Pastrami

Beef brisket (the navel cut is traditional — fattier than the flat, more forgiving during the long process) cured for 5-7 days in a brine of salt, sugar, garlic, curing salt (sodium nitrite for colour preservation and flavour), and pickling spices (coriander, mustard seed, bay leaf, allspice, clove). After curing, the exterior is coated thickly in coarsely ground black pepper and coriander seed. The coated brisket is smoked over hardwood (traditionally oak or hickory) at low temperature (100-120°C) for 4-6 hours until the exterior is dark and the smoke has penetrated. Finally, the smoked brisket is steamed for 2-3 hours until the internal temperature reaches 93-96°C and the meat is spectacularly tender — falling apart when sliced against the grain. The finished pastrami should be pink throughout (from the curing salt), ringed with a dark, peppery bark, and so tender that each slice can be folded without breaking.

Pastrami — beef brisket (or navel/plate) cured in a spiced brine, coated in a crust of black pepper and coriander, smoked over hardwood, then steamed for hours until impossibly tender — is the defining product of the Jewish-American deli and one of the most technically complex cured meats in any tradition. The technique descends from Romanian *pastramă* (cured, dried goat or mutton) brought by Romanian Jewish immigrants to New York's Lower East Side in the late 19th century. The adaptation — beef instead of goat, smoking added, steaming added — transformed a Romanian peasant preservation into the pinnacle of the New York deli. Katz's Delicatessen (operating since 1888 on Houston Street) is the benchmark; the pastrami sandwich at Katz's is arguably the most famous single sandwich in the world.

On rye bread with spicy brown mustard. Half-sour pickles (AM4-12) on the side. Dr. Brown's Cel-Ray soda (celery-flavoured soda — the Katz's pairing). Or a cream soda. The fat and pepper of the pastrami want acid (the mustard, the pickle) and something effervescent.

1) The cure is the foundation — 5-7 days in a salt-sugar-spice brine (or dry rub) with curing salt. The cure does three things: preserves (salt inhibits bacteria), flavours (the spices penetrate over days), and colours (curing salt produces the characteristic pink colour through a nitric oxide reaction with myoglobin). 2) The pepper-coriander crust is structural — coarsely ground, applied thickly after curing, before smoking. The crust forms the bark during smoking and provides the characteristic bite that defines pastrami's flavour. 3) Smoking adds complexity — the hardwood smoke provides a layer of flavour that the cure and crust don't, and it further preserves the exterior. Low temperature, thin blue smoke (same principles as Texas barbecue — AM3-01). 4) Steaming is the transformation — the steaming converts the smoked, cured brisket from firm and sliceable to fall-apart tender. The steam's moist heat finishes the collagen conversion that smoking began, and the enclosed environment prevents the exterior from drying. Without steaming, pastrami is just smoked corned beef. 5) Slice against the grain, by hand, thick — machine-sliced pastrami loses its texture. Hand-sliced, in thick (5mm) slices, piled high on rye bread.