Reubenstini & Reubenzza

Zippylip

My second crack at pastrami, this time I did it a little different. Rather than slow smoking it for 5 hours, I hot smoked it on the kettle (at about 450) for a couple hours, then slowed it down as the coals began dying. After that I steamed it (just wrapped in foil & back on the hot cooker). Came out more moist than the first one but not quite as smoky; it was absolutely delicious:



for the crostini, buttered some cocktail rye bread on one side & onto a foiled veggie pan:



on with some chopped pastrami:



then the kraut & swiss & onto the egg:



10 minutes later:



on the plate with some thousand island, made a great appetizer for dinner on Saturday night:



next up, Monday afternoon: some fresh homemade pizza dough topped with Swiss:



kraut (well drained by the way):



more pastrami:



more Swiss:



about 9 minutes on the egg at 550:



all done:





did an anchovy too:



some slow cherry smoked hot sausage & chicken:



and some abts:



Happy Memorial Day, thanks to all those that made this kind of living possible.

Wolfpack

Great looking pie- good idea on the apps too. Thanks for sharing

johnkitchens

Everything looks great!

Mickey

Can I come to your party?

SmokeyPitt

You are a mad genius.  It all looks incredible.  

NDG

Everything looks amazing.  Did you use your "stage 2 wet dough" for the pizza?

Zippylip

NDG said:

Everything looks amazing.  Did you use your "stage 2 wet dough" for the pizza?

Thanks, and no.  For the most part I use the original method but I've shrunken it down a bit, I've cut the sugar, salt & yeast in half, I no longer preheat the water, and kneading time is cut down to about 7 minutes - none of these changes effect the final pie except maybe the shortened knead time, I believe that makes for a softer final product.  One other change is I've upgraded flour, after years of the Sams Club giant sack of cheap flour, I've gone back to using either Pillsbury, Gold Medal or King Arthur unbleached bread flour.  I think there's a modest but noticeable increase in quality with those over the super cheap stuff from Sams, really I just got tired of lugging that 25lb sack out the door & into the kitchen.

NDG

Gotcha.  I am still using your "stage 2 wet dough" with success.  I might have to go back and try the original again - hmmmmmmm . . . 

Zippylip

I think the stage 2 is certainly worthwhile, but I'm just too damn lazy to use it with any regularity