Hey Joe fans. Up today is a Kamado Joe pastrami. If you have never had Kamado Joe pastrami, well its real easy to do, so let’s get started.
Don’t let the neighbors see what your up to, you’re going to need make a lot.
Kamado Joe Pastrami
For this cook, we’re starting with the corned beef already made. We used a Grobbel’s corned beef brisket flat cut. You should be able to easily find one of these at your local grocer. Today, we have a 3.7 pounder we’re cooking up.
Kamado Joe Pastrami – Ingredients
Besides the corned beef, you’ll need:
● ordinary yellow mustard
● 2 tablespoons garlic powder, divided
● Fresh ground black pepper from your pepper grinder
● 2 tablespoons ground coriander, divided, fresh is best, but use what you can get
Kamado Joe Pastrami – Day One
The corned beef label says there is 950 milligrams of sodium in a 4 ounce serving size. So we’re going to soak out some of that salt.
Open that cryovac corned beef package and rinse off all of that packing liquid.
Place the corned beef in a large stockpot and cover with cold water. Refrigerate.
After an hour or so, drain the stockpot and refill with cold water. Refrigerate. Repeat several times before going to bed. Yes, we’re doing an overnight soak.
Kamado Joe Pastrami – Day Two
The next day, prepare the Kamado Joe for indirect cooking. Stabilize your Joe at 225 °F to 250 °F (107 °C to 121 °C).
Add your favorite smoking wood. We used cherry for this cook. Aim for at least 5 hours of smoke, space out those wood chunks.
Drain the corned beef and pat dry. Slather with the yellow mustard. The mustard holds the spices but does not change the flavor.
On the fat cap, sprinkle on the garlic powder, coriander powder, and give it a good coating of fresh ground black pepper. Using your hands, press all of the spices into the meat.
Flip over the corned beef repeat, covering the meat side with the remaining spices. Again, using your hands, press the spices into the meat.
Load the soon to be pastrami into the Kamado Joe and cook until the internal temperature reaches 200 °F (94 °C).
At the target temperature, remove the pastrami, cover, and let it rest for an hour or so. Try not to pull off too many pieces as a taste test.
Refrigerate overnight.
Kamado Joe Pastrami – Taste Test
Thinly slice it and make the best pastrami sandwiches you ever had. Some folks advocate for steaming the meat. Well, you make it the way you want.
Here, we’re going old school — pastrami on rye with a bit of sour kraut and a schmear of Thousand Island dressing.
In future posts, we will look at other options such as making our own corned beef.
Kamado Joe Pastrami – The Notes
We use Evernote to track important points for all of our cooks. Below is an extract that shows some of what details we track. But you record what you think is an important reminder for the next time you might cook up a Kamado Joe pastrami.
We also use two thermometers in our cooks.
1) the Kamado Joe dome thermometer
2) a Maverick Redi-Chek ET733 dual probe thermometer with a wireless remote.
In the notes below:
● dome = the dome mounted thermometer
● thermometer = the Maverick Redi-Chek ET733 probe on the grill grate
● meat = the Maverick Redi-Chek ET733 temperature probe inserted into the thickest part of the meat
Grilling Notebook
Thursday, February 15, 2018
Picked up a Grobbel’s flat corn beef brisket.
Package label: 3.74 pounds
Cost per pound: $4.24
Paid: $15.86 before taxes.
Opened the package, rinsed off all of the cryovac coating, soaked in water starting at 16:30. The package label says the sodium content is 950 milligrams per 4 ounce serving size.
Dumped water, rinsed the brisket, and changed the soaking water at 17:15
Again, dumped water, rinsed the brisket, and changed the soaking water at 18:30
Friday, February 16, 2018
Dumped water, rinsed the brisket, and changed the soaking water at 04:00
Drained at 06:00, pat dry, noted that one end of the brisket is twice as thick as the other end
Started grill at 06:45. Weather Underground says current temperature is 64 degrees, 9 MPH gusts from the west. Sunny.
Pastrami Preparation
Prepping the meat, slathered with yellow mustard, sprinkled with Penzeys garlic powder, fresh ground black pepper, and ground coriander on both the top and the bottom. Didn’t worry about coating the edges.
Smoker Preparation
Preheating 10 minutes.
Closed dome lid, put in heat deflector, cleaned grill grate. The thermometer reads 115. Bottom vent open 1/2 inch, top vent closed, daisy wheel open.
07:05, thermometer is at 223, dome temp is 175, closed daisy wheel down to half
07:10, thermometer at 255, dome temp at 200, closed bottom vent down to about 1/4 inch, closed daisy wheel to 1/4 open
07:20, thermometer at 280, dome temp at 210, closed down the bottom vent to about 1/16 inch, closed daisy wheel to just a crack, about 1/16 inch
07:25, 65 degrees outdoor temperature, still breezy and gusty
07:30, thermometer at 275, dome temperature at 210, opened the top daisy wheel a bit, the smoker is starting to stabilize and even out
Smoking the Pastrami
07:45 thermometer at 280, dome temperature is at 220, added several chunks of cherry smoking wood, put the meat on the grate, fat cap side up
07:55, thermometer at 243, dome at 200, meat temp at 43, outdoor temp 66 degrees
08:20, thermometer at 273, dome at 210, meat temp at 73
08:40, thermometer at 273, dome at 210, meat temp at 99, outdoor temp at 67, starting to cloud up.
09:40, thermometer at 270, dome at 210, meat temp at 135
11:00, thermometer at 246, dome at 210, meat temp at 149
11:50, thermometer at 244, dome at 210, meat temp at 153
13:00, thermometer at 259, dome at 230, meat temp at 165
13:35, thermometer at 266, dome not measured, meat temp at 176
14:00, thermometer at 268, dome not measured, meat temp at 180
143:0, thermometer at 268, dome not measured, meat temp at 187
18:45, thermometer at 245, dome not measured, meat temp at 198
Calling it done enough. Brought the pastrami in the house and let cool for about 45 minutes. Wrapped with parchment paper and refrigerated overnight.
Check out my other Kamado Joe and JoeTisserie recipes and links here on my Outdoor Eats page.