Corned beef and pastrami

Q: How are corned beef and pastrami made?

A:

Corned beef is made by curing beef — brisket or sometimes bottom round — in a seasoned brine and then simmering it in seasoned water for several hours.

Pastrami is traditionally made from the forequarter of the animal from a cut known as the deckle or plate, but may be made from brisket as well. Like corned beef, the meat is first cured, but unlike corned beef, the meat is traditionally dry cured in a paste of seasoned salt, smoked and then steamed. However, there are variations on the pastrami theme. Some pastrami is brined, not dry-cured and sometimes simmered rather than steamed. Sometimes, if the meat has been hot-smoked long enough, it is cooked no further.

Corned beef and pastrami were both first created as a way of preserving meat by using salt. This fact is reflected in their names. Corned beef is called "corned" because the grains of salt used in the brine in days gone by were referred to as corns. And the word pastrami is derived from the Romanian word pastra, "to preserve."

Contemporary chefs have acknowledged that there is no specific procedure in making pastrami and have decided that if something looks sort of like pastrami and tastes sort of like pastrami, they can call it pastrami. So now we have duck pastrami, turkey pastrami, tuna pastrami and salmon pastrami. What they all share is an exterior that is seasoned with a mixture of spices, typically including ground coriander and mustard seeds.

In Los Angeles in the 1940s or '50s, in an attempt to keep pastrami from drying out, people began to put the pastrami into a French roll and dip it in gravy. They called it a "Pastrami Dip."

-Food Network Kitchens

Recipes:

• Corned Beef
• Turkey Pastrami
• Beef Pastrami
• Duck Pastrami