Pastrami...the short cut

This is the type of post that should send fear through the hearts of food bloggers.  Messing with something so polarizing as pastrami could find my writing met with the sounds of crickets (umm, just as it has been for the past two years). The most important question to answer is what the hell does someone raised in Arizona know about pastrami?

My mom made some very important decisions early in my life.  One of them was taking me to Miracle Mile Deli in Phoenix where everyone in line never waited more than 6 minutes or your order was free.  It was there that she introduced me to a Pastrami and Swiss on kaiser with spicy mustard.  Miracle Mile in some form is still around, but alas I am in my 22nd year of my two year Washington experiment.  Unfortunately, I haven't found a suitable deli in the entire metro area so until I get off my duff and visit my good friend Jason in NYC (and then Katz's and Carnegie Delis), I have to make due on my own and create a replacement.

While on a work trip up to Portsmouth, NH in the past year, I happened upon the Portsmouth Brewery where I landed an incredibly good pastrami.  I convinced the chef to share some of his secrets and got to work on creating this delicacy for my own.  This is done with a smoker, but if you don't have one, attempt any method you can to slow cook this thing.  Mind you, this is a shortcut method starting with corned beef.  But when you really want a pastrami, it's bad enough to wait 3-4 days, let alone an entire week to corn the beef.

Ingredients

• Corned beef brisket (whole, with flat and point attached)
• 2 c molasses
• 1 c freshly ground black peppercorns
• 1 c freshly ground whole coriander seeds

Method

Wait?  Four ingredients, seriously?  Pretty much.  Doing a fuller curing of your own brisket takes many more ingredients and several days to cure properly.  This cuts the time in half.

A little fuzzy, but covered in molasses

Place brisket in a pan that can conceivably fit in your refrigerator.  Cover the brisket with the molasses.  It's a messy job, but someone has to do it (or take the train to NYC).

Covered in pepper and coriander

Mix the pepper and coriander together and spread across ever aspect of the brisket.  Place in fridge for three days.  You don't need to turn it, and some of the mix will fall off.  No worries.

Fully ready to be smoked

After three days, fire up your smoker using the Minion method (fill up your charcoal area with charcoal and then place one lit chimney of charcoal - covered with gray ash - on top, along with 3 hunks of hickory and 2 hunks of apple wood (fist size). Place a water container inside if your smoker has one to create some moisture.  

Place brisket on the grill and moderate the temperature to approximately 225 to 250 degrees.  Keep at this temperature for about 12 to 14 hours, or until your brisket's internal temperature reaches approximately 195-200 degrees.  The Minion method will allow you to get about 10 to 12 hours of perfect temperature if you mind your fire correctly.  Just add some hot charcoal if your fire starts diving down below 200 and your vent openings at 100 percent aren't helping you.

After reaching the appropriate temperature, pull off the pastrami and let it cool.  Again, other than cutting off a small piece, yo are going to have to wait.  Wrap up your pastrami and place in the fridge to cool completely overnight.  The next morning, slice it really thin against the grain, steam it with some swiss cheese or your favorite, place it on a great kaiser or rye bread slices and enjoy with some mustard.