[This is not your pork!]

Originally Posted by rookiedad

i never did ythis so i don,t know for sue but i think you are supposed to brine a pastrami.

You can definitely dry or wet cure it for sure, both ways are reported to lead to success, so dry curing instead of brining was not the problem here, but the amount of curing salt used according to the manufacturer's instructions, which was way too little.