The other day, I sent Adam to the grocery store. He came back with 5 (yes I said 5) Corned Beef's.
He wanted to make 4 pastrami's and (save one to cook the regular way St. Patty's Day way). I thought I'd show you all his method.
Start by giving the corned beef a nice ice water bath for about an hour. This helps to remove some of the salt since it basically comes in a brine.
Then give them a nice rub down with a mixture of coarse freshly ground pepper and coarse freshly ground coriander (which is one of the best smells known to man)
Heat up the smoker to 225 degrees. Add the pastrami in two layers.
About 5 hours later (when the internal temperature of the meat gets up to 165) you take the meat out.
Wrap it up in tin foil to maintain the heat and put in an un-iced cooler for a few hours. At this point you can eat it but for easiest cutting, refrigerate overnight.
The next day, you can cut that beautiful pastrami as thinly as possible.
And just keep going. Obviously we aren't eating all of these at once but it's easier to freeze pre-sliced pastrami in standard servicing sized portions. We used a Food Saver to pack them securely and air-tight in the freezer.
But first we slapped some swiss cheese on rye bread and made some delicious grilled Pastrami sandwiches for dinner.
So as a recap. Pastrami = smoked corned beef. It's time consuming but super easy. Give it a shot next time corned beef goes on sale. (so.... next March 14th or so)