We didn’t buy this at the deli pastrami

Never buying store brand again

We’ve had this beauty in our freezer since before Saint Patty’s Day. Each year, I fancy myself Irish for a day, at least the Americanized corned beef-eating, Guinness-drinking version. (You should really click that last link, it’s an actual picture of me drinking Guinness in Dublin.) Since our freezer space is at a premium and I’m always looking for new things to smoke, new meaty things that is, I had a eureka moment one day when I opened the freezer and saw the corned beef package. Why not make Pastrami? The result was rather tasty and surpassed anything I have bought in the store. That said the pre-brined brisket, which are just fine when boiled, was a tad too salty and when I make it again, I’ll brine it myself. Unless I happen to stock up again next March on corned beef. Anyway, this turned out wonderfully, we served it with some rye bread and homemade sauerkraut. Not my recipe, but a great one from Katherine’s sister we plan to try. I was making tasty sandwiches all week and, spoiler alert, even whipped up a corned beef hash with the leftovers. Which tastes much better with the smoked pastrami.

If you need instructions on smoking meat or just want to see my rather impressive grill, click here. When smoking pastrami, the goal is to get as much smoke permeation as possible before the meat has cooked. That means a very low heat for the fire and high quality wood. I was able to smoke the meat for six hours before its temperature reached 150 degrees. Next time, I am going to try for nine hours.

I plan to use the brine from Charcuterie, which I’ve listed, for the next batch. The recipe below is for a roughly four-pound brisket.

For Brine

• 1 gallon water
• 1 1/2 cups salt
• 1 cup sugar
• 8 tsp pink peppercorns
• 1 tbsp pickling spice
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/4 cup honey
• 5 garlic cloves minced

Combine brine ingredients in a large stockpot. Bring to a boil and stir until salt and sugar are dissolved. Remove from heat and allow to cool to room temperature. Then refrigerate until chilled. Place the beef in the brine and place a plate on top to keep it submerged, refrigerate for three days. Remove from the brine, rinse and dry. Discard brine. Coat the beef evenly with the peppercorn mixture.

For peppercorn crust

• 2 tbsp black peppercorns
• 1 tbsp coriander seeds
• 1 tbsp white peppercorns
• 1 tsp kosher salt

Crush all ingredients with a mallet or bottom of frying pan. It will get messy if you are too forceful. Roll corned beef in mixture and smoke.