Buck- Hope you had a good St. Pat's day. I have been wanting to make pastrami and reviewed a number of old posts on this forum for ideas. Found several good posts and a couple of them had links to a recipe from Meathead (supposed to replicate Katz/deli recipe in NY). Decided to follow this recipe and it turned out good. Corn Beef points were on sale around here for $1.99lb and I bought two in the 3.5lb range. Soaked in water for 24-36 hours to remove the excess salt (changed water several times) and then smoked yesterday. The rub is mainly pepper and coriander with some onion/garlic powder/brown sugar. Smoked for 12 hours with 6 0z of hickory until the meat hit 195. I had a small sample last night and one brisket was very tender and one a bit tougher. Rested in fridge overnight and this morning did the final step which is to steam the brisket to 200. I made a steamer with a roasting pan/cooling rack covered with tin foil. Took about 2 hours for the meat to hit 200. Everyone loved it..Very moist and flavorful with a nice pepper kick. Some folks made reuben sandwiches and others just had it plain.. Only downside is the extra work involved and I would probably only make pastrami when corn beef brisket is so cheap around St. Pat's day..
