Pork Butt Pastrami

This was something I've been wanting to do for a good while and finally did it. Since a recently got some pork butts for .79 a pound I definitely wanted to do it.

I mixed up the maple cure brine as instructed on a Pastrami kit I had and put the butt in it to brine for 5 days. On the fifth day I removed it from the brine and rinsed it well then I trimmed the thick fat cap off(Next time I will trim it before brining)and some other large fat deposits and put the butt in the fridge to open air dry. After a day of drying with it slightly damp I applied the pastrami seasoning rub liberally and put it to smoke on my Traeger. It went on at about 6:30 am and I took it off about 7:30 that night after it reached 200 degrees.


Seasoned and ready to smoke.



Right before taking it off the Traeger.



I let it cool down a bit before putting it in a pan and covering tightly before putting it in the fridge for a couple of days.

Yesterday afternoon I sliced it up while still cold and put it in a pan to warm slowly at 300 degrees and get some steam in it.




I should mention that this was a bone in butt roast which I didn't remove until I was slicing it yesterday. You can easily see the white fat marbling throughout the slices.



Most of the fat you see in the above picture melted and made for even juicier meat.

Here's some of what I used to make a sandwich on Jewish Rye with Swiss cheese.



Served with tater tots. Mine had brown mustard and mayo with a couple slices of Swiss cheese.



This isn't a great picture and does no justice for how nice this sandwich looked. I just wish the Jewish Rye was cut in thicker slices.



I have to say this was a pretty damn good tasting pastrami! It was tender and juicy and I will definitely be doing it again. Considering it was 79 cents a pound pork butt I'd bet in a side by side comparison of more expensive brisket I could see doing a couple of these next time.