2. Recipes & Cooking Tips, Beef Recipes, wagyu
HOW TO MAKE PASTRAMI
HOW TO MAKE PASTRAMI
(for Reubens)
Oven method.
No smoker required.
Meat at Billy’s Corned Wagyu Silverside is the only choice when it comes to making your own Pastrami at home. It’s premium quality and the fact that it’s Wagyu adds extra flavour, richness, softness & and therefore just an overall extra incredible eating experience.
Traditionally, pastrami is smoked and sometimes steamed to finish. Now just because you don’t have a big fancy BBQ smoker at home doesn’t mean you can’t make your own Pastrami. We wanted to show you how easy it is to make your own incredible pastrami at home in the oven.
The problem we found when looking online for recipes to make pastrami, nearly all of the recipes are from the U.S. and will often instruct you to soak the silverside before cooking. That’s because in the U.S. this helps remove the excessive amount of salt used in their ‘corning’ process. When you use our Meat at Billy’s Corned Wagyu Silverside, there’s no need to do this. We don’t over salt in the corning process and all the silverside needs is a good rinse and any soft jelly fat removed.
Making your own delicious pastrami at home is seriously so easy. Once you’ve tried it you won’t be able to stop! Guaranteed.
Use this recipe to serve up either hot pastrami (OMG ridiculously good) or wrap and chill down to slice thinly for a classic Reuben sandwich the next day. Keep reading for our how to guide on making Reuben sandwiches below.
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WAGYU CORNED SILVERSIDE
$38.98 – $64.98 -
PASTRAMI RUB - JACKALOPE TRADING CO (240G)
$19.95 -
HORSERADISH - NEWMAN'S (250G)
$8.50 -
BUTCHERS LAGER (4 PACK)
$25.00 -
MYO WAGYU PASTRAMI BUNDLE
From: $71.00
PASTRAMI INGREDIENTS
1.5kg-2kg Wagyu corned silverside
The Jackalope Trading Co – Pastrami Rub
Roasting rack & tray
METHOD
Rinse the silverside & pat dry.
Remove any of the soft jelly fat but leave the harder fat.
Apply the pastrami rub liberally. You want to fully coat all sides.
Place back in the fridge and allow the rub to set. Wait until there’s no dry rub left. This will take approx 30 minutes.
Preheat oven 140°C
Place the pastrami on a roasting rack in a roasting dish. Cook for approximately 4-5 hours or until it’s about 85°C internal if you’re making Reubens. Other recipes may say to cook it further to about 95/100°C and definitely do this if you want to serve up your pastrami hot right there & then. If you’re making Reubens though, 85°C internal is optimal, making it much easier to cut really nice thin slices that do not fall apart. A key tip for assembling your Reuben sandwich is to use many many thin layers of pastrami rather than just one thick slab of meat. It eats better and is just texturally better too.
At the 85°C mark, wrap in foil and (a) chill overnight of making Reubens or (b) rest for at least 45 mins before carving.
NOT USING A MEAT AT BILLY’S WAGYU SILVERSIDE???
You’re best to cook it further than 85°C, likely 95°C/100°C otherwise it will likely to be too tough.
HOW TO MAKE REUBEN SANDWICHES
Makes 4
INGREDIENTS
Thinly sliced pastrami
8 x thin sliced rye bread (we like Brasserie Bread’s)
8 x Swiss cheese slices
Salted Butter
Sauerkraut
Dill pickles, sliced thinly
RUSSIAN DRESSING
(just mix all of these ingredients together)
1 cup mayonnaise
¼ cup tomato sauce
1 tbsp Newman’s Horseradish, or to taste
1 teaspoon hot sauce, preferably Frank’s Red Hot Sauce or Tabasco
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
¼ teaspoon sweet smoked paprika
Sea salt to season
METHOD
Slowly heat a heavy based fry pan to a low to medium heat. You can use a sandwich press if you’d prefer.
Ideally, you want the bread toasted golden & crisp and then everything else in the sandwich warmed through. If you have the heat too high while toasting, the bread will toast too quickly and you’ll have cold ingredients in the centre. Still tasty but it’s so much better when done properly.
While it’s heating, start building your Reubens.
For each sandwich, butter 2 slices of bread. This will end up being the outer side of the sandwich so put the 2 sliced back together, butter on the inside.
Start layering your ingredients on top & in this order;
1. cheese
2. pastrami slices (as much as you want)
3. sauerkraut
4. Russian dressing
5. pickles
6. second layer of cheese
Carefully pick up only the top layer of the sandwich (leaving one piece of bread behind) and place in the heated fry pan (or sandwich press). The buttered side will be facing downwards to the pan. Top with the remaining slice of bread – buttered side facing upwards.
Cover pan with a lid if you have one. Leave for a few minutes being careful not to burn the bread.
Flip the sandwich over carefully when the bread is golden and repeat on the final side.
Remove from pan & serve it up, nice & hot.
DRINK PAIRING
Honestly the best drink pairing for these Reuben sandwiches is COLD BEER!
and you’d be hard pressed finding a better match than our very own, Meat at Billy’s Butchers Lager.
