Starting the Pastrami

Over the weekend, I finally got ambitious enough to start my cow tongue pastrami.  The main reason for this ambition was that my wife had reminded me, that given the brining/smoking schedule, I barely had enough time to finish before the holidays.

My wife has promised portions this pastrami to a lot of different people (her family, some coworkers, probably some other random people), such that I need to have it ready before Christmas.  So a lot of people are looking forward to this little bit of weirdness.


I have five cow tongues (acquired from my in-laws in central ks), but I'm saving one back to make lengua tacos, so I'll start the process with just four.

First step, thawing the tongues.

Seems easy enough

Until the dog knocks one off and starts playing with it

Then you're left with this