Sous vide and smoke are the keys to pastrami that rivals that served at New York’s best delis. Here, we give our sous vide pastrami recipe for perfect meat, every time.
Every St. Patrick’s Day, countless Americans celebrate by donning green apparel and enjoying even greener beer. But while they are busy getting green at the gills at the corner pub, I’m at the store stocking up on discounted packages of corned beef.
For many folks, these pre-cured corned beef briskets are a once a year indulgence to cook alongside some cabbage and potatoes. For me, however, they are a gateway to what I affectionately refer to as “Jewish barbecue” or pastrami.
Recipe Overview: Sous Vide Pastrami Recipe Success Formula
- Buy: a package of corned beef brisket approximately 3 to 4 pounds (1.4 to 1.8 kg).
- Make: Katz’s pastrami rub. Set aside.
- Fill a pot: with cold water to cover the corned beef brisket and refrigertate it for at least hours, to remove the excess salt from the meat.
- Prepare: a sous vide immersion circulator according to the manufacturer’s directions.
- Set: the water temperature for 145°F (63°C)
- Remove: the brisket from the pot and put it in a gallon-size plastic zipper bag and submerge it in the water bath.
- Cook: the corned beef for 30 hours.
- Make: a 50/50 bath of ice water and ice. Drop the bag of corned beef in it and leave it there for 30 to 60 minutes.
- Fire up: your smoker to 225°F (107.2°C) or set your grill to 2-zone cooking. Add a smoker box or smoking wood pouch.
- Remove: the meat from the bag and cut off any fat. Pat it dry with paper towels and season the meat with the pastrami rub.
- Cook: the meat in the smoker or on the grill until it reaches an internal temperature of 125°F (51.7°C), about 1 hour.
- Remove: the pastrami from the grill or smoker and wrap in foil, twice. Let it sit for an hour. Then, slice it against the grain, and serve.
Summarize & Save this Content on:
The science behind our sous vide pastrami recipe
In the article “Pastranomy: Close to Katz’s Home Made Pastrami Recipe,” Meathead shares his recipe for transforming corned beef into pastrami. First, you desalinate the meat, then coat it with a peppery spice blend. Finally, you smoke and steam it to Katz-like quality.
While I have had great success with his recipe, I wondered if I could make it even better by using the sous-vide-que method. The result? It took some trial and error, but to my tastebuds the final product was better than anything to be found at New York’s best delicatessens. The sous vide method thoroughly breaks down tough connective tissues in the meat. This creates rich-tasting collagen that also helps keep the meat moist. Equally appealing is the convenience factor, as sous vide cooking is hands off when compared to tending a fire for 10+ hours when doing pastrami completely on the smoker or grill.
Note that like our sous-vide-que brisket recipe, the sous vide water temperature of 145°F (63°C) is determined after consultation with our sous vide que time and temperature guide.
Before trying this recipe, note that you flash chill the meat after sous viding it. Chefs often do this to prepare meats ahead of time, chill them, and then finish them as soon as an order comes in to the kitchen. You could also make this ahead, but flash chilling’s purpose is to cool the meat enough so that it can then absorb plenty of flavorful smoke as it slowly reheats on the grill.
Oh, and one other piece of advice: If you like Reuben sandwiches made with corned beef, you have to try them with pastrami.
Ingredients and substitutions for sous vide pastrami recipe
- Corned beef brisket, approximately 3 to 4 pounds (1.4 to 1.8 kg) is what you use. Pastrami, in my opinion, is one of the best meats in the world and it’s the ultimate expression of corned beef.
- Pastrami rub makes it what it is. The one I use is the result eating a lot of pastrami, you know, for research, at Katz’s Deli in New York City. It includes peppercorns and coarsely ground black pepper, along with coriander seeds, both whole and ground. Brown sugar, paprika, garlic and onion powders, and whole mustard seed and mustard powder make up the remaining ingredients.
Sous vide pastrami recipe, step by step
- Put the corned beef in a pot and cover it with cold water. Refrigrerate for at least 8 hours to remove excess salt. Change the water once or twice if possible.
- Prepare an immersion circulator according to the manufacturer’s recommendations.
- Make the pastrami rub if you haven’t already. Set aside.
- Remove the brisket from the bag and put it in gallon-size freezer zipper bag. Carefully lower it into the water bath until most of the air has been removed and then seal the bag. Cook, submerged, for 30 hours.
- Fill a large container 50/50 ice and water. Place the bag of sous vided corned beef in the bag for 30 to 60 minutes to reduce the meat’s core temperature to 34 to 38°F (1.1 to 3.3°C).
- Fire up your smoker to 225°F (107.2°C) or prepare a grill for 2-zone cooking, and get the indirect side to about 225°F (107.2°C). If you’re using a gas grill, turn off the burners on one side for indirect cooking and set the temperature to approximately 225°F (107.2°C).
