Sauce for pastrami?

[jjdbike]

Hello folks,

I'm psyched to get these babies on the smoker tomorrow (see pic attached below). I'm serving sliced 1/4" thick with a meal like brisket. I'm considering sauces / topping to offer.

Of course I will have a nice mustard available.

Was also considering a sauce I saw on Mark Weins on his Trip-Tip edition. It was from Cold Springs Tavern in Santa Barbra. If you haven't seen that show, look it up. It's great. It's a combo of sour cream, horseradish and apple sauce. There are a couple other ingredients. It's creamy and sweet with a horseradish kick. Does that sound like it would be good on Pastrami or would it clash w/ the flavors and be funky?

Are there any other toppings or sauce ideas that you would recommend?

Respectfully,
JD

[STEbbq]

My opinion is avoid the sauce and go with your favorite sides from the last thread we suggested. The sauce, particularly, the horseradish is pretty strong, and it will cover up the lovely flavor of the meat you have worked so hard on. If you want to make the sauce as an optional side and let folks test it before slathering it on, maybe that works. I make pretty traditional sandwiches with my pastrami (mustard, coleslaw, rye bread) and I’ve never felt the need for a sauce to elevate it further as it is amazing as is.

[Steve R.]

Agree. I've never been eating homemade pastrami and thought to myself "ya know, this could use more flavor." Unless I'm making a Reuben-style sandwich out of it.

[N227GB]

+2 All I can think to put on it would be some 1000 island dressing with homemade mayo as a base for the dressing.

[shify]

A sauce with pastrami sounds odd to me (as it would with corned beef as well). It is a cured, smoked, highly seasoned piece of meat and my opinion is to be cautious about treating it like a steak/tri-tip.
If you really want something, I'd stick with something in the mustard family - preferable Gulden's, either just straight mustard or a mustard based sauce.

[jfmorris]

Sauce with pastrami kinda defeats the purpose for pastrami in my mind.... we eat it on crusty toasted bread as pastrami Reubens here, with saerkraut, thousand island and Swiss cheese... If I was gonna sauce it, I would just do a brisket and not bother with all the curing and pastrami spices.

That said, thousand island, a horseradish sauce like you might have with roast beef, and the mustard would work. But I would also save the pastrami and just smoke some cheaper roast beef if I was doing that, and slice the pastrami for future sandwiches...

[jjdbike]

Got it!
Thanks!
JD

[Mosca]

My pastramis have always gone 100% to Reuben sandwiches. So that’s thousand island dressing, Swiss cheese, and sauerkraut, on deli rye. Those who don’t like sauerkraut can substitute cole slaw.

A Rachel sandwich substitutes turkey for the pastrami, and Cole slaw for the sauerkraut. You know, a smoked turkey breast seasoned with pastrami rub would probably taste pretty good….

[Draznnl]

If you want to offer your diners more options than just your favorite mustard, serve two or three types of mustard. For instance, I always turn my pastrami into sandwiches with Koop’s Stone Ground mustard. I might also serve a yellow mustard for guests who prefer that. Try not to overthink this one. And have fun.

[TripleB]

The sauce I put on my pastrami is mayo (gasp!) and Dijon mustard.

[Troutman]

Everyone mentioned thousand island but I believe the classic accompaniment is Russian dressing, which contains horseradish. But hey, both are pretty good so yea, just make a Rueben, that’s what pastrami is for.