I've made pastrami at home many times, and it boils down to 3 simple steps (and a lot of lead time):
1. Curing (Corning)
2. Smoking
3. Steaming
Without step 3, it's simply smoked corned beef. Certainly nothing wrong with it, but it's not pastrami.
Some people skip step 1 by buying a corned beef brisket and rinsing well before smoking. I prefer to cure my brisket. Also, you can either wet cure or dry cure, which is the more traditional method. I do both, depending on my mood.
For meat, plate is the traditional cut for pastrami. Since that cut, as well as full packer briskets, are difficult to find where I live, I get 7-8 lb untrimmed choice flats in the cryobag.
The process I use is pretty much as follows:
1. Prepare and apply the cure. Put weights on top of the brisket and weight it down (I use foil lined bricks). Turn meat twice a day for 5 days. Remove and rinse the meat then soak in fresh water for 3 hours (change the water every hour).
2. Coat the meat with a mixture of 1 part cracked coriander seeds to 2 parts cracked black peppercorns. Cover the meat and weight it down in a refrigerator for 8-12 hours.
3. Traditionally, pastrami is first cold-smoked then hot-smoked to achieve a heavier smoke. My work-around is to put the meat in the freezer for an hour before starting the smoke. I smoke at 200˚F, using cherrywood, to an internal temp of 160˚F (about 8 hours). I then foil and weight the meat down in the refrigerator for 24 hours.
4. For service, I preheat the oven to 275˚F. I put about an inch of water in a roasting pan and put the smoked brisket, on a cooling rack with short legs, into the pan. Cover the pan tightly with foil and steam for 3-4 hours.
5. Remove, slice, and serve with good quality rye, mustard, homemade Russian dressing, slaw, and a cold beer, of course.
Note that some people advocate that, after steaming the meat as in step 4, to foil it and weight it in the refrigerator for 24 hours. They then follow with a 2nd steaming for 30 minutes. I haven't done this and don't really see a need to.
