Best Homemade Pastrami
 
 
Special Equipment: Briner Jr. bucket or equivalent, spice grinder, smoker (we use CampChef Pellet Grill), sous vide precision cooker (we like Joule), vacuum sealer and bags, large canning pot (for sous vide)
Author:
Ingredients
  • 2 Tri-Tips (4 pounds total)
  • For the Brine
  • 1 gallon water
  • 1½ cups brown sugar, packed
  • 5 tablespoons fine sea salt or pickling salt
  • 4 teaspoons #1 Prague Powder (pink/curing salt - sodium nitrite)
  • 1 tablespoon whole black peppercorns
  • 4 teaspoons whole coriander seeds
  • 1½ teaspoons yellow mustard seeds
  • 1 tablespoon whole pink peppercorns
  • 1 teaspoon whole fennel seed
  • ½ cinnamon stick
  • ½ teaspoon chili pepper flakes
  • 4 whole cloves
  • 2 small bay leaves
  • 1 teaspoon minced dried garlic
  • For the Dry Rub
  • 2 tablespoons brown sugar
  • 2 tablespoons fine sea salt or pickling salt
  • ¼ cup whole black pepper corns
  • ¼ cup whole coriander seed
  • 1 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 2 teaspoons whole juniper berries
  • 1½ teaspoons chili pepper flakes
Preparation
  1. Mix all the of brine ingredients together in your Briner Jr. bucket or equivalent. Refrigerate until the brine is below 40 degrees. Add the meat to the bucket, cover and return to the refrigerator. Let the meat cure for 7 days, stirring once per day.
  2. To make the dry rub, combine black pepper corns, coriander seed, and juniper berries. Grind to medium-fine consistency in your spice grinder. If you do not own a spice grinder you can substitute ground spices. Combine all dry rub ingredients.
  3. After the meat has cured, you are ready to smoke. Remove the meat from the brine, pat dry, and generously apply the dry rub to all sides. Set your smoker on it's low setting (ours is in the 160 degree range). John added a bread pan filled with ice to maintain a moist environment. Smoke the meat for 7 hours. Once smoked, the meat should be vacuum sealed. If you do not own a vacuum sealer, place the meat in 2 gallon Ziploc freezer bags and use the water displacement method to remove the air from the bags.
  4. Fill your large capacity pot with water within 4-inches of the rim (we use a 21 quart canning pot). Attach your sous vide device to the pot and set to 149 degrees. Once up to temp, add the meat to your sous vide set up and set the timer for 48 hours. It's a good idea to cover the pot opening with plastic wrap for the 48 hour cook, to avoid evaporation.
  5. Once finished, the meat can stay in the water bath for another hour or so, until you are ready to serve it. Otherwise, it can be removed, sliced, and refrigerated or frozen, then later steamed prior to serving. We usually trim off the narrow points of the tri-tips for later use in pastrami hash, one of the greatest breakfast dishes imaginable.
Recipe by My Lilikoi Kitchen at https://www.mylilikoikitchen.com/2019/01/30/best-homemade-pastrami/