Pork Belly Pastrami
Where to begin? Our love of pork belly is well known by any casual reader of this blog, and it should come as no surprise that we are also great lovers of cured meats. Salami, ham, peameal bacon, corned beef—all these are delights of our culinary hearts. And, of course, we have combined the two in making homemade bacon. But it isn’t enough! we need more! More pork belly! More cured delights! More Pork Belly Pastrami!
If you want heaven on a sandwich, you need to try this recipe, which we adapt from All Things Barbecue. The fat in the belly renders like it does in a perfect brisket, the meat becomes tender and juicy, and the brining, seasoning, and smoking deliver a flavor bomb that is even better than we expected it to be. We set out to make this as a substitute for St. Patrick’s Day corned beef, but instead, it’s going to be one of our all-time favorite meats. Let’s get into it, so you can get cooking!
Can pastrami be made of pork belly?
Can it be pastrami if it’s made of pork belly? Well, that depends on your definition of pastrami. If we go back to the original definition, pastrami was much more similar to South African biltong than today’s NY deli version. Ok, fine. Later interpretations of pastrama used lamb, goat—even water buffalo—so beef isn’t the deciding factor, historically.
And yet we must concede that when Americans think of pastrami, we think primarily of the stuff that comes out of the delis of New York, beef brisket that is cured, seasoned, smoked, then steamed before being sliced for sandwiches that are altogether too tall for reason. And as that version was developed by and for the kosher Jewish community, no, pork belly pastrami isn’t a thing.
But that doesn’t mean we can’t make a pork belly pastrami anyway! It just…won’t be beef. it will still be amazing on rye with some mustard and swiss.
Curing the pork belly for pastrami
Pastrami is cured, and making it from pork belly doesn’t change that. We want that beautiful rosy color that comes with the protein change of curing, and we want the flavor of the cured meat, which you can’t get any other way.
To make the brine we use some salt, sugar, water, and some curing salt (Prague powder #1), in addition to a bunch of spices. We’ll have plenty of garlic, allspice, coriander, black pepper, etc. that we will toast and crush for maximum flavor delivery.
Combine the sugar, salt, curing salt, and spices in a pot with half of the water needed for the brine—in this case, use 1/2 gallon of water for this stage of the process. Bring it to a boil. Stir until the sugar and other solutes are dissolved and the mixture reaches a boil, then combine it with 4 pounds of ice—the weight of ice that represents the rest of the gallon of water we need for the brine. Check the temperature of the brine to be sure it is below 70°F (21°C) using your Thermapen® ONE, but physics dictates that getting below that temp shouldn’t be a problem. We need to get below 70°F (21°C) so that we can avoid the worst parts of the temperature danger zone. Of course, we need to get below 40°F (4°C) to leave the TDZ behind, but being below 70°F (21°C) is a good start!
With the brine made and cooled, we can pickle the pork. Submerge the pork in the brine, weighing it down if needed, and refrigerate for 4-6 days.
Pastrami seasoning
Traditional pastrami seasoning has several spices ranging from caraway and garlic to juniper, mustard, and others, but always with a focus on coriander and black pepper. In this case, we’re making our seasoning from the requisite coriander and black pepper—both toasted—and leaning on a little BBQ rub for the other spices. A good all-purpose beef rub works great mixed with the fresh-ground base spices, and the result smells exactly like, well, pastrami, but pork.
Cooking the pork pastrami: temps to know
We definitely want some good smoke flavor on this meat, and we have loads of collagen and fat to render, so a nice low temp is what we’re looking for. We smoke the belly at 250°F (121°C), which will provide plenty of smoke flavor and provide the gentle heat we need for proper rendering.
To establish a good bark, we smoke the belly for about three hours until it reaches an internal temperature in the neighborhood of 160°C (71°C). Then, because we want to eat this as soon as possible, we wrap it in a couple layers of foil and put it back in the smoker to finish.
Our final pull temp is 195°F (91°C), but it won’t hurt you to push that to 200°F (93°C)—personal textural preference is going to be key here.
