Friday, March 25, 2011

My Smoked Pastrami

We live about 16 miles from anyplace you could really call a town, 5 miles from Greenback, which is pretty much just a post office, two banks and a restaurant; and 6 miles from Vonore, which is a wide spot in the road. But in spite of its smallness, Vonore has Sloan’s which is a miniature combo of a Walmart and Home Depot – it’s an amazing little place and it has a great meat department. While they only sell select beef, they still buy good meat and their burger is renowned in the area – they buy packer cuts then butcher it themselves – can you believe this little store has at least six people working in the meat dept.

I buy as much of my meat from them as I can and like most stores they have a weekly discount flyer. The week before St. Patrick's Day, they had the cheapest corned beef around, choice Skylark brand for $2.99/lb, so I bought one for St. Patty's Day and one for pastrami.

I smoked the pastrami at 235* to an internal temp of 165, then put it in a foil pan, covered tightly with foil and cooked to an internal temp of 185*. Then I put it in a pre-warmed cooler to rest until dinner time. I normally pull it from the smoker at 175* then steam it to heat prior to slicing and serving, but we were eating it off the smoker for this meal.  As it turned out 185* was fine for the brisket flat, but the fattier point and the fat between the two needed to go another 10 degrees.  I believe I'll stick with pull at 175* and steam before serving from now on.  It still looked and tasted very good.

And remember, if you own a grill, you can smoke pastrami.

Since I not only had pastrami, but also some corned beef left for St. Patrick's day, I could not let Chris' (Nibble Me This)  Blue Max sandwich post pass by.  I made it pretty much like his except used dill havarti cheese as that's what I had and I grilled it in a pan with butter.

Even though I ate no lunch, I could only eat half of it - d%*n diet pills.  My only comment to Chris is "D%*n boy where you been keeping this thing" - it was outstanding.  The best part is I'll soon be making corned beef and pastrami again - d%*n Chris, what else you hidin?

Finally two great giveaways to tell you about.  Bo over at Bo's Bowl is giving away a very nice piece of Le Creuset cookware and Chris at Nibble Me This is giving away a neat book called the "The Encyclopedia Of Sandwiches".  Please hope over to their blogs for the details.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by.

Larry

10 comments:

  1. Homemade smoke pastrami. Be still my heart.

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  2. How nice to have Sloans so close. I saw that d%*n sandwich over at Chris's blog and have bookmarked it to try. And with your recommendation, it might be sooner than later.

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  3. Sloan's is a great place. I drove 45 minutes to get there and the meat market guys are wonderful to work with. Not only did they help us get the cuts we wanted, we talked bbq and recipes for a while.

    And griddle cooking the Blue Max? I think you just took it to another level, Larry! Phenomenal idea.

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  4. Wow--what a neat place Sloans must be, Larry.. Glad it wasn't involved in that horrible tornado.

    Did you drive around to see some of that destruction in Greenback???? Holy Cow--I'd say you were LUCKY.

    That sandwich looks fabulous... YUM.... (So does the Pastrami.)

    Have a nice weekend.
    Betsy

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  5. Well this looks mighty tasty! I clicked in to comment on the bloody mary post and I can't find it.

    I love a good Bloody Mary!

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  6. Larry, That Pastrami looks really good! A hot Pastrami on a good Rye bread, with some stone ground mustard is one of our favorite sandwiches. Thanks for that taste of that great venison/pork smoked sausage in the casing earlier today! Great stuff...! Take Care, Big Daddy Dave

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  7. Wow, this looks delicious, I'll take the other half of that sandwich! LOL!!

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  8. What a good deal you got with the meat! The sandwich looks fantastic and I would love it. Wish my hubby felt the same way. Sloans sounds like a wonderful store!

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  9. that pastrami looks incredible..I would absolutely love one of those sandwiches, did I mention I love pastrami!

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  10. Hey Dude
    Looks realy tasty...I´m sure it was tasty!!! ;-)

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