oyster blade pastrami

salty, gelatinous, rich and smoked oyster blade pastrami

To say I’m a pastrami fan is a massive understatement. My first foray into the world of pastrami was using our favourite barbecue cut, beef short ribs. Since then beef cheeks, lamb shoulder and now beef oyster blade have been cured and smoked.

Oyster blade is a great cut for pulled beef and we often use it for tacos, burgers, pizzas, the list goes on. It has a streak of collagen that runs through it that when cooked low and slow breaks down and turns into sticky, sweet gelatin.

The most popular way to serve pastrami is in a Reuben sandwich. There’s a few variations on the old Reuben typically consisting of sauerkraut, Swiss cheese and a Russian style dressing on rye bread. If you want to try something a little different serve a Reuben on a tortilla with sauerkraut, Swiss cheese, pickle and a Russian style sauce mixed through some finely sliced green cabbage.

ingredients

for the curing stage

• 2kg oyster blade
• 5L distilled water
• 4 tsp Prague Powder #1
• 3/4 cup kosher salt
• 3/4 cup brown sugar

for the rub

• 2 tbsp whole coriander
• 3 tbsp black pepper
• 1/2 tbsp paprika
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 1 tsp garlic powder

directions

for the curing stage

1. Trim the oyster blade by removing the fat cap from the top of the cut and the thin, silvery membrane from the underside of the blade. Make sure you have a sharp knife, a boning knife works well.
2. Using a food container that will comfortably hold the oyster blade whilst giving it some room on all sides and the top add the water, salt, sugar and Prague Powder. Mix well.
3. Add the oyster blade to the water, put the lid on and it’s into the fridge for 8 days. Be sure to shake up the cure every two days to give it the best chance to penetrate into the meat.
4. Using a mortar and pestle grind up the peppercorns and coriander seeds. I prefer to leave some small chunks behind rather than turning it into a fine powder. Transfer to a container with the other spices.
5. After the 7 days desalinate the meat for 8 hours by removing the blade from the cure, rinsing the container and returning the blade and adding enough water to cover.
6. After 8 hours remove the blade, pat dry with paper towel, brush on a thin layer of mayonnaise or mustard and add the rub.
7. Fire up your smoker aiming for an ambient temperature of 275f/135c. If you’re using charcoal add 3 small fist sized chunks of wood, preferably a nut food. *
8. Cook until the bark has well and truly formed, then wrap in a double layer of foil or butcher’s paper. Continue to cook until the blade probes with little resistance, usually somewhere between 205f/96c – 210f/99c. Allow to rest for a minimum of 1 hour.
9. Pull or slice the blade.
10. Enjoy your oyster blade pastrami!

*Depending on how you set up your charcoal smoker you can strategically place the 3 chunks of wood so 1 sits right next to the lit charcoal, the 2nd behind that and the third chunk behind the 2nd. A small fist sized chunk will burn for roughly 1 hours so if they can smoke one after the other you’ll hopefully get 3 hours of smoke which is ideal.

For our other pastrami recipes click here.