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You know what corned beef is, right? (If you don't, this handy explainer might help.) Since you're now so well-versed in the art of pickled brisket, let's move on to pastrami, corned beef's slightly more luxurious cousin. Here's what you need to know about the historic sandwich staple. What is pastrami? While corned beef is typically made from brisket, pastrami generally comes from the cow's navel area, Serious Eats reports. The navel cut is a fatty one, and it's also likely to stand up well to the long cooking process that's to come. When you eat it, it's less stringy...

Chef Sean Archer of San Antonio’s Max and Louie’s New York Diner knows a thing or two about pastrami sandwiches. It’s the most requested item on the menu at the popular North Side restaurant, and he estimates at least 20 to 30 pounds is carved up for customers every day. The Max and Louie’s take on pastrami is one of the best you will find in the San Antonio area, with 6 ounces of the cured beef piled high on your bread of choice. But if you prefer to stay true to the classics, rye bread should be your pick,...

A very popular delicatessen meat, pastrami is usually made from beef however sometimes is made from pork, mutton or turkey. The pastrami was originally created as a way to preserve meat before modern refrigeration. To make pastrami the raw meat is placed in brine, then partially dried, seasoned with various herbs and spices, smoked and steamed. A wave of Romanian Jewish immigration introduced pastrami (pronounced pastróme), a Romanian specialty, in the second half of the 19th century. Early English references had used the spelling “pastrama” before the modified “pastrami” spelling was used. New York kosher butcher, Sussman Volk is generally...

aren Solomon’s new cookbook, “Cured Meat, Smoked Fish & Pickled Eggs: Recipes and Techniques for Preserving Protein-Packed Foods,” is, on the one hand, very Jewish. Ashkenazi Jews have been at the forefront of food preservation for generations and will appreciate recipes for gravlax, several types of herring and “Killer Smoked Fish Salad.” The book also has recipes for prosciutto made from duck, and for pastrami that Solomon considers one of her top crowd-pleasers. “People just love it,” she said. “There are certain things I make that make people really happy. Bacon tops the list, but that pastrami recipe is right...

Deep in the Tuscan countryside, between a hill and a bleating sheep, Gianluca Tonelli tended to 17 pounds of pastrami soaking in a plastic container filled with brine. With his trademark porkpie hat and gray goatee, Mr. Tonelli, a worshiper of what he called “pastrami culture” — “We started a klezmer band!” — sidestepped Dante, his family’s pet pig, and loaded freshly chopped cherry wood chips into a smoker. In the house, he showed off heavy-duty cooking devices, including a pressure cooker in which he aromatizes the pastrami with cloves and Tuscan red wine, before selling it from a bright...

First, don't be intimidated, because it's easy! Easy Method:1 4-5lb Corned Beef Brisket from the market in the Cryo bag1/4 cup black pepper corns1/4 cup Coriander Seeds2 Tbsp Mustard Seed1 Tbsp Garlic PowderDirections:1. Unwrap brisket, rinse and soak in large pan of fresh cold water for 1 hour2. Combine all seeds and pepper corns into a coffee grinder and grind courseAdd to little bowl with other ingredients and stir. That's your rub.3. Remove brisket, dry thoroughly and cover in the rub. Let sit in fridge for 1-2 hours...dry4. Start you smoker during this time. Smoke at 250deg (I use mesquite,...

Grub Street never needs a reason to celebrate our city's esteemed roster of delicatessens, but since this week marks the New York release of the new documentary Deli Man, we're going all in on the subject today.There’s an elaborate backstory behind every venerable deli in New York City, but the story behind David’s Brisket House, which has been serving brisket and pastrami sandwiches to the good people of Bedford-Stuyvesant for more than half a century now, is more elaborate and convoluted than most. The original Dave was a Russian Jew who sold the deli to a Romanian Jew, who inherited...

