I have made the long winded, brined, rubbed, smoked, steamed version. This version may not be authentic but worked beautifully. Maybe it won’t win any prizes but it is really good and only involves a small amount of preparation time but a long slow cook.

PASTRAMIPastrami

Allow at least 24 hours, 36 for a bit of a holiday in the fridge after the seasoning and before cooking would be ideal.

Ingredients

  • 2kg piece corned silverside/corned beef. I like to get the biggest piece possible. Wiped dry.
  • 1 jar of grained mustard or Dijon or even that one in a squeeze bottle. Something nice and sticky for the rub to attach to.

The Rub – (these are pretty much approximate, make less for a smaller piece of meat)

  • 1½ tsp ground coriander,
  • 2 tbsp coarsely ground black pepper, it works to put a 2 tbs of peppercorns in an old coffee grinder, much faster than a pepper mill
  • 2 tbsp brown sugar,
  • 1 tbsp smoked paprika,
  • ½ tsp ground allspice.

Method

  1. This is quite messy so have a large tray to do the rub on and another clean one for the meat when finished. Gloves to use when applying the rub and paper towels to help with the clean-up are useful. Have rack to put the meat on for cooking ready.
  2. Make up the rub mix and put in a bowl and put a spoon in the bowl.
  3. Put a spoon in the mustard jar unless you are using a squeeze bottle.
  4. Put the meat on the tray and wipe with paper towel, remove any thick gristle and large lumps of fat.
  5. (wearing gloves) Rub mustard all over the meat. Take a bit of extra time and massage it in.
  6. Rub all over with the rub mix, the mustard will help it stick. Be generous.
  7. At this stage you can cover it with paper towel and put it in the fridge for a few hours or even a day. You need to start cooking about 26 hours before you need to eat. It also keeps well so can be cooked ahead and just steamed for 20 minutes before eating.
  8. Check that the water level in the oven is full.
  9. Set the combi oven to hot air humid (about 60% humidity) at 66C for 24 hours. Put the meat on a perforated tray with another tray underneath to catch any drips, or just put the meat on a rack on a normal tray, and put in the oven. No need to preheat.
  10. When the time is up remove the meat, wrap in foil and place in the fridge.

Prepare for serving

  1. When ready to serve, slice the required quantity of meat very thinly, it’s a bit easier when the meat is cold.
  2. Set the oven to 70C at 100% steam to preheat
  3. Wrap the required amount of sliced meat in foil. Return the meat to the oven to steam for 20 minutes.

Make a Ruben

This is just rye bread, thinly sliced pastrami, a couple of slices of Swiss (or quality melting cheese), some sauerkraut, and some sauce – all toasted.

I serve as open sandwiches with melted cheese and warmed meat. Pretty good.