We set up our Smoke X2™ in our smoker to monitor both the pit temp and the meat temp throughout our cook, and kept the receiver at a desk inside while we did other things—it was a cold day for smoking! When it alerted us to our pull temp, we checked the tenderness and temperature with our thermapen ONE to be sure that we didn’t have any cooler or chewier spots in the meat. We did not, so we pulled it from the heat and let it rest for about 30 minutes before unwrapping it.
Results
This was just amazing. It made us giggle, it made us dance, it made our accountant very happy. Piled high and hot on a slice of marble rye or pumpernickel with a lashing of brown mustard and a thin slice of mild swiss, it was blissful. And the cook was not, let’s say, difficult. Yes, you have to wait for the better part of a week, but it’s a straightforward cook, especially with the help of your Smoke X2 and Thermapen ONE. Believe us when we say that once you try this, you’re going to be hooked. Put one on to brine this weekend and enjoy this dish as soon as you can. Happy cooking!
Pork Belly Pastrami
Description
Pork belly pastrami, adapted from the recipe presented at ATBBQ.com
Ingredients
- 1 slab pork belly, about 8–10 pounds
- 2 qt water
- 4 lb ice
- 3/4 cup kosher salt
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 2 tsp pink salt (sodium nitrite, Prague powder #1)
- 5 cloves garlic, crushed
- 2 Tbsp pickling spice (from the store, or make your own using the ingredients in the notes below)
- 1 tsp ground allspice
- 1 tsp ground mustard
For the seasoning:
- 1/3 C whole coriander seed
- 3 Tbsp peppercorns
- 2 Tbsp all-purpose beef BBQ rub
Instructions
Make the brine
- If using pre-made pickling spice, toast it in a hot dry skillet until very fragrant and a little toasty looking. Crush the pickling spice roughly and put it in a pot with the sugar, salt, and curing salt. Add the garlic, allspice, and ground mustard.
- Add 2 quarts water to the pot and bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar and salts.
- Pour the concentrated brine into a vessel large enough to hold the pork belly.
- Add 4 lb ice to the brine and stir. Use your Thermapen ONE to verify the temp is below 70°F (21°C).
- Submerge the pork in the brine and weigh it down if needed. Put it in the fridge to cure for at least 4 or up to 6 days.
Season and smoke the pastrami
- Preheat your smoker to 250°F (121°C), use your Smoke X2 to monitor the smoker temp.
- Make your spice coating and preheat your smoker
- Toast the coriander and peppercorns in a hot dry skillet until very fragrant and a little toasty, with whisps of smoke just starting to form.
- Cool the spices somewhat and grind in a spice grinder until medium-coarse. Combine with the BBQ rub.
- Retrieve the pork belly from the fridge and rinse it well, removing any whole spices from its surface.
- Pat the surface of the pork belly dry.
- Coat the belly liberally with the spice mixture. We used all of it—don’t skimp!
- Place the pork belly in the smoker, inserting a probe into its thickest section, and setting the high-temp alarm of your Smoke X2 for 160°F (71°C).
- Smoke the pork until the high alarm sounds, about 3 hours.
- When the meat-channel high-temp alarm sounds and the bark has set, wrap the pastrami well in foil and put it back in the smoker.
- Re-insert the probe in the thickest part of the meat and reset the high-temp alarm on your Smoke X2 to 195°F (91°C).
- When the high-temp alarm sounds, verify there are no lower temps in the meat using your Thermapen ONE.
- Remove the pastrami from the smoker and let it rest in its foil for about 30 minutes before unwrapping, slicing, and devouring.
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For homemade pickling spice:
- 1 Tbsp coriander seeds
- 1 Tbsp black peppercorns
- 1 Tbsp mustard seeds
- 1 Tbsp red chile flakes
- 1 Tbsp allspice berries
- 1 Tbsp whole cloves
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 1 tsp ground mace
- 1 small cinnamon stick, crushed
- 2 bay leaves
Toast everything but the ground ginger and mace in a dry skillet until very fragrant and starting to brown, crush roughly, and combine with ground spices. This makes well more than needed for this recipe, so don’t dump the whole thing into your brine!
