Hot Pastrami Sandwich

Today is National Hot Pastrami Sandwich Day. Are you having a hot Pastrami Sandwich today? Do you like them?

History of Pastrami

According to the National Day Calendar, pastrami is usually from beef, and “was originally created as a way to preserve meat before modern refrigeration. To make pastrami the raw meat is placed in brine, then partially dried, seasoned with various herbs and spices, smoked and steamed.” When it is made from beef, it can be a kosher meat. In fact, the Romanian Jewish community is credited for introducing it.

In the book, The Artisan Jewish Deli at Home, they credit Ottoman Turks for the invention. They made a jerky-like meat called Pastirma. Pastrami is a form of Pastirma, made softer, apparently, by the final steaming.

The Pastrami Sandwich

According to Wikipedia, New York’s Sussman Volk is generally credited with producing the first pastrami sandwich in the United States in 1887. Volk, a kosher butcher and New York immigrant from Lithuania, claimed he got the recipe from a Romanian friend in exchange for storing the friend’s luggage while the friend returned to Romania. According to his descendant, Patricia Volk, he prepared pastrami according to the recipe and served it on sandwiches out of his butcher shop. 

Pastrami Today

Oftentimes, pastrami today is a far cry from the brined, then rubbed with herbs and spices, dried, then smoked, then steamed. It is often done with chemicals to create the flavor without all the fuss.

Pastrami vs. Corned Beef

Pastrami and Corned beef are similar, but not the same. While both are brined in a salt water curing solution, with or without spices, corned beef is boiled rather than dried and smoked.

Recipe

While we did make Pastrami from scratch in Culinary School, few of us have the space in our fridges to brine a big piece of meat in a couple gallons of solution (which includes a brining “salt” called Pink #1) for 5 days, then the place to dry it, a smoker AND a steamer. In school we had full sized industrial fridges, a walk-in cooler with blowers for air-drying, and an Alto-Shaam Combi Oven to smoke it, then steam it. At $15,000+, it is not something the home cook has in their budget (although I WANT one!!!). I suggest you find a good deli who makes it the old fashioned way and buy some. If you have a kosher deli, all the better.

The Pastrami Sandwich normally has a hot Russian dressing on it. This is NOT the sticky sweet Russian salad dressing you buy in a bottle. No, this is a spunky dressing. Ours was made with homemade mayonnaise, chili sauce, horseradish, Worcestershire Sauce, salt and pepper. Some people will substitute Thousand Island dressing, but that uses sweeter ketchup instead of chili sauce and adds sweet pickle relish. Not the same!

The bread is traditionally a Jewish dark rye. Mmmmm. We have a store here that sells a Russian sourdough dark rye that’s out of this world good. That would be a great bread to use! It would also be more traditional.

Sandwich Switches

When you Google a Classic Pastrami Sandwich image, it’s hard to find one that’s a true representation of a Classic Pastrami Sandwich as described above. In fact, in free images, I could not find on that was a true classic Pastrami Sandwich. Instead, you see…

• Sauerkraut and cheese…so I assume the meat is Corned Beef instead of Pastrami.
• Coleslaw on the sandwich…That would make it a Rachel Sandwich.
• White bread – just not traditional

Happy Hot Pastrami Sandwich Day!!