Romanian Pastrama??? Yup!

A smoke I did a few weeks ago. Pork Pastrami, or Romanian Pastrama.

Off all the pastrami like meats I have made, this is by far the tastiest........So far. Packed with flavor,

the taste is HUGE. Allot of things going on when you bite into it. A very multi- dimensional flavor to it.

The meat used. Pork shoulder 9# after trimming the fat away.



The spices being used on this one. Not pictured is the Tender Quick.

Black pepper
Granulated Garlic
Onion Powder
Brown Sugar Paprika
Ground Juniper Berries
Ground Clove
Cinnamon
Rosemary
Ground Fennel
Ground Allspice
Mace
Ground Coriander
Ground Mustard
3 Small ground Bay leaves

Just like the Buckboard Bacon, remove the bone in the meat along with the gland. For some reason, the pics of this step vanished. If I find them, I will post them. For now, refer to the Buckboard Bacon post on this step.

Rubbed in the Tender Quick (1 Tbl per pound of meat)

Tied the shoulder up and rubbed in the spices.


Into the food saver bag where it will take a nice long nap. Make sure to flip the bag twice daily to ensure juices eistribute evenly and don't pool in the bottom of the bag.


14 Days later, time to wake it up. Just out of the foodsaver bag.


After a good rinsing.


I had to retie the should a bit tighter. Then added the final rub for the smoke.
I measured everything out Whole, uncracked, then added to my coffee grinder and and ground up.

3 Tbl Whole melange peppercorns
1 Tbl Whole Mustard seed
2 Tbl Whole Coriander
2 tsp Whole juniper berries


On the smoker at 180 degrees for about 2 hours with a good steady stream apple smoker. I used Apple chips on this, not dust, not chunks, but chips. Filled the charcoal basket about half way then added a layer of chips, more charcoal, more chips and so on until I reached the top. I might stick with chips when using the UDS as this smoke there were no temp spikes or drops and the smoke was neither pumping out or fizzling but very steady. Then raised the temps to 235 where it hummed along all day and pulled it out when the internal hit 177 degrees. Total smoke time was 9 hours.


Out of the smoker and about to wrap in foil where is will sit on the porch overnight to rest and chill. About 30 degrees on the porch so no need to take up space in the fridge.


After a night of rest, time to start slicing.


On my buckboard bacon I did the other day, I sliced the meat the short way as I could not fit it on my slicer tray. This one I wanted to slice lengthwise, but first I had to cut it in half to do so.


Rival did it's job. So much easier to cut this stuff when it is chilled.



And into foodsaver bags and off to the freezer.
Have some sauerkraut to can up and can't wait to make some Rubens with this stuff.


And that concludes another smoke. Hope you enjoyed it. All I can say is making pastrami from pork shoulder rocks. Give it a try sometime. Any questions on this smoke or others, all ya gotta do is ask.