Monday, January 6, 2014

Finished Pastrami

So, need to do a few catch up posts, but I ended up finishing the pastrami (and distributing it to a good number of people).

Here's the finished product:



So after my last post (when I boiled, and peeled the tongue) all I had left to do is smoke the tongue.

For this I put the tongues on the cold side of my smoker, lit the fire, and let it go.

And then re-lit the fire 30 minutes later.  And then stood in the cold another hour trying to make the fire keep going. 

I was a really bad boy scout.  Anyways, the fire eventually lit, and I ended up smoking it for about 4 hours on a fire of oak/mulberry. Note the nice smoke ring in the product above. 

After smoking sliced the pastrami super thin.  Slicing thin both gives the meat a deli feel, and also makes it more difficult to perceive the taste buds on the edges of the meat. 


The meat was a hit with people, and appealed to a crowd skewing male and older.  I'll probably make it again next year, if I still have access to cheap tongue.