Venison Pastrami Food

VENISON PASTRAMI

Steps:

• Weigh your venison. For every pound of meat, you'll need 10 grams of kosher salt and about 1.5 grams curing salt. Mix the salt, curing salt, sugar as well as the thyme, celery seed, caraway, juniper and the teaspoon of black pepper and grind them all together in a spice grinder. Pack the venison with this mixture, massaging it into the meat. Vacuum seal or put the meat into a Ziploc bag or closed container and set it in the fridge for 3 to 5 days. A general rule is 2 days per pound of meat. If you're unsure, leave the meat in one more day than you think you need to. This salt ratio will prevent the meat from getting overly salty.
• Rinse the cure off the venison and pat it dry. It's fine if you have a little bit of the cure stuck to the meat, but you don't want too much. Put the venison on a rack in the fridge and let it dry uncovered for up to a day.
• Dip the meat into the brandy - or really any other liquid you want - and then coat thoroughly in the 3 tablespoons of remaining black pepper and ground coriander seed. I like to grind this myself so the texture is a little coarse, a little fine. Press it into the meat well.
• Smoke the venison at about 165°F to 200°F until the interior hits 145°F, which takes me about 3 hours. Let the pastrami cool and eat as lunch meat, or on crackers or whatever.

VENISON PASTRAMI

Steps:

• Mix everything thoroughly together in a bowl.
• Rub it thoroughly over the corned roast, getting a nice coating.
• Throw the roast in a smoker set (and pre-heated) to 220° and smoke it with a nice hardwood. About a cup of hickory chips is what I usually use. I never soak the chips. Put the wood chips in AFTER the smoker is pre-heated, otherwise they will all just burn up before it gets to temperature.
• The smoke isn't meant to last the whole cooking time, probably just about an hour or two at the most. You can experiment with that of course.
• For food safety reasons, I'll tell you 160° is the "safe" internal temperature to shoot for. From a meat moisture perspective, you'll be happier with somewhere below 160° - I usually shoot for 150-155°. It takes 3 to 4 hours, sometimes a little longer. You can make the call on what temp you are comfortable hitting...
• If your smoker doesn't have a food temperature probe built in, I strongly recommend getting one for it. It saves you from having to open the smoker to check the temperature - which drastically drops the temperature, especially if you smoke on a cold or windy day.
• When it's up to temp, let it cool, then slice up for sandwiches. I usually wrap it in foil, and toss it in the fridge till the next day when I slice it.

VENISON PASTRAMI

Steps:

• Combine water, kosher salt, brown sugar, pickling spice and pink cure salt in a large container. Stir until dissolved.
• Place roasts in a separate container and pour brine over the top so all meat is well covered.
• Cover and refrigerate for 5-7 days, turning roasts at least once on day 3 or day 4.
• Remove meat from brine and discard brine. Rinse meat removing all spices.
• Soak meat in fresh cold water for 2-3 minutes
• Place meat on a baking rack and let the water drain off. Pat meat dry with paper towels.
• Place peppercorns, coriander seeds and mustard seeds in a spice blender or food processor. Blend just until spices are broken up.
• Mix in garlic powder and smoked paprika
• Rub mixed spices all over meat
• Place meat on racks in smoker. Set smoker temperature to 160°.
• Place one pan of wood chips in smoker
• When wood chips stop smoking (approximately 1 hour) add a 2nd pan of wood chips
• Continue cooking in smoker until meat reaches 145°. This may take 4-6 hours.
• Remove meat from smoker and place on a baking rack over a cookie sheet
• Preheat oven to 275°
• Pour hot tap water into cookie sheet, filling pan about half full. This will become your steam tray.
• Wrap meat and pan with foil so that no steam will escape during cooking
• Carefully move pan to oven
• Bake in preheated 275° oven for 1 hour
• Remove from oven and allow to sit covered for 10-15 minutes. Carefully remove foil.
• Slice when meat is cooled

VENISON PASTRAMI

Steps:

• Whisk together curing mixture, brown sugar, pepper, paprika, bay leaf, allspice, and garlic powder in a bowl. Rub mixture over venison roast, and wrap tightly in plastic wrap. Place roast in a bowl; refrigerate for 5 days.
• Remove roast from the refrigerator and rinse thoroughly to remove the curing mixture. Place in a bowl with water to cover, and soak, refrigerated, for 2 hours. Drain.
• Preheat oven to 250 degrees F (120 degrees C).
• Season roast with additional black pepper and brown sugar, and place in a roasting pan.
• Bake, uncovered, in the preheated oven until a meat thermometer inserted near the center reads 160 degrees F (70 degrees C), about 2 hours.