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Its been a long time since we had pastrami so I thought I'd give it a go. Since it takes just as long to cook one piece of meat as it does several on my smoker I decided to make the wife happy and cook some chicken and turkey too.

I brined the birds in this brine.

• 1 gallon water
• 1 cup kosher salt
• 1 ounce Tenderquick
• 1 cup cane syrup
• 3 bay leaves
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon pickling spices

I thought I'd like the pastrami to be less salty so I soaked it in water overnight with sliced potatoes so they could soak up some flavor. After soaking, I gave them a shot of olive oil, a dusting of rub, a 1/4 teaspoon of horseradish powder, a teaspoon of garlic then peppered them and sprinkled chives and a dusting of parmesean cheese then baked them.



I then put the following rub on the brisket and a rib rub on the birds.

4 tablespoons kosher salt
4 tablespoons paprika
3 tablespoons coriander seeds
3 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons black peppercorns
2 tablespoons yellow mustard seeds
1 tablespoon white peppercorns
8 cloves garlic, minced

Fired up the smoker with a 80/20 mix of pecan and oak and smoked them at 225 till the internal temp. was 165 F

Chicken came out first then shortly after the turkey. Don't know what happened with the brisket cause it was steadily following the fird till it hit 162 then it just sat there for another hour or so and wouldn't budge.

Anyhow, here is the end product.

Turkey breast and two chickens. Fair smoke ring but probably the most tender turkey I've ever smoked and the chicken is as moist and tender you wouldn't even know it was cooked - even the dreaded white meat.JMO



I'm no expert on pastrami but I thought it turned out pretty well for a newbie. Unfortunately my curiosity got the best of me and I sliced it after a slight rest just to see what it tasted like rather than being patient and slicing it thin.



After thoroughly cooling it I put it on the slicer and finished it right.



I was pleased but more importantly my wife is happy.

OK - now I'm starving. You have joined Big Guy as another person whose posts I can't look at until after lunch!

Great job. I'm back home and hope to get into some smoking soon.

I think I'll go and make a sandwich...

Great looking smoke Jogeephus, did you cure the beef yourself or us a store bought Corned beef? Right before St Patricks Day i picked up a dozen Corned beef points when they were on sale just for making pastrami. I think I should have bought more cause we've already gone through 3 of them.

Jogeephus wrote: Don't know what happened with the brisket cause it was steadily following the fird till it hit 162 then it just sat there for another hour or so and wouldn't budge.

That's what's known as the stall. From what I understand it's when the connective tissue in the meat starts breaking down, which is what makes the tough brisket tender.

Dan, I did the same. I have made my own but I'm also known to be lazy at times and I'm also keen on a bargain as well.

I don't cook much brisket but the length of the "stall" really amazed me. I've seen it in pork but never at this duration. Is that a tendency found more in beef? The longer stall that is.