First time pastrami cure

[peterwbay]

I am new to the site, so this is a question that may be both dumb and already answered, however I couldn't find the exact answer I'm looking for. Most of the posts seem to be about curing longer than the minimum.

I was planning to smoke a 6 pound brisket flat on Saturday to make pastrami. I'm picking up the brisket tonight, Tuesday, and will start the wet-brine. I plan to use the cure calculator when I get home and can measure the thickness. My question though is whether 3 days is likely to be enough time in the brine, given that most recipes seem to call for 5-7 days. Thanks for any responses.

[Huskee]

Hard to say w/o knowing your measurements. It's iffy. Wish I could help, but once you get home and enter your precise measurements into the calc along with whatever liquid it will take to submerge it, you will know for sure!

[Red Man]

It would have to be 1.5” or less to be fully cured in three days. Don’t skimp on the desalination step. If it’s gotta be for Saturday, I’d probably just do brisket or buy a corned beef to smoke.

[Huskee]

+1 on buying a corned beef. Desalinate for 8-10hrs (overnight while you sleep) then smoke. Still VERY delicious!

[Skip]

+2 on the desalinate step. The finished product can easily end up salty.

[RonB]

Welcome to The Pit. I agree - but a corned beef for this weekend just to be safe. You can still make pastrami with the brisket and compare with the store bought corned beef.

[Oakgrovebacon]

Welcome to the pit from Southern Illinois! Above advice is spot-on.

[peterwbay]

Much appreciated folks. I'll follow that advice and save the pastrami for another weekend.

[SMOG MAN]

I think what’s being said here is buy a corned beef from the market, desalinate some, usually doesn’t need too long and then apply some rub, smoke to make pastrami. I just made some using info from the "All Things Barbecue" YouTube video for the rub. I toasted and then coarse ground some coriander and peppercorns and then smoked. It is a crowd pleaser.

[Troutman]

Welcome Horn Frog from Houston. Run the calculator, consider desalination time and as been said you probably don’t have enough time to properly corn a piece of brisket that size.

[HouseHomey]

Huntington Beach welcomes you.

+3 on the corn beef and desalination. In fact buy 2!or 3 corned beefs. For me I seem to yield less from these. I know that’s a misleading because I think I tend to snack more on these for "testing" reasons.

[Troutman]

Do I sense a new title for you Homes, Head Snack Tester ???

[HouseHomey]

Troutman I’d eat that all day!!!

[Spinaker]

Do you have your calculations? Weight, thickness, PPM, etc. I can double check the numbers for you, if you are so inclined.

[brew7353]

When I make pastrami I use a dry cure for at least 7 days than soak for 30 min. change the water and soak for 30 more min. drain put on my cooking rub and than smoke to an IT of 165 double wrap in foil for 2 hours and than steam for 3 hours either than or when im ready to eat it. Many folks say its the best they ever had.I got all the information out of a book i found on amazon called Homemade pastrami and too die for corned beef, great book for about $4 to down load.

[JCGrill]

Unless you get a particularly thin brisket I think your cure would be longer than three days. And I think an 8 hour desalination is probably on the low end, unless you change the water out in the middle. And then if you follow Meathead you see that he suggests leaving the rub on for a day or two, which I have found does indeed help. And then there's the question of whether you are taking it to 130 and steaming, or all the way to 200, which takes a lot longer. I recently did an 8 day cure with an overnight desalination, and it was just shy of being too salty, and was closer to 12 days if you count smoke time.