A simple, sweet-and-savory appetizer. Delicious with crackers or apple slices! Cut the Brie’s top rind off if you’d like.
| Prep Time: | 40 mins |
| Cook Time: | 6 hrs 10 mins |
| Additional Time: | 12 hrs |
| Total Time: | 18 hrs 50 mins |
| Servings: | 10 |
| Yield: | 1 4-pound pastrami |
Ingredients
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- ¼ cup coarsely ground fresh black pepper
- 2 tablespoons smoked paprika
- 2 teaspoons ground coriander
- 1 teaspoon dry mustard
- ½ teaspoon ground white pepper
- ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 4 pounds corned beef brisket
Instructions
- Mix vegetable oil and garlic in a small bowl; set aside for 1 hour.
- Preheat the oven to 225 degrees F (110 degrees C).
- Combine black pepper, paprika, coriander, dry mustard, white pepper, and cayenne pepper in a large bowl; set aside.
- Cover a baking sheet with a large sheet of heavy-duty aluminum foil; coat with prepared garlic oil. Lay beef brisket on the oiled foil sheet and brush with remaining garlic oil. Cover brisket completely with pepper mixture, reserving 1 to 2 tablespoons.
- Wrap brisket, fat-side up, in the sheet of foil. Place wrapped corned beef on another sheet of aluminum foil with the seam- and fat-sides down. Place double-wrapped brisket, seam-side down, on a third sheet of aluminum foil; wrap again.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 6 hours.
- Remove pastrami from the oven and let cool to room temperature, about 3 hours. Do not remove the foil.
- Place foil-wrapped pastrami in a freezer bag or other plastic bag; refrigerate for 8 to 10 hours.
- Preheat the oven’s broiler and set the oven rack about 6 inches from the heat source. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil.
- Remove pastrami from the refrigerator, unwrap, and place on the prepared baking sheet. Sprinkle top with 1 to 2 tablespoons remaining pepper mixture.
- Place pastrami under the broiler and cook until surface browns, 3 to 4 minutes. Remove pastrami from the oven and cut into thin slices, about 1/8-inch thick.
- Heat a large skillet over low heat; warm pastrami slices in the skillet with a few drops of water until fat turns translucent, about 5 minutes.
- Serve warm pastrami slices on rye bread with mustard and a pickle.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 4709 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 33 g |
| Cholesterol | 980 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 15 g |
| Protein | 273 g |
| Saturated Fat | 103 g |
| Sodium | 22099 mg |
| Sugars | 2 g |
| Fat | 384 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
I made this from home made corned beef. It is spectacular. I like spice so I doubled the cayenne and added a bit extra smoked paprika. It’s the closet the deli pastrami from nyc Ive ever had. I did not have liquid smoke and I don’t think I would add it. Next time I think the smoked paprika was sufficient. And I’m a fan of smoked.
Incredible! Start the day before. I’ve made this six times and it’s great!
Not a substitute for real pastrami. A lot of time spent for a taste that is just a spicy corned beef.
So easy and the some of the best pastrami. I soak the corned beef for 2 hours in water so it is not so salty. I add pastrami crumble to scrambled eggs or an omelet for extra special eggs.
Simple, excellent taste!
Excellent! Followed exactly your steps. My family raved how excellent the texture and flavors. Not a piece was left. This will be made everytime with this recipe.
Followed almost exactly but skipped the last rub of pepper before the broil. Came out melt-in-your-mouth delicious. Making sandos tonight and tmo the day after.
Please don’t make this with regular brisket, it won’t work. You need to start with CORNED/BRINED meat. Some here seem to be confused.
I have made this twice. The first time it leaked so the second time I wrapped two more layers of foil. Other than that I made no changes to the recipe. Follow all of the steps. The last step took it from really good to fairly brilliant
I’m making my 4th batch of this pastrami. I even have people ask when I’m making it again. Everyone loves it. I made one change now – I do 4 hours in the smoker and 2 hours wrapped in foil in the oven. OMG! Chef John this is a great recipe
I followed the recipe and it came out tasting Great! Tastes just like pastrami, very tender and flavorful.
I used everything in the recipe except the cayenne pepper because I didn’t have any. The person that tried it liked it, and I know it was spicy enough for him because he went for the fridge for a drink. I followed every step and used a homemade corned beef that I had brined for about 10 days. I’ll use this recipe again when I make it for a friend a a Christmas Gift and whenever I need a pastrami!
I used the wrong size aluminium foil. Even quadruple wrapped, it still leaked. It was good but it tasted more like peppered corned beef than pastrami. It was better than regular corned beef which I don’t like, but it wasn’t as good as deli pastrami.
This recipe was a total winner! I used a relatively lean 5 lb corned beef, and it seemed like it shrunk about 30-40% in the cooking process, so you might want to take that into account. The seasoning was perfect. I did not find it too peppery. It is a very easy recipe; it just takes a lot of time. St. Patrick’s Day will probably end up being Pastrami on Rye from now on.
I made this recipe exactly. I felt it was too spicy and when I opened up the foil package after baking I found it to be a little tough. Not at all fall apart as he calls it. I ended up rinsing of the spices after broiling and wrapping it up in clean foil and baking it longer. I won’t be using this recipe again.
This is the best pastrami I ever tasted. So much better than the store bought. It came out exactly as shown in the video. It literally fell apart, didn’t need a knife to cut it. It remained moist it kept its pink color. I have three daughters that are most difficult to feed because they are so picky, they loved it they ate ate half of it without bread while I was still slicing it. I am absolutely making this again. Thank you Chef.
Pretty good flavor on its own but the smoked paprika wasn’t giving it enough of a smoky flavor. I will be adding 1/2 teaspoon on liquid smoke to the oil, garlic rub nest to up that smokey flavor.
Delicious
I followed the instructions and then I added a half a capful of liquid smoke to the oil and garlic. Just a little bit gave me the smoky flavour of a pit bbq Smoked for 8 hours!! Excellent is all I can say
Not sure I got the recipe prefect, but it did come out fairly tasty. Need to give it another go to tweak it.
This was really, really good. Am making again with a few changes. First, Cut off most of the fat first, then apply the rub. Otherwise you cut off that great flavor afterwards. Second, I will apply the rub & let sit for 24 hours before cooking. Can’t wait!!!