asian jewish deli

This is the new best sandwich in Seattle. (And you still can’t have one.) It is my standard favorite grilled pastrami Reuben with chopped liver, swiss, homemade Russian dressing, and sauerkraut on buttered Jewish rye, but this time I used pastrami made out of shortrib.

I have written many times before about how much I love short rib, so when I found large boneless slabs of the super marbled cut, I bought about 12 pounds and started the curing process.

What came out after smoking was amazing! The short rib has much finer marbling than any other cut I have used before, leading to a very tender, moist, and lucious pastrami without the large hunks of fat that are usually trimmed off of my other batches.

Another benefit—it is cheaper than the beef plate and brisket I have used in the past. Win!

Grilled pastrami Reuben on rye with chopped liver, mostly all home made. The best sandwich in Seattle, and you can’t have one! Well, maybe someday if if it ever becomes easier to serve home cured meat at a farmer’s market stand.

About a year ago I set out to make my own pastrami, inspired by the book Charcuterie by Michael Ruhlman as well as a tasty visit to Kenny & Zuke’s in Portland. K&Z’s pastrami is heavily spiced, heavily smoked, and much fattier than the average pastrami you can get in most deli cases. It became the baseline I was trying to replicate.

It took a couple batches, but I finally settled on a procedure that gave consistently delicious results:

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