Pastrami!

Thanks guys.  I’ve attempted this before with less then spectacular results.  This time it worked out perfectly.  I followed the instructions on AmazingRibs.com:  https://amazingribs.com/tested-recipes/beef-and-bison-recipes/home-made-pastrami-thats-close-katzs-recipe

This started as 5.48 pounds of Choice grade brisket flat.  It spent a bit over 2 days in the curing brine with Prague powder #1, salt, pickling spices and brown sugar.  After the brine it spent 8 hours in fresh water to desalinate, then it got rubbed down with the pastrami rub from the above website.  It spent 3 days uncovered in the fridge dry brining.  

I was out of lump charcoal for my BGE so I smoked this on my WSM Smokey Mountain at 225F degrees with hickory chunks for smoke.  It took about 3 hours to reach an IT of 150F.  When it came off the smoker at an IT of 150F it went into a metal baking pan on a V-rack on the stovetop.  I added hot water, covered the pan with foil.  Used toothpicks to make sure the foil didn’t contact the meat (metal pan+foil+salts in the meat can create a reaction that melts the foil).  The meat was then steamed until it reached an IT of 203F.  This took about 2 1/2 hours.  When it was done I put it under the broiler on “low” for about 5 minutes to firm-up the crust.  Sliced it against the grain.  

Served this on dark rye bread with Swiss cheese and and a dressing made of mayo and homemade bbq sauce.  Grilled the sandwich to make the cheese a bit meaty.  Apologies to the purists for the lack of sour kraut, I never developed the taste for it. This was one of my favorite cooks in a long time.