SVQ Pastrami - Perfected

[Atalanta]

Hey guys, I'm going this this weekend with store-corned beef. I read that you let it sit in the rub uncovered in the fridge so the rub doesn't stick to the wrapper. What if you have a "defrosting" fridge? It will start dehydrating the meat if I have it uncovered. I've used this aspect to dry peppers LOL Will 24 hours in this environment make a difference? Make it better?

[gabulldog]

If I've got about 8lbs of brisket pastrami I've smoked, vacuum sealed and refrigerated, should I preheat the water before starting the sv (195 @ 4 hrs)? Seems like all that cold meat and the larger volume of water would make it tough for the sv to get it up to temp. And, at 195, is there any risk of melting the bags (ziploc or vacuum) or leakage? Don't want to blow it having done all this work up to this point.

[fzxdoc]

gabulldog , according to the Chef Steps website Ziploc bags fail at temps above 158° so they recommend at temps above that to use heavy duty sous vide bags. I have used Heavy Duty FoodSaver Gamesaver bags without a problem. You can get them at Walmart.

And yes, preheat the water. The idea would be for the meat to come up to temp through the unsafe zone (40 to 140°) as quickly as possible. At least that's my thought process, being pretty food-safety conscious in the kitchen.

Are you doing QVQ or just QV? Just curious. Let us know what you decide and how it turns out.

Kathryn

[NukeGuy]

This was extremely helpful. I corned a bunch of moose a while back and today something inspired me to get it out and do something with it. I decided I wanted to give pastrami a whirl. I'm going to try two different methods at the same time:

1. Sous vide first for about 48 hours. I'll then let it cool a bit, hit it with the rub and move it onto the smoker.

2. The reverse of #1 - closer to what Pit Boss describes above. Rub ---> Smoke ---> Sous vide finish.

I'm fairly sure #2 is going to win but it certainly doesn't hurt to experiment!

I do the sous vide first as well. 36 hours at 165F, chill in the fridge then smoker to just warm the meat up and give it some smoke. About 30% weight loss during sous vide though and I don't trim, I let the sous vide take care of that.

[rickgregory]

Just because I don't want to see you sicken and die, I'll restate what others have said... ALWAYS PREHEAT. Even with small amounts of food in relation to the amount of water. You want to the food to zoom through the unsafe zone and get to the water temp as fast as possible where (assuming you're over 130F) it will pasteurize .