Pastrami from Start to Finish: Missing Details

I have been reading about pastrami production all week, and although there is quite some info available, it's hard to settle on a procedure. The most appealing one comes from Mr.BBQ and outlines as follows:

• Brine brisket for 2-3 days
• Dry meat, apply rub and let marinade/cure in the fridge for another 4-10 days
• Smoke for 4-8 hours till IT 175°F
• Steam for 2-4 hours before serving

Other procedures work with way longer brining for up to 4 weeks, but that's quite a long waiting time. I am not so sure about dry curing, brining just seems to make more sense.

So I already have the following for my first try in pastrami production:

Nice and not too large brisket with 7.19 lbs


The only curing salt I could find, which is a mixture of several ingredients, destined for curing and reddening


This curing mixture contains in unspecified quantities:

• Table Salt (iodized)
• Sugar
• Monosodium Glutamate (flavor enhancer)
• Coriander
• Caraway
• Pepper
• Sodium Nitrate (preserving agent)
• Sodium Ascorbate (antioxidant agent)
• Juniper Berries
• Garlic
• Allspice

The instructions on the curing mixture tell the following:

Poekel Fix Wuerzmittel said:

Wet Curing
Rub meat well with curing mixture and put in container. After 3 days boil off water, let cool down and put in container to cover meat completely. Keep room temperature between ~ 46°F and 50°F. Let cure for about 2 - 3 weeks depending on meat size.
Dry Curing
Rub meat well with curing mixture and put in container. Room temperature should be max. 59°F. Let cure for about 1 - 2 weeks depending on meat size.

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The shown bag contains 4.41 lbs of that curing mixture, and it is supposed to be good for 132.28 lbs of meat, so for my brisket with 7.19 lbs I am supposed to use 108.67 grams ~ 3.83 oz. of the curing mixture.

I am a little confused right now due to the different proceedings, which supposedly all should lead to a similar result.

Does brining for just 2-3 days + marinading/curing in rub for 4-10 days sound reasonable?

What about the brine? How much water? Does 2 quarts of water boiled with addition of 100 grams of that curing mixture sound reasonable?

The rub will not contain that curing mixture, but the following ingredients:

• 4 tbsp Sal Marina Natural
• 4 tbsp sweet paprika
• 3 tbsp coriander
• 3 tbsp brown sugar
• 2 tbsp black pepper
• 2 tbsp yellow mustard seeds
• 1 tbsp white pepper
• 1 tbsp garlic powder

I think I will start with brining tomorrow, so if you have any thoughts on this, please tell.

I guess it just can't go wrong.

One other thing that came to mind: If only brining for 2-3 days, do I just rinse it afterwards, or did it take in enough salt to require soaking?

Ok, I'll try the dry curing as suggested by the directions, preparations will start soon. I am still not sure where to put the meat in for curing, because the directions talk about a bucket or "Surrschaff" with the intention of curing a lot of meat at once, so the meat has to be arranged tightly into such a bucket or "Surrschaff".

With just 7.19 lbs I am first going to separate flat and point, and due to the lack of a Ziplock I either will have to choose cooking pot or my enamel coated casserole with lid.

The instructions for that curing mixture do not mention any turn-over, so just rub with mixture and put in container for 1-2 weeks. It will be intersting how this is going to turn out. We have a wine fridge with a temp of about 53°F that should be suited for storing the curing meat, I really don't want to block our normal fridge for 2 weeks.

Redheart said:

When dry curing I wrap my meats tightly in plastik film, place in a tray and keep in the refrigerator.

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Good hint, I have extra wide plastic film available, so I'll do this then. The instructions for dry curing only mention a max. temp but no min. temp, so I guess I'll put it in the normal fridge after all (which is at 35.6°F).

landarc said:

If you press the meat when it is curing, the cure penetrates better.

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Do you mean like massaging once daily or putting a weight on top?

Redheart said:

How is that pastrami looking? Better yet how is it tasting?

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Not ready yet. I couldn't find the time to prepare that brisket until last Saturday. I trimmed it, separated the (very small) point from the flat, and applied the curing salt, it's now sitting in the fridge:



The cook is scheduled for next Sunday. It already has that nice looking deep red, but I am skeptical, because I in my opinion the amount of curing salt according to the the manufacturer's instructions is way too little (4.41 lbs of curing salt are supposed to be enough for 132.28 lbs of meat). It was more like a sprinkle than covering the meat properly, but well, we'll see how this is going to turn out.

So the meat is still wrapped in foil tightly, which makes me wonder: Should I be worried that seemingly no liquid left the meat? I thought the curing salt is supposed to suck liquids out of the meat, but where would they go if wrapped tightly in plastic foil?

I am concerned that I used way not enough curing salt as according to the instructions only very little is supposed to be used. As seen on the picture, the meat looks nice reddish, but turning it over did not reveal any liquid in the foil.