It’s the unofficial start of summer and I’m celebrating by making some pastrami at home.We don’t have a large fancy smoker or anything, but as it turns out, you don’t need one to make juicy, smoky, totally addictive pastrami.Making pastrami at home is really easy and really rewarding.

It just takes a little time and patience, which is easy when you don’t have to do much, just plan ahead 1 week and some pink salt, which you can easily get on Amazon.Making your own pickling spice Pickling spices are easy to get in the spice aisle or, in pre-covid times, at the bulk store and they’re usually just as good as if you made your own.But if you were inclined to make your own, you can tweak it to your liking.

This is my recipe: 1 tbsp mustard seed 1 tbsp coriander 1 tsp white pepper 1 bay leaf, torn up 1 cinnamon stick, broken up 1 tsp cloves 4 cardamom pods 1/2 tsp sichuan peppercorn (very optional) The best cut of beef for pastrami Brisket is always the go-to cut for pastrami, but you can use any large, well marbled cut of beef, such as flank steak, skirt steak, tri tip, or anything else you can easily find.The leaner the meat, the less fall-apart-y it will be, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.Because I don’t have a giant smoker, I like to buy the really cheap end cuts and off-cuts that are about 1-2 lbs each.

Besides the fact that they fit in the smoker more nicely, I feel that they fit the original purpose of pastrami better, which is to make

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