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I’d love to try this recipe.
One question I have though- are you using pork belly that has the skin removed?
Yes! This is a skinless pork belly.
Thank you!
Outstanding! Will have do cook this. My only modification would be to rub the Belly with a little bit of Olive Oil before coating with the spices, makes them adhere better during the cook. For a more Texas approach, Yellow Mustard is great.
What type of wood do you suggest? Will be using my Pit Barrel Cooker and of course my SMOKE THERMOMETER. TIA
I’d want something a little less aggressive for this, so stay clear of mesquite. Oak or cherry would be fantastic, I think. Beech, if you can get it.
Is the submerged belly covered or uncovered during the 4 days in the fridge?
Covering it is a good idea to help your fridge smell better, but it isn’t strictly necessary.
Ingredients list 1tsp ground mustard.
Later to make the brine it instead calls for 1 tsp of ground ginger and no mention of mustard.
Is it ginger or mustard to be added to pickling spice, garlic, sugar, salts, and allspice?
My error. Where it says to add the ground ginger, I meant add the ground mustard.
The ingredients list shows 1 tsp ground mustard. No indication in instructions where it is to be used. The “Make the Brine” section says to “add the garlic, allspice, and ground ginger”,but the ground ginger is not listed under ingredients. Is the “ground mustard” line supposed to be ground ginger?
I fixed the recipe. It said ginger but I meant mustard
Think this might have to be my weekend project around the wife’s commercial baking. Any thoughts on 3ish lber, about 3″ wide cut of belly for the cure time? Bacon I usually did a week to get the right firmness, thinking 4ish days at most here?
4 would probably do great for those narrow strips.
I use Morton’s Quick Cure when I make bacon. How would I alter the ingredients to use Morton’s instead of pink salt cure?
I’d follow the same per-pound instructions you follow for the bacon, but add the pickling seasoning, etc.
Trying this now, but there’s a discrepancy between the ingredients and instructions. Do I use 1 gallon in the pot or 2 qts? From the link atbbq, I assume 1 gallon.
Unless… 1 gal of water is roughly 8 lbs, half a gal (2 qts) is 4 lbs frozen?
I edited it to be better. Use 2 quarts and then cool it with 4 lb ice, yielding 1 gallon total water.
Will this process work with brisket?
Yes! But we also have a whole post about that.
Not sure why this needs to be. I smoke belly for 4-6 hours, then wrap and take another 3 hours or so. Refrigerate overnight, then you can slice to fry or cube. Pretty sure you can add whatever pastrami centric spices at that point to accomplish similar. Just cannot fathom pastrami with that much fat or why it is better than either a reverse brined commercial corned beef flat or point, or a pastrami made from the arduous process leading to pastrami from a regular brisket.
The first bullet of the Instructions for making the brine mentions ground ginger but that isn’t listed in the ingredients. Is it ground mustard as listed in the ingredients?
It should say mustard
Im really excited to make this it sounds wonderful. I’m making the brine and have a couple questions. It says to add the ginger but the ingredients list doesn’t list ginger and show how much needed. Also the directions never call for you to add the ground mustard.it also calls for 1 gallon of water but directions only tell you to add 2 quarts. Please advise.
John
Haha! I put the word ginger where the word mustard belongs. Add the ground mustard where I say to add the ground ginger. And I corrected the ingredients to say 2 quarts water and 4 lb ice. That yields 1 gallon of water, but with the right thermal arrangement!
The final result is so good it ought to be illegal! Cooked to 160 degrees F, took about 2 hrs, which is what Pork Belly usually takes in my Pit Barrel cooker. I used Hardcore Carnivore’s Camo rub, which is heavy on spices which are similar to that used in pastrimi. Just perfect.
I substituted beet brine (which has naturally occurring nitrates) for the pink curing salt and this turned out fantastic! My piece of pork belly was smaller. So I smoked for an hour and then wrapped it and smoked for another. Then I sliced and fried it like
bacon (because it basically was!) so fricking delish!