Pastrami Recipe

[David L]

I know this is off track a bit, but does anyone have a recipe to make a good Pastrami? One with all the jewish flavor you can get?

[Daniel Rogov]

David, Hi.....

Truth is that there are so many good and some excellent commercially prepared versions of patrami available, I have never even dreamed of making my own.

Think of it....first to obtain a fine and fatty beef brisket, then to brine it (ideally in an epoxy coated concrete vat), then to dry it (requiring a drying room), seasoning (simple enough) and then smoking it (requires a true smokehouse to do it correctly) and then to steam it (requires a combi-steamer). Considering the work, the time and the cash investment involved I think I'd rather raise steers or rely on imports from the USA and occasional purchases at delicatessens here in Israel.

Best
Rogov

[David L]

I should have been more specific. Once you buy a full Pastrami from your local deli i always slice it and serve. Im looking for something else to do with it....

[Daniel Rogov]

Gotcha! Well, I suppose here too I'm somewhat old fashioned and believe that when God created pastrami she meant it to go on sandwiches.

I'm all for hot and cold pastrami sandwiches, those ideally for me on rye bread but will settle for a good baguette or pain de trois cent grams. On the sandwich must be fine deli mustard. Optional on the sandwich are soft fried onions and, if one goes in the non-kosher direction, a bit of sharp, well-aged Cheddar cheese.

Not at all opposed to whole pastrami heated by steaming and then sliced fairly thickly to served with hot potato salad or thinly sliced pastrami topped with fried (i.e. sunnyside up) eggs.

And yes, thin slices of cold pastrami roled about cornichons just to pop into the mouth with the fingers.

Best
Rogov

[David H]

a bit of sharp, well-aged Cheddar cheese.

Not at all opposed to whole pastrami heated by steaming and then sliced fairly thickly to served with hot potato salad or thinly sliced pastrami topped with fried (i.e. sunnyside up) eggs.

Cheddar? CHEDDAR??? Plain cheap what-the-Americans-call Swiss cheese!

[Daniel Rogov]

David, Hi.....

It is clear that you were brought up on "the wrong side of the culinary tracks".

First of all, cheddar and "Swiss cheese" ain't the same things. Cheddar at its best, either from the UK or from the USA is a well aged cheese, generally orange in color, firmimg up as it ages and packed with rich flavor. True, the cheddar that one finds pre-sliced and packaged in plastic (with little pieces of white paper between the slices) is abysmal stuff and to be avoided at all cost but true cheddar is indeed a gift from the gods.

What Americans call "Swiss cheese" is a take off on either Emmenthal or Gruyere cheeses, both of which at their best are also exquisite, either on their own or in combination on sandwiches (ham and cheese sandwiches on an Italian bread with mustard, lettuce and tomato can be superb.

To complicate things even further much of what Americans call "American cheese", "Cheddar" or "Swiss cheese" is actually processed cheese.....cheese loaded with salt, preservatives, water and with any resemblance to true cheese long destroyed.

Tell me where you live and I will tell you where to purchase some real Cheddar, Emmenthal and Gruyere. And I shall make you a happy person. I promise.

Best
Rogov

[Doug Z]

Mousebender Well let's keep it simple, how about Cheddar?
Wensleydale Well, I'm afraid we don't get much call for it around these parts.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3KBuQHHKx0

sorry couldnt resist....

[David H]

I know what cheddar is; I bring some home every time I visit my family in England. And I know what the American "swiss cheese" is. I was just pointing out that in my cultural upbringing, a pastrami on rye would have "swiss" added or be left uncaseinated. Wrong side of the culinary tracks indeed! Cleveland was a classic Jewish delicatessen center in those days.

[Daniel Rogov]

David, Hi.....


All is forgiven. Anyone brought up in Cleveland is automatically exempted from purgatory*.... so long as they bring back fine Cheddar from the UK on their return. Seriously though...try hunting up some of the better aged Cheddar from New York State.

Best and Chuckling Together With You
Rogov


*The difference between purgatory and hell is that at the first one has to eat processed cheese and at the second cheese that has gone rancid.

[David H]

... and I thought purgatory was where they administer purgatives ...

[David L]

Turns out I put the Pastrami in a crock pot with water in its original vacuum packed wrapping and let it cook overnight and ate it for lunch on Shabbat. Ate it with warm potato salad and cholent, it was amazing! Drank with Ella Valley CS 05.

[Shlomo R]

I should have been more specific. Once you buy a full Pastrami from your local deli i always slice it and serve. Im looking for something else to do with it....

Something else to do with it?! For Heaven's sake, why?!?! The only other thing to do with it is to take a knife and fork and eat directly off the whole thing!!! In chunks!!!
All kidding aside, one Shabbos (Saturday) morning after shul, there was a kiddush in shul. The host had the caterer warm up several pastramis on top ofthe warmers, then slice it and serve it in chunks. It was AMAZING.
As far as I am concerned, the best thing to do with a pastrami depends greatly on the pattern of the fat content in the meat. Well marbled and moist, cold paper thin slices are absolutely heavenly. With a thick vein of fat through the cut and little marbling, thicker slices or chunks, but cold. On a drier cut with decent marbling, slow heated until it softens up. Sometimes, you want to heat thin slices in a frying pan until the fat melts and the meat crisps. The possibilities are many and varied.

[Bobby S]

New interest in pastrami:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/14/dinin ... tml?src=me