DRY CURED PASTRAMI

DRY CURED PASTRAMI: 

     I have a recipe that I have published in the past making pastrami from corned beef. This is a from scratch recipe that will involve a curing and smoking a beef brisket to make pastrami. This is a lengthy process that has many steps, but in my honest opinion this makes the best pastrami I have ever had! The entire process took about two weeks time. So if you are up to the chalange, here is one awesome pastrami recipe!

Ingredients:  ( note: this recipe is for every 5lbs/2.25kilograms of meat ) 

     CURE: 

                  56 grams of Mortins Tender Quick or home made basic dry cure

                  1/4 cup brown sugar

                  1/4 cup black pepper

                  2tbs garlic powder

                  2tbs ground coriander 

    

     BASIC DRY CURE:

           ( I didn't have any tender quick on hand so I made my own dry cure. This makes a lot!) 

                  450 grams kosher salt

                  225 grams sugar

                  56 grams pink salt (instacure #1)

     DRY RUB:

                  6tbs black pepper

                  3tbs ground coriander 

                  1 1/2tsp mustard powder

                  1 1/2tbs brown sugar

                  1 1/2tbs paprika

                  3tsp garlic powder

                  3tsp onion powder

     1. Mix together all all the ingredients for the CURE in a bowl. If you are not using tender quick I have left a recipe to make a BASIC DRY CURE. The recipe for the BASIC DRY CURE will make way more than you will need for this pastrami, but you can store the dry cure mix for future recipes! Apply the cure evenly on brisket covering all sides. Use all of the cure!

     2. Vacuum seal brisket with cure and refrigerate for 10 days. The cure will draw water out of the brisket creating its own brine. Flip the brisket once a day to ensure the brine will evenly cure the brisket. 

     3. Open vacuum sealed brisket and thoroughly rinse off all the brine and cure. Place the brisket in a food grade container of brine bag and cover in water. Refrigerate for 24 hours. This will leach out any excess salt.

     4. Remove brisket from water bath and pat dry. In a bowl mix together the DRY RUB and apply evenly on the brisket. Shake off any excess. Vacuum seal or wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 24 hours.

     5. Remove brisket from bag and smoke at 215F. for 4-6 hours depending of the size of the brisket. Once the brisket is fully cooked wrap with butcher paper or aluminum foil and place back in the smoker for another 2-3 hours until desired tenderness. Remove from foil or butcher paper and allow to rest for 45 mins before slicing.

BACON! (un cured)

Bacon:

     BEWARE: This recipe does not use curing salt or any added nitrates or nitrites. The curing process is refrigerated and the smoking process uses a hot smoke. 

     This is a simple but very tasty uncured bacon recipe. The reason I make bacon this way is because curing salt gives me heart burn! I do understand the risk of botulism. But reading books on curing and preserving meats I learned you can minimize the risk by curing in a refrigerated environment and hot smoking the meat! So with this knowledge, please enjoy at your own risk/pleasure!

Recipe:

     9 to 10 lbs. whole pork belly

     1 cup kosher salt

     1 cup brown sugar 

1. Combine kosher salt and brown sugar in a bowl, mix well. Apply salt and sugar mixture evenly on both sides of pork belly. Vacuum seal pork belly with applied mixture. This will ensure the salt and sugar will adhere to the belly.

2. Refrigerate pork belly for 6-7 days. Flip the belly over once a day. The salt and sugar will extract water out of the belly and it will make its own brine. Flipping the belly once a day will evenly brine the meat. After 6-7 days the belly should be firm to the touch. Your meat is now cured.

3. Remove belly from the vacuum seal bag and rinse off all the brine with water. Allow belly to air dry for 45 mins. This will develop a tacky film called pectle. Doing this will aid smoke absorbtion. 

4. Smoke belly at 180F. until the internal temperature reads 150F. Remove from smoker and chill in refrigerator. You bacon is now done! Once chilled completely you can slice and package! 

Pork Summer Sausage

Pork Summer Sausage:

     This originally was a recipe for thuringer, a German version of salami. So I researched a recipe and found this from a book called "CHARCUTERIE". Awesome book, but this sausage came out tasting like a summer sausage, not like the thuringer I was expecting. But everyone that tasted it loved it! So it's not a total loss! 

Ingredients:

4lbs./1.75 kilograms boneless pork shoulder butt, diced

1/2 cup/80 grams fermento 

1lbs./450 grams pork fat, diced

3tbs./40 grams kosher salt

1tsp./7grams cure#1

2tbs./20 grams dextrose (or sugar)

2tsp./8grams black pepper corns, soaked in warm water for at least 1 hour

1/2tsp./2 grams dry mustard

2tsp./8 grams ground coriander 

2 fibrous summer sausage casings

1. Grind pork shoulder through large die into a bowl set in ice.

2. Dissolve fermento in just enough water (1/4 to 1/2 cup/60 to 125 milliliters) to make a thin paste. Add to meat along with other ingredients, and mix thoroughly by hand.

3. Pack mixtur into a plastic container, pressing out any air pockets. Cover with plastic wrap, pressing down on it so it touches the meat. No air should touch the meat. Refrigerate for 3 days.

4. Regrind the mixture through the large die and stuff casings tightly, making sure there are no air pockets in the sausage. Hang sausage on a smoke stick and let dry at room temperature for 10 hours (overnight).

5. Cold smoke sausage at lowest possible temperature, ideally below 100 degrees F./37 degrees C. for 6 hours. 

6. Raise temperature of smoker to 180 degrees F./65 degrees C. and smoke until the internal temperature reads 150 degrees F./65 degrees C.

7. Transfer sausage to an ice bath to completely chill, then refrigerate.