Pastrami Meat for Delivery or Pickup

Usually made from beef brisket or navel, pastrami is a Romanian variety of the Turkish pastirma. You can make pastrami from turkey and lamb, although neither is as common as beef. In order to make pastrami, the raw meat is treated with brine or coarse salt to season and preserve the meat. Brine also makes the meat more flavorful and tender. Meat is typically brined for 24 hours to seal in flavor. The brined meat is then dried partially, seasoned with spices and herbs, smoked, and then steamed. Before the invention of refrigeration, pastrami was a way to preserve meat.

In the second half of the 19th century, an insurgence of Jewish immigrants brought pastrama, the Romanian variant, to the United States. It's believed that the spelling was changed to pastrami to imitate the American salami. The Romanian pastrama was initially made using goose breasts because they were cheap in Romania. Once the Jewish immigrants arrived in America, they found that beef navel was cheaper and quickly adapted the recipe to beef pastrami.

The first pastrami sandwich was served in New York by Sussman Volk, a kosher butcher, and Lithuanian immigrant. Volk's pastrami sandwich became so popular that he turned his butcher shop into a restaurant featuring delicious pastrami sandwiches. Today, you can add pastrami to your Instacart order and enjoy a similarly delicious sandwich in the comfort of your home after your Instacart shopper shops your order and delivers it to your doorstep!

While most people think of pastrami as deli meat, already prepared and ready to eat, you can also make pastrami from scratch to enjoy. For making pastrami from a five- to six-pound brisket flat, you'll start with trimming the fat off of the brisket flat. In a saucepan, combine eight cups of water, one-half cup sugar, and one-half cup coarse kosher salt and heat until salt is dissolved, then let it cool. Once cool, you'll add two teaspoons of pink curing salt and four tablespoons of pickling spice.

Place the brisket in a large container and pour the cure mix over the top, ensuring that the meat is completely immersed in the curing mix. Cover and leave in the refrigerator for five to six days.  When you return to it, the brine/cure will have turned the brisket grayish, which is normal. Dump out the curing mix and fill the container with plain water. Place the brisket back into the pan of plain water and let it soak for one to two hours. While the brisket is soaking, you can combine the ingredients for the rub.

For the rub, combine four tablespoons of coarse black pepper, two teaspoons garlic powder, four tablespoons pickling spice, two tablespoons coarsely ground coriander, and two teaspoons mustard powder. After the brisket is done soaking, remove it from the water and pat it dry with a paper towel. Season the brisket using a pushing and massaging motion to stick the rub to the meat. The brisket should be crusty, with the meat covered in a thick layer of rub. Once the brisket is covered, place it in the refrigerator overnight, uncovered.

Get your smoker up to 250 degrees and place the brisket in the smoker for four to six hours or until the brisket reaches an internal temperature of 165 degrees. Remove the brisket from the smoker and wrap it tightly in three to four layers of plastic cling wrap and then two layers of tinfoil. Place the brisket into a pre-heated oven at 250 degrees until it reaches an internal temperature of 205 degrees, which will be approximately four to six more hours. Slice and serve with mustard, pickles, and rye bread, or the accompaniments you prefer with your pastrami.