Pastrami questions

[Oak Smoke]

Back in March of 2016 David Parrish posted his approach to making pastrami with some advice from docblonder. I have to make quite a bit of pastrami this week, 8 points, for a big get together this next weekend. I have a couple of questions I need help with. He mentions rubbing the beef then leaving it uncovered in the fridge for a couple of days, Why? The other question I have is, At the end of the cook when you take the beef from the 4 hour SV bath do you cover it and let it cool slowly or rapid cool it in an ice water bath. My normal method closely resembles a brisket cook. I’m trying to retain more moisture and hope David’s approach will help.

[CaptainMike]

All I can say is I wish I was in Texas next weekend!

[Oak Smoke]

I wish you were too! We do this every year in early October or late September .

[Bob K]

Can’t speak to the SV/ice bath question. But have found with pastrami - not sure if it’s the powdery/flaky nature of the coriander or what - that if I don’t let the rub dry out and fuse to the meat in the fridge at least overnight it seems to want to sweat or run off in the smoker.

Editing to say I’ve only let it sit overnight, have not tried a ‘couple of days.’

[Jerod Broussard]

In my experience the rub tends to stay on better if it sits on the meat for at least 24hrs.

Always good practice to cold shock after SV.

If using points you could cook like a normal brisket and be fine. I tried the SV with a flat and the flat still did what flats do, turn out drier than the point.

[STEbbq]

As others have stated, the rub seems to adhere better to the meat in this case if you leave it in on longer. I usually do 2-3 days but even overnight is better than nothing.

The SV step isn’t required as I just treat it like a brisket and smoke to probe tender and rest. If you are doing SVQ or QVQ or QSV, I’d do the quick shock but that sounds like a lot more complexity for 9 points versus just smoking and resting.

[Oak Smoke]

If I were doing all 8 at once it would be too complex, but my plans are to do 4 one day and 4 more the next day.

[STEbbq]

Fair enough. That should work.

[Red Man]

The David Parrish method is to finish cooking via sous vide at a high temp. If you’re serving immediately, there’s no need to chill it quickly. If you’re not serving immediately, I would hold off on the SV step until the day you plan to serve.

[Oak Smoke]

Red Man Thank you. These are all points, no flats in the bunch. How much improvement should I see finishing with SV compared to just finish on the smoker. The smoker is a Kamado Joe big joe which is great at retaining moisture. I’m asking is it worth the extra step?

[Red Man]

Oak Smoke I think the SV step at the end wouldn’t benefit points much, if at all. I’d just smoke all the way to keep it simple.

[STEbbq]

Like I said, I don’t think the SV step will add much, but since you have simplified the process quite a bit, feel free to experiment and let us know the results.