times by several hours. No difference in taste/smoke profile.. Probably will not do pastrami this year (just too busy) but good luck if you give it a try..     

Kona, that's a good-sounding recipe. So what smoker temp did you have to reach a meat temp of 195 during the 12 hour smoking period? I have a tough time regulating my temp on my cheap charcoal smoker. 

Pool-  I prefer points ..  Use a good black pepper/coriander rub and then after the smoke a do steam process in the stove.. Comes out moist and flavorful.. Tastes just as good as any deli..

Utahman-  I actually prefer my pastrami/reubens with just kraut/rye bread but I do like to play around with different sauces.. I just make them up on the fly and generally do not even write down the exact ingredient/amounts.. Usually start with a mayo/dijon mustard base and then add worcestershire, ranch dressing and even things like steak sauce or my homemade BBG sauce to taste..    

I picked up a few corned beef  flats the other day with thoughts of smoking one of them, am I better off using a point because of fat content?

I see we have a lot of pastrami/corned venison recipes and such. How about a recipe for the sauce that goes on ruebens. I have tried lots of them and never really got the wow factor out of them, otherwise I wouldnt be asking. Do some of you have something different from whats pasted/posted on internet and in cookbooks.If its your favorite Id like like to try it. I dont like thousand island type or coleslaw, gotta go with the sauerkraut and russian style

12Pack-  Yes, these were the salted/corned beef briskets that are always on sale for St. Pat's day.. Like you I have purchased corned beef briskets in the past and just put them in the crockpot. These were points ($1.99lb) and the local stores also had corn beef flats on sale for $3-$4/lb.. I normallly buy regular full packer briskets at Costco for $2.99-$3.29lb and flats in the $5-$6 range. Just wanted to take advantage of the cheap prices and do something different.

My smoker is a Smokin-IT unit and I really like it. Saw the idea to turn these cheap St Pat's corned beed briskets into pastrami on their USER Forum. I also follow a site AmazingRibs.com that has alot of good BBQ/smoking tips (Meathead is the guys nick name) and he also had info on this process.. Decided to give it a try.. I have had the chance to visit some pretty good deli's in my work travels and this pastrami was very close to what I have had in the past.. Just alot of work!!

Zep- Have my latest pork belly smoked and resting in the fridge.. Wil be slicing tomorrow. Gave most of my first belly away to family but most of this bacon is heading to my freezer..

Looks fantastic!