Homemade Pastrami Beef Ribs

For this week’s video, I’m trying something new that I’ve always wanted to do: Pastrami Beef Ribs. This recipe has been on my list for a while and I’m so excited to get into it. 

Pastrami was known back in the day as a way to preserve meat before refrigerators were part of our daily lives. And even to this day, we still do pastrami because it is just too good not to. 

The idea is to add enough salt to the meat so it kills all the bacteria - there are two ways you can do this: Dry Curing or Brining. 

For this recipe I brine the Beef Ribs for 7 days - so it definitely calls for some patience, but I can tell you it’s worth the wait. On the side, I do some Potatoes Au Gratin which is a potato dish with all my favorite ingredients in it cheese, cream and garlic. 

So enough talking, let’s get cooking! 

Video Recipe

Directions for Brine: 

1. In a pan over medium heat, toast the Black Peppercorns, Coriander and Mustard Seeds. Once you can smell the strong aroma, you can remove them from the heat and place them in your mortar.
2. Put your cold water to boil. 
3. In the meantime, start combining and crushing the toasted spices, once you’ve broken them down a bit add the Juniper Berries, Ginger Powder and Red Chilli Flakes and combine.
4. Once all the spices come together, add the broken cinnamon sticks and the bay leaves, and stir to mix it all up
5. Add the Kosher Salt and Pink Salt to the water, stir until it dissolves
6. Then add the spices, crushed garlic, onions, celery and carrots - let the mixture come to a boil and let it boil for about 5 mins. 
7. Remove the pot from heat
8. In a big container (one that fits the ribs and the gallon of brining mixture) add the ¾ of the ice, and the ¼ you can add it to the brining mixture. 
9. Place your Beef Ribs in the ice and add the brining mixture on top, make sure that the ribs are completely submerged in the mixture. 
10. Cover your container and let it brine for 7 days.

Directions for Cooking the Beef Ribs: 

1. Prepare your grill to smoke at indirect heat at a temperature of 225F. Make sure to place a water pan under your grill grates. This will help to keep the meat moist and absorb the smoke.
2. Remove the Beef ribs from the brining container and give them a quick wash with filtered water.
3. Next, you want to trim the layer of fat on top of the Beef Ribs.
4. Add your Black Peppercorn, Coriander and Garlic Powder into a mortar and use the pestle to crush and combine them.
5. Once combined, start adding the rub to the beef ribs - you can also pat it to make sure it sticks to the meat. Make sure to add the rub on all sides thoroughly.
6. Place them in your grill, ideally they should reach an internal temperature of 200F and should take about 6hrs. Please note that my Beef Ribs did not reach the 200F, but I knew it was ready by touch.
7. Remove from the grill when ready and let it rest for 1 - 2 hrs.

Directions for Potatoes Au Gratin:

1. Place your potatoes in a baking pan
2. In a bowl combine the heavy cream, half of the Parmesan cheese, salt, pepper and garlic powder and mix until combined
3. Pour the mixture onto the potatoes and make sure they are all covered
4. Sprinkle the remaining cheese on top (Optional: you can add more cheese than what the recipe asks for, the cheesier the better) 
5. Place them in the grill at 350F for 1 hour, raise the temperature for the last 15 mins so the cheese can get nice and golden.

Time to try this Pastrami… 

I definitely had my challenges with this recipe, first of all the temperature did not rise all the way to 200F, but this is when you can put your grilling skills to the test - and just use your fingers to touch and see if it’s ready and it was, so I took it off the heat. It was also not as salty as I thought it would be, so maybe next time I would add a bit more of the curing salt. 

My first bite is so tender, not what I expected from Beef Ribs which are a bit hardier. It’s so buttery and the crust is bomb. I also try the potatoes, and they are delicious and just so cheesy (not the best for my health, but hey it doesn’t hurt to eat them once in a while).

Overall, I think these recipes turned out pretty good, I just think I want to keep trying to make it better until I’m 100% happy with it. If you have any suggestions, leave it down in the comments - I’m all ears!