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.

___________

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!