Before you get all St. Patricks Day elitist on me – I know. Corned Beef and cabbage. Bangers and Mash. I get it. Hell, I’ve even been over there. But you’re at ForensicBBQ, where we do smoked meats. While you can boil what we’re doing here and call it your corned beef, I’d rather smoke and call it a pastrami.
Now that we got that out of the way, HAPPY ST. PATRICKS DAY ☘️. If you saw my first post in 2023 – The Tailgate Brisket – you know I referenced a “mystery flat”. This is that mystery flat. A super brief recipe link is above..I’ll explain why.. but read on for the journey. And quite a journey it was.
The Prep Table
So wet-curing eh? Haven’t gone down this path before. Doing my usual casual Costco pass-by of the meat selection and I saw this small, neatly trimmed flat just asking to be experimented on. I picked it up and went searching for pastrami ideas. Had to go find me some prague powder #1 to start. This was actually going to be pretty fun. Kinda nerve-wracking as you’re wondering how and IF it’s going to turn out.
Oh, and that’s not all. We’re going to whip up a crazy coarse pastrami rub to throw on there and of course do some Russian dressing to round it out. A lot of prep for this one. While sourcing for a base recipe – one in particular had a ton of disclaimers about copying their recipe. Granted, I could say I used 1/2 salt instead of 3/4 salt and say it’s my own – but dude.. you had enough threats on there – I ain’t even going to give your site any credit. MrsForensicBBQ and I have made somewhere in the neighborhood of $0 on this thing. We do this for the fun and to share our creations with y’all. I like to tell you what I did and why it worked or why it didn’t (Remember the flathead biscuits ?).
We’d love to hear your experiences in trying one of ours!
Anyway, we’re giving her a long dark soak for three days. I flipped it when I got up in the morning, and when I went to bed. By the end, she had a suspicious gray/tan color. But trust the process. We had a lot more to do – so let’s get going with that.
The Process
Russian dressing. For me, it was necessary to have a chunky Russian dressing. Put all them ingredients in a bowl, mix it up. Transferred to a mason jar, gave it a shake, and it was a success.
Next – the actual pastrami rub.
C’mon… you know I throw elbow grease into my recipes. I did a good amount of grinding on that coriander – cracked it up.. but not too much. Y’all know pastrami – I needed to get that surface done right.
Somewhere in the week, my buddy Zach said he had a ticket for a college football game. Guess I’m bringing the food. But just in case the pastrami wasn’t to my standards, I brought the full packer I showed off in the January post.
Would’ve loved to try this at a better temperature. The hours of driving didn’t do this any justice. I did buy a heavily-insulated pan carrier since then, and can’t wait to put it to use. Would’ve been ideal for this!
The Result
Takes a special kind of person to bring the nitriles, the slicing knife and a butcher block to a tailgate. That special person was me. No shame in this game. After unveiling, it looked and smelled damn good. But the moment of truth was upon us. When I sliced, I wanted needed that heavy pink interior that’s so iconic of pastrami. I got it.
Sliced it super thin for sandwiches. I took the butcher cut at the end and my goodness, that flavor. My words only go so far, here’s a few more pictures for you.
That texture though! It was pretty damn cold this day.. them juices were already hardening.
This one for sure being added to the recipe book. I have to try it again when it’s hot and not just warm. I couldn’t get enough of it. After a full packer and this mini-flat.. for only a couple adults, I had an embarrassingly small amount of leftovers. Oh, the sandwich!
Slathered a heavy dose of Russian dressing on there and of course the required pickle to top it off. Expect to see another pastrami post soon, because I loved this cook so much. I hope you did too!
Have a happy, fun, and safe St. Patrick’s Day. Don’t drive if you imbibe – Don’t be that statistic.
The Recipe
Pastrami
Ingredients
The Meat
- 1 4lb Brisket flat
- 1 Cup Morton's kosher salt
- 2 Tsp Prague Powder #1
- 1 Gal Distilled water
- 1/2 Cup Peppery/Coriander Pastrami rub -ish
Instructions
- Dissolve the salts in the gallon of water and pour over the brisket in an (obviously) large enough container. Refrigerate for at least 3 days. I gave her a flip every day to make sure we're keeping it moving – also make sure it's submerged. I bought a super small flat for this recipe, so prep was easy.
- Pre-heat smoker for 225, smoke until 203
- Rest and slice