Easy Homemade Pastrami

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Description

Great pastrami is not the easiest thing to find west of the Catskills, so a few years ago I embarked on a mission to find a way to turn the common corned beef into something similar. My goal was to come up with a reasonable substitute that could be done in less than a day at home, without a smoker, or any other special equipment. Impossible? No!

Ingredients

  • 2 cloves garlic, crushed
  • ½ cup vegetable oil
  • ¼ cup coarsely ground fresh black pepper
  • 2 tablespoons smoked paprika
  • 2 teaspoons ground coriander
  • 1 teaspoon dry mustard
  • ½ teaspoon ground white pepper
  • ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
  • 4 pounds corned beef brisket

Instructions

  1. Mix vegetable oil and garlic in a small bowl; set aside for 1 hour.
  2. Preheat the oven to 225 degrees F (110 degrees C).
  3. Combine black pepper
  4. paprika
  5. coriander
  6. dry mustard
  7. white pepper
  8. and cayenne pepper in a large bowl; set aside.
  9. Cover a baking sheet with a large sheet of heavy-duty aluminum foil; coat with prepared garlic oil. Lay beef brisket on the oiled foil sheet and brush with remaining garlic oil. Cover brisket completely with pepper mixture
  10. reserving 1 to 2 tablespoons.
  11. Wrap brisket
  12. fat-side up
  13. in the sheet of foil. Place wrapped corned beef on another sheet of aluminum foil with the seam- and fat-sides down. Place double-wrapped brisket
  14. seam-side down
  15. on a third sheet of aluminum foil; wrap again.
  16. Bake in the preheated oven for 6 hours.
  17. Remove pastrami from the oven and let cool to room temperature
  18. about 3 hours. Do not remove the foil.
  19. Place foil-wrapped pastrami in a freezer bag or other plastic bag; refrigerate for 8 to 10 hours.
  20. Preheat the oven’s broiler and set the oven rack about 6 inches from the heat source.
  21. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil.
  22. Remove pastrami from the refrigerator
  23. unwrap
  24. and place on the prepared baking sheet. Sprinkle top with 1 to 2 tablespoons remaining pepper mixture.
  25. Place pastrami under the broiler and cook until surface browns
  26. 3 to 4 minutes. Remove pastrami from the oven and cut into thin slices
  27. about 1/8-inch thick.
  28. Heat a large skillet over low heat.
  29. Warm pastrami slices in the skillet with a few drops of water until fat turns translucent
  30. about 5 minutes.

Prep Time: 1 hr 35 mins

Cook Time: 6 hrs 10 mins

Total Time: 15 hrs 45 mins

Servings: 1

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