Pastrami Smoke and Steam Sequence

[MGMojo]

Gentlemen, my brother and I are attempting a Katz's Pastrami and are in the last day of the rub cure, and are planning to begin the actually cooking of the brisket tomorrow morning. We've got a 22" Weber kettle with a Slow-n-Sear, and plan to smoke the corned brisket until it reaches the Stall. Our question is: once we hit the stall, do we wrap the brisket in a Texas Crutch and continue cooking to raise the internal temp close to the 203 target, THEN steam; or do we move from the brisket from the Weber and go directly to steaming it to reach 203? (As you will note, we didn't plan on resting the smoked brisket for a day before finishing.) Many thanks for your help with this predicament/clarification.

[Jerod Broussard]

I myself would prefer not to wrap at all until it gets a good bark. I might go to 180 in the smoker, then go to the steam until that dude is about 205. Then let it rest for a couple hours in a 170 degree oven.

[MGMojo]

So -- you recommend we try to push through the stall and raise the temp as high (170) as time (8 hours?) will allow, then steam to reach the desired 205 before resting in a low (170) oven uncovered/unwrapped until we're ready to serve it forth?

[Jerod Broussard]

Yeah, running 250-275 should get it there, or be pretty darn close.

[bbqoaf]

I just did one and I wrapped at about 160 due to time, got it to 203 and served it right away, no need to steam when it is already that hot. It was perfect, it disappeared fast and is still the best single thing I have ever Q'd period.

[danmahoney]

My brother MGMojo posted results of our first venture into homemade pastrami, I thanked everyone else but forgot you. My apologies , your input was much appreciated. Love the photo.

[MGMojo]

Great! Many thanks to Jerod and Oaf for the clarifications/verification! Pics will be posted and results duly reported!

[Jerod Broussard]

Good deal.

[Huskee]

I second Jerod's advice. I like better bark than 160 gives me, so I go to 180ish before wrapping then the rest of the way to 203ish on the smoker. Meathead recommends cooling overnight in the fridge and steaming the next day back up to 203~. But there are no set-in-stone rules, as bbqoaf said you can eat it fresh off the smoker on day 1, perhaps at the cost of a little tenderness, perhaps not depending on the cut of meat you have.

[MGMojo]

Gentlemen -- what a great result! We followed your advice (including Huskee's recommendation to push it to 180 before crutching), brought the brisket up to 203 in a 250 oven and let it rest for 3 hours, then served it forth with MH's "nekkid" sandwich of rye and mustard. Delicious! It took about 9 hours to reach 180 on the 22" Weber with the Slow n Sear, and two refuelings. (We overcompensated for the cold, damp weather and started with a half-n-half unlit/lit charcoal base that had us cooking around 325 for the first two hours, but finally wised up and closed the lower damper and achieved a consistent 225-250 for the remaining 7 hours.) The only adjustments we'll make for our next pastrami would be first, using less wood. (We added six large-ish chunks of hickory over the three fuelings, and there's a distinct hickory flavor that's just a tad too evident for my taste. Four chucks of a less pungent fruit wood probably would have been perfect.) Second would be to reheat the brisket in a low oven for 30 minutes to firm up the bark after crutching/resting. (After a couple hours exposed to the pastrami aroma, we just couldn't hold out any longer!) And last we should have cooked a larger brisket portion. (We started with a 5.5 lb portion of flat -- carved from a 17 lb packer -- and after last night's meal only had two pounds leftover to divvy up for my brother's return home. Next time we'll do the full flat (about 10 lbs) so we both have sufficient leftovers to make more than a couple of sandwiches in the New Year!

[Jerod Broussard]

I don't bother with anything but cherry. Course with so much post oak lying around.....

[MGMojo]

Given the track record, Jerod, rest assured we will heed your advice and start sweet talking our local cherry growers!

[fzxdoc]

I love the flavor of my pastrami with some Jack Daniels charred oak barrel oak wood--no more than 4 oz per cook, though.

Kathryn

[Jerod Broussard]

Good thing you majored in physics, majoring in art would have been such a WASTE!

[danmahoney]

This is MGMojo's brother. I got my pound of New Year's Pastrami through TSA screening and past a bomb sniffing dog (who did pause). Great recipe and valuable advice from Jared and Huskee. Thank you all. Happy New Year.

[Jerod Broussard]

90% of faux bombs and now 100% of pastrami has made it through TSA.