Where to begin? Our love of pork belly is well known by any casual reader of this blog, and it should come as no surprise that we are also great lovers of cured meats. Salami, ham, peameal bacon, corned beef—all these are delights of our culinary hearts. And, of course, we have combined the two in making homemade bacon. But it isn’t enough! we need more! More pork belly! More cured delights! More Pork Belly Pastrami!

If you want heaven on a sandwich, you need to try this recipe, which we adapt from All Things Barbecue. The fat in the belly renders like it does in a perfect brisket, the meat becomes tender and juicy, and the brining, seasoning, and smoking deliver a flavor bomb that is even better than we expected it to be. We set out to make this as a substitute for St. Patrick’s Day corned beef, but instead, it’s going to be one of our all-time favorite meats. Let’s get into it, so you can get cooking!

Can pastrami be made of pork belly?

Can it be pastrami if it’s made of pork belly? Well, that depends on your definition of pastrami. If we go back to the original definition, pastrami was much more similar to South African biltong than today’s NY deli version. Ok, fine. Later interpretations of pastrama used lamb, goat—even water buffalo—so beef isn’t the deciding factor, historically.

And yet we must concede that when Americans think of pastrami, we think primarily of the stuff that comes out of the delis of New York, beef brisket that is cured, seasoned, smoked, then steamed before being sliced for sandwiches that are altogether too tall for reason. And as that version was developed by and for the kosher Jewish community, no, pork belly pastrami isn’t a thing.

But that doesn’t mean we can’t make a pork belly pastrami anyway! It just…won’t be beef. it will still be amazing on rye with some mustard and swiss.

Curing the pork belly for pastrami

Pastrami is cured, and making it from pork belly doesn’t change that. We want that beautiful rosy color that comes with the protein change of curing, and we want the flavor of the cured meat, which you can’t get any other way.

To make the brine we use some salt, sugar, water, and some curing salt (Prague powder #1), in addition to a bunch of spices. We’ll have plenty of garlic, allspice, coriander, black pepper, etc. that we will toast and crush for maximum flavor delivery.

Combine the sugar, salt, curing salt, and spices in a pot with half of the water needed for the brine—in this case, use 1/2 gallon of water for this stage of the process. Bring it to a boil. Stir until the sugar and other solutes are dissolved and the mixture reaches a boil, then combine it with 4 pounds of ice—the weight of ice that represents the rest of the gallon of water we need for the brine. Check the temperature of the brine to be sure it is below 70°F (21°C) using your Thermapen^® ONE, but physics dictates that getting below that temp shouldn’t be a problem. We need to get below 70°F (21°C) so that we can avoid the worst parts of the temperature danger zone. Of course, we need to get below 40°F (4°C) to leave the TDZ behind, but being below 70°F (21°C) is a good start!

With the brine made and cooled, we can pickle the pork. Submerge the pork in the brine, weighing it down if needed, and refrigerate for 4-6 days.

Pastrami seasoning

Traditional pastrami seasoning has several spices ranging from caraway and garlic to juniper, mustard, and others, but always with a focus on coriander and black pepper. In this case, we’re making our seasoning from the requisite coriander and black pepper—both toasted—and leaning on a little BBQ rub for the other spices. A good all-purpose beef rub works great mixed with the fresh-ground base spices, and the result smells exactly like, well, pastrami, but pork.

Cooking the pork pastrami: temps to know

We definitely want some good smoke flavor on this meat, and we have loads of collagen and fat to render, so a nice low temp is what we’re looking for. We smoke the belly at 250°F (121°C), which will provide plenty of smoke flavor and provide the gentle heat we need for proper rendering.

To establish a good bark, we smoke the belly for about three hours until it reaches an internal temperature in the neighborhood of 160°C (71°C). Then, because we want to eat this as soon as possible, we wrap it in a couple layers of foil and put it back in the smoker to finish.

Our final pull temp is 195°F (91°C), but it won’t hurt you to push that to 200°F (93°C)—personal textural preference is going to be key here.




We set up our Smoke X2™ in our smoker to monitor both the pit temp and the meat temp throughout our cook, and kept the receiver at a desk inside while we did other things—it was a cold day for smoking! When it alerted us to our pull temp, we checked the tenderness and temperature with our thermapen ONE to be sure that we didn’t have any cooler or chewier spots in the meat. We did not, so we pulled it from the heat and let it rest for about 30 minutes before unwrapping it.

Results

This was just amazing. It made us giggle, it made us dance, it made our accountant very happy. Piled high and hot on a slice of marble rye or pumpernickel with a lashing of brown mustard and a thin slice of mild swiss, it was blissful. And the cook was not, let’s say, difficult. Yes, you have to wait for the better part of a week, but it’s a straightforward cook, especially with the help of your Smoke X2 and Thermapen ONE. Believe us when we say that once you try this, you’re going to be hooked. Put one on to brine this weekend and enjoy this dish as soon as you can. Happy cooking!