Recipes Neal's Deli Smoky Pastrami 5.0 (6,430) 4 Reviews "I bet you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone else who puts pastrami on biscuits," says Matt Neal. His sandwich is hugely popular at Neal's Deli, but the well-spiced, juicy pastrami is divine however it's served. The recipe is surprisingly easy, though it does take time — five days to cure the brisket in a simple brine and one day to chill it, followed by a few hours of smoking the peppercorn and coriander-crusted meat on a partially covered grill. By Matt Neal Matt Neal F&W Star Chef » See All F&W Chef Superstars Restaurants: Neal’s Deli (Carrboro, North Carolina) Experience: Restaurant La Residence, Crook’s Corner (Chapel Hill, NC) Education: North Carolina School of the Arts (Winston-Salem, NC), Savannah College of Art and Design (Savannah, Georgia) What kinds of dishes define you as a chef? Large, slow-cooked, smoked hunks of meat, and other things that take at least a whole day to make, like hot sauce and pickles. Sauté is not my specialty. What recipe are you most famous for?Pastrami biscuits. If you really want to make this dish, you have to plan ahead because you need thick buttermilk biscuits from scratch and you need good smoky pastrami. I make my pastrami myself over a 10-day period. For a week, the pastrami is curing in brine in the fridge. Then I dry it out, smoke it and cool it. I slice it the next day. What was the first thing you ever cooked? The first dish I ever made from scratch was macaroni and cheese. I was in high school and I called my dad [Bill Neal] at the restaurant where he was a chef, Crook’s Corner, and I told him I was thinking of making it. He told me first I had to make a roux. I didn’t even know what a roux was. He walked me through it on the phone, and I made a béchamel, sautéed some onions and eventually baked the macaroni and cheese. It turned out pretty good. Who do you think of as your food mentors? My late father and my wife, Sheila. Sheila, who owns the restaurant with me, went to cooking school, so she’s been formally trained—unlike myself. I lean on her a lot, and any recipe of mine is at least half hers. From my dad, I learned to enjoy life and to enjoy simple things. He was someone who didn’t take shortcuts. He said if you’re going to do it, do it right. Any mundane thing, even slicing onions, should be done correctly. Do you have a favorite cookbook? I’m a sucker for old cookbooks. My favorites include my dad’s Southern Cooking and also his Biscuits, Spoonbread and Sweet Potato Pie. Along those same lines, I love our family friend John Martin Taylor’s Hoppin’ John’s Lowcountry Cooking. When I was young, I also used Chef Paul Prudhomme’s Louisiana Kitchen. What’s your secret-weapon ingredient? Salt. You can pick weeds and turn them into a salad or hunt something and roast it, but if you don’t add salt, it won’t taste like much. What’s your current food obsession? My current obsession is grits, and my go-to lunch is a bowl of them. I’ll throw eggs on the steamer and drop those on the grits, and add onions, hot sauce and bacon bits. I also love roasted brussels sprouts with garlic and hot sauce over grits. What would your ideal restaurant serve? It wouldn’t have any white meat. It would have a lot of dishes that your average American might be squeamish about, like organ meat and crustaceans. Americans are such squeamish little wussies when it comes to food. What ingredient will people will be talking about in five years? In five years, I think people will be talking about how good stuff used to taste. Nostalgia is the ingredient they’ll be talking about. Food & Wine's Editorial Guidelines Updated on November 8, 2022 Print Rate It Share Share Tweet Pin Email Photo: © John Kernick Prep Time: 5 days Chill Time: 1 day Active Time: 2 hrs Total Time: 5 days 8 hrs Yield: 1 (6-pound) pastrami Ingredients 6 quarts water 1 1/2 cups kosher salt 3/4 cup granulated sugar 2/3 cup light brown sugar 3 tablespoons pink salt or other curing salt (see Note) 1 tablespoon pickling spice 1 teaspoon yellow mustard seeds 8 garlic cloves, crushed One 7-pound first-cut beef brisket, fat layer trimmed to 1/3 inch About 8 pounds hardwood charcoal 6 cups hardwood chips, for smoking 1/4 cup whole black peppercorns 2 tablespoons coriander seeds Directions In a large pot, combine the water with the kosher salt, granulated and brown sugars, pink salt, pickling spice, mustard seeds, and garlic. Cook over moderately high heat, stirring occasionally, until the salts and sugars have dissolved. Pour the brine into a large bowl and let cool, then refrigerate until chilled. Using a metal skewer, poke holes all over the brisket. Pour the brine into a large roasting pan. Add the brisket and cover the pan with plastic wrap. Weigh the brisket down with heavy plates to keep it submerged in the brine and refrigerate. Let the brisket cure for 5 days, turning it once a day. Remove the brisket from the brine and pat dry with paper towels. Place the brisket fat side up on a rack set on a rimmed baking sheet. Refrigerate, uncovered, for 24 hours. Bring the brisket to room temperature. Light the grill, using about 50 charcoal briquettes. Soak the hardwood chips in water for 30 minutes. In a spice grinder, coarsely grind the peppercorns with the coriander seeds. Cover the fat side of the brisket with the peppercorn-coriander mixture. Arrange the red-hot coals around the perimeter of the grill and set a double layer of heavy-duty foil in the center. Put an 8-inch aluminum pie plate on the foil and fill the plate halfway with water. Scatter about 1 cup of the drained hardwood chips over the hot coals. Set the grate on the grill and place the brisket, spiced side up, in the center. Cover and grill at 250°F, partially vented, for about 5 hours. Every 45 minutes, replenish the hot coals and add 1 cup of the drained hardwood chips. The pastrami is done when an instant-read thermometer inserted in the thickest part registers 170°F. Let the pastrami cool, then refrigerate until chilled. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Thinly slice the pastrami across the grain. Arrange the slices on a large rimmed baking sheet and drizzle about 1/2 cup of water on top. Cover tightly with foil and bake for about 20 minutes, until heated through. Serve warm or at room temperature. Make Ahead The smoked whole pastrami can be refrigerated for up to 2 weeks. Notes Curing salts (including pink salt, Prague powder, and Morton Tender Quick) are a mix of salt and sodium nitrite. Rate it Print