Introduced to New York by 19th century Eastern European immigrants (the same folks who gave us pierogies, knishes, and kishka), pastrami is an easy contender for GMOAT (Greatest Meat Of All Time), and also one of the foodstuffs most synonymous with our fair city. Brined and coated in strong spices including black pepper, mustard seed, coriander, and garlic, beef briskets are smoked and then steamed to create the delicacy's signature meltingly soft texture. The pastrami sandwich? A local luminary and national treasure. But the deli darling that launched a thousand fake orgasms has also found itself the star of numerous...

We deconstruct Micah Wexler's "O.G." pastrami at Grand Central MarketTo put a spin on the famous Carl Sagan quote, if you would like to make a pastrami sandwich from scratch, you must first invent the universe. That’s not to say that former Mezze chef Micah Wexler and his team at Wexler's Deli are inventing the cosmos at their new-wave Jewish delicatessen inside Grand Central Market, but in deli terms they may be closer to it than anyone else in town (other than the grad students at CalTech, perhaps). Order "The O.G." ($10) and you’ll experience the pastrami sandwich—first brought to...

In the kingdom of cured meats, bacon and ham tend to hog the glory but think beyond pork and ponder pastrami. The brined, spiced and smoked beef variety can lend big flavor to many dishes, in a starring role or as an accent. The variety of pastrami choices in Dallas has never been greater. Besides the old-school, New York deli pastrami that’s sold nationwide, there’s the really old-school pastrami that’s devoid of chemical preservatives and made in small batches. The latter is enjoying a renaissance among locavores from Brooklyn to Dallas. Just as small-batch cheeses stand a world apart from...

TRAVELING in the United States, one often encounters food proudly touted as authentically “New York,” including pizza, hot dogs, cheesecake, Manhattan clam chowder, pastrami and loaves of rye. Sadly, such honorifics almost always prompt invidious comparison, resulting in a good laugh if not a few homesick tears. I still recall biting into a bialy about 15 years ago at the Broadway Deli, a favorite in Santa Monica, Calif., that closed in 2010. I was doing research on that scrunchy, savory Jewish-Polish onion roll. Identified as a “New York bialy,” its rubbery, pale appearance was fair warning. It came as no...

"Goyim pastrami." That's what SFoodie's New York-loyal Jewish grandma angrily called any pastrami that wasn't served between two slices of rye with a dab of mustard. Even a reuben sandwich was suspect. Well, two-week old food truck La Pastrami has upped the ante on grandma's anger: enter the pastrami burrito ($8). Owner and creator Dion Watkins stuffs a well-griddled flour tortilla with a wad of smoky, peppery meat, rice, crunchy strips of pickled red onion, a few specks of green onion and "secret" sauce (think Russian dressing.) Watkins, a first time food operator after a career in San Francisco's Department...

Pastrami lovers came out bright and early Friday morning to line up in front of Langer’s Deli in Westlake as the restaurant celebrates its 65th anniversary by giving away free sandwiches. By 7 a.m., nearly 40 people had formed a queue outside the eatery on the corner of South Alvarado and West 7th streets. “This is a way for the owner, Norm Langer, to show his appreciation to his customers and to the community at large for everything they’ve given him,” said spokesman John Schwada. On Friday and Saturday, customers will receive a free No. 19 sandwich, the deli’s most...

Rabbi David Nesenoff who made the famous Helen Thomas viral video at the White House...has made a video about Jews and Obama.

533 Nostrand Avenue (between Atlantic Avenue and Herkimer Street), Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn; (718) 789-1155.“Pastrami, baby!” whooped a dreadlocked diner recently at David’s Brisket House. “As salaam alaikum, pastrami!” This Bedford-Stuyvesant institution inspires vocal exuberance, the subtext of which seems to be: Thank goodness for Brooklyn, where Yemeni Muslim guys serve exemplary Jewish deli sandwiches to a predominantly African-American crowd. The cultural mashup of David’s only adds to the charm of its pastrami. Such personality! So hot and sweet and sassy. It’s irresistible piled on rye with spicy brown mustard, or even with mayonnaise, as some here prefer (all beef sandwiches are...