- Add a smoker box or pouch according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
- Remove the meat from the bag, and cut off any of the fat. Pat the surface dry with paper towels and season the corned beef generously with the pastrami rub.
- Place the meat in your smoker or on the cooler side of the grill far from the heat source. Allow Smoke until the meat reaches an internal temperature of 125°F (51.7°C), about 1 hour.
- Remove the pastrami from the grill, wrap it in a double layer of foil, and allow it to sit for 1 hour. Unwrap, slice against the grain, and serve.
Sous vide pastrami FAQs
Yes, you can overcook meat using an immersion circulator if the meat never gets hotter than the water bath temperature. When that happens, the proteins in the meat break down and the meat turns mushy and mealy.
Sous vide does not produce any browning on the meat, so you’ll need to do that separately if you want, once the meat is cooked. Sous vide is also time-consuming so it’s not always the best way to prepare a meal. Typically sous vide can be done ahead of time, and that’s one of its advantages.
A lot of different foods taste great cooked this way. We’ve done pork belly, brisket, or beef ribs. We’ve even done sous vide duck confit. Veggies are great cooked sous vide, too, like our grilled sous vide carrots recipe. Bet you didn’t see that coming!
If you like our sous vide pastrami recipe, you’ll love . . .
- Authentic Pit Roast Beef Done Right in Your Own Backyard
- Jewish Deli History: I’ll Have What She’s Having
- Melt-in-Your Mouth Sous Vide and Smoked Pork Belly
- Slice Into Juicy and Tender Pork Loin, Sous-Vide-Que Style
- The Big Chill: A Trick for Making the Perfect Sous-Vide-Que Steak
Explore the world of Sous Vide Que, the ultimate marriage of water and smoke, by downloading our ebook Sous Vide Que Made Easy. Or get the book and others FREE as a member of the AmazingRibs.com Pitmaster Club.
Our sous vide pastrami recipe
Sous-Vide-Que Pastrami Recipe
Ingredients
Method
- Prep. Put the corned beef in a pot slightly larger than the meat and cover it with cold water. Refrigerate for at least 8 hours in order to remove excess salt from the meat. If you can, change the water once or twice.
- Prepare a sous vide immersion circulator, such as Joule by ChefSteps, according to the manufacturer's instructions. Set the water temperature for 145°F (63°C).
- Remove the desalinated corned beef from the pot and place in a gallon-size sealable freezer bag. Carefully submerge the freezer bag in the water bath until most of the air has been removed and then seal the bag as in the video. Once bag is submerged, cook the corned beef for 30 hours.
- Fill a large container with a 50/50 mix of ice and water. Place the bag of sous vided corned beef in the ice water for 30 to 60 minutes to quickly reduce the meat's core temperature to 34 to 38°F (1.1 to 3.3°C). Place the meat in the refrigerator until ready to smoke (up to two days ahead of time).
- Fire up. Fire up your smoker to 225°F (107.2°C) or prepare a grill for 2-zone cooking and get the indirect side to about 225°F (107.2°C). If you're using a gas grill, turn off the burners on one half of the grill for indirect cooking, adjust the grill temperature to approximately 225°F (107.2°C), then add a smoker box or smoking wood pouch according to manufacturer's instructions for the full smoke flavor. Use lots of wood.
- Prep again. Combine the rub ingredients in a small bowl and mix well.
- Remove meat from the freezer bag. Cut off any extra fat. Pat the surface dry with paper towels and season generously all over with the dry rub mixture.
- Cook. Place the meat in your smoker or on the cooler side of the grill as far from the heat source as possible. Smoke the meat until it reaches an internal temperature of 125°F (51.7°C), about 1 hour. The pastrami is already perfectly cooked from the sous vide step. We're just adding smoke to the meat and reheating it to a temperature that is pleasant when served.
- Serve. Remove the pastrami from the grill, wrap it in a double layer of foil, and let it sit for 1 hour. Then, unwrap it and slice it against the natural grain of the meat. May I recommend a Rockin Reuben Sandwich?
Before you can post a comment or question you must sign into our commenting partner, Disqus. This helps make sure everyone hanging around the grill is civil. We do not tolerate nastiness, racism, porn, inappropriate language, or attacks on others. All comments are the property of AmazingRibs.com and we reserve the right to quote them, edit them, delete them, and block people from making future comments.
Please leave comments and questions on the same page that is devoted to that subject so others can see questions and our answers when they are reading about the subject. You must enable JavaScript to use the comments section, and you must accept cookies to post comments. Note: the software that runs Disqus is different from the Pitmaster Club, so members need to sign into the Pitmaster Club separately.