Hang Fire Pastrami

098/18: Hang Fire Pastrami

098/18 – Hang Fire Pastrami:

I cooked Hang Fire Pastrami not long ago, why am I cooking it again so soon? Well, I forgot to put the rub on the brisket before I cooked it last time so I wanted to do it again quite soon to see how different it was with the rub.

BBQ27/17: Hang Fire BBQ Pastrami

The Hang Fire Cookbook is currently £14.99 on Amazon.

The Meat:

3.4KG of Welsh Brisket from Olly at Rogers and Son – £28.75

The Prep:

As before, I made a cure from Maldon Sea Salt, Soft Light Brown Sugar, Prague Powder #1 (£10 on Amazon), Bay Leaves, Garlic Powder, Allspice and Black Pepper. Everything went into a large pan and was slowly heated until the salt and sugar dissolved then I took the pan off the heat and left the mix to cool down.

I made a big bag from a Foodsaver vac pac roll and put the meat inside before adding the cure and sealing the bag. This went into a tray then into the fridge for 5 days getting flipped over each night.

After 5 days I rinsed the meat under cold water, patted it dry, rubbed groundnut oil on then applied the rub (paprika, soft light brown sugar, garlic granules, coarsely ground black pepper, coriander seeds and ground allspice) before putting the brisket in the fridge for 2 days.

Hang Fire Pastrami

The Cook:

WSM set to 250f with 2 bags of heat beads and half a chimney of lump dumped on top and a full water pan of hot water. Once the temps had settled I placed the brisket on the top shelf and added some Apple and Whisky Oak chunks from Smokewood Shack.

Hang Fire Pastrami

After 9 hours the meat had hit 74c in most places so I took it off.

Hang Fire Pastrami

The meat then went onto a rack in a tray full of hot water, wrapped with a tin foil tent then into the oven at 170c for 3 hours. Once the internal temperature hit 94c I took it out to slice.

Hang Fire Pastrami

Time to slice it!

Hang Fire Pastrami

It was slicing really well, very soft but didn’t feel as soft as last time. I had a few sneaky tastes and it was fantastic, the rub was really improving the flavour profile but the meat was slightly dryer than the last cook. It also didn’t look quite as pink as before.

Hang Fire Pastrami

Time to Eat:

My pretzel buns were a failure this time. After the first rise I left the dough balls to proof but left them too long so they over-proofed and collapsed a bit. They never really recovered from that so were wide and flat!

I made the Russian dressing with this recipe but didn’t have any horseradish and substituted it for wasabi. If anything I think I preferred it with the wasabi! 

Pretzel bun sliced, Russian Dressing, plenty of Pastrami, Sliced Pickles, Sauerkraut and more Russian Dressing. Glorious!

Hang Fire Pastrami

SUMMARY:

This was really interesting. The flavour profile was far better with the rub on but the meat wasn’t as soft. I think the previous cook might have been softer as it was a tall, thick piece of meat and this was long and thin. This one was thicker at one end than the other which is obviously harder to cook evenly so I should maybe have trimmed the smaller end off to make it more even. Also, the meat wasn’t as pink inside this time which suggests the cure didn’t make it all the way through. Last time I did run a skewer through the meat a few times which would have made it easier for the cure to get inside the meat. I would do this again in future.

The buns were my worst yet, shame as I have always done well with these but it was my own fault for not following the instructions! Just a half hour proof is enough, any more and they will collapse. Lesson learnt!

Cook Difficulty: 4/5 
Cook Duration: Long: 4/5
Cook Equipment: Weber Smokey Mountain
Cook Method: Low and Slow
Charcoal: Heat Beads and Oxford Charcoal Oak
Smoking Wood: Apple and Whisky Oak
Cook temperature: 250F
Cook time: 12 hours
Internal temperature: 94c
Notes: 1: Skewer the meat before putting in the cure
2: Get a slab of brisket more in a brick shape. Tall and thick rather than long and thin.
3: Don’t over-proof the buns!

THE BOOK:

If you like the look of this recipe The Hang Fire Cookbook is currently £14.99 on Amazon.

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