Beef Tongstrami aka "Pastrami"

If you like fatty tasty Pastrami look no further than Beef Tongue. I've made Buffalo Tongue Pastrami a few times and it was the bomb so I thought I'd give Beef Tongue a go. Initial observations I would say the Beef Tongue is much larger and more dense. Take a look at the packages. The Buffalo Tongue weighed in at 2 lbs. The Beef Tongue weighed 6.76 lbs (although 2 in package)!!!

Take a look at these monsters. Very dense…. very thick. Unlike the Buffalo Tongues these babies are unyielding. If you look closely there's a lot of extra fat too. I will give it a little trim before the cure. Contrast these  Tongues with the Buffalo one and you can see the huge difference. 

The Buffalo Tongue was easy to work with. I unfolded the Tongue and measured it for fun. Pretty damn big. Not very thick at all. From the tip to the back of the Tongue it was fairly even. Very little fat too. No trimming necessary. The Buffalo Tongue measured in at about 14 inches where as the biggest beef one was only about 10 inches. 

Next step is pretty easy. Assemble all the Pastrami Cure ingredients. You can find my Rub and Cure Recipe HERE. I like to toast some of the ingredients first to bring out their natural oils. This is just optional. After you Toast them grind them through in a Spice mill and combine with the other ingredients. Keep Cure and Salt confined to their own bowls. 

Coat Tongues with Cure and Salt making sure to get into every nook and cranny. Next coat with the rest of the ingredients. 

Vacuum Seal and place in refrigerator for at least 21 days. Make sure toss & rotate it every day. This is an EQ cure so I wasn't concerned about over curing. These babies are thick so it might need to go longer than 21 days. We will see…..




I waited a full 22 days. They look cured to me so I proceeded to the next step. All rinsed off and dried. I placed a small fan in front of them for about 2 hours to ensure drying before placing in the Cold Smoker. Developing a nice pellilce will help the Tongue absorb the smoke. 

They will be cold smoke for about 10 hours. 

All Done!!! This is what 10 hours of Cold Smoke does to meat. All Vac sealed and ready for the SV. They will be SV at 142 ℉ for 48 hours. This is the perfect temp. After doing this several times I have finally dialed in the perfect T&T.

All Cooked and

they look beautiful. They need to cool a bit before they can be handled. You must peel off the taste buds while still somewhat hot. If you wait till they are cold you will destroy the meat. Ready set go… time to peel. 

All peeled. Again very easy to peel when hot. Don't even think about doing this when it's cold. After you peel them place get them cold by shocking. Place in refrigerator for at least 6 hours and preferably overnight. 

Coat with Rub….

Hot Smoke at

200℉-225℉ until internal temp of 142℉ is reached.

Make a Sandwich…..Review at bottom

Review- Delicious!!!! Although they came out perfect I prefer the Buffalo. Contrasting them is easy. The Beef Tongue had more intramuscular fat and had a softer chew to the Buffalo version. Both damn good but again I prefer the Buffalo. Textually from the tip to the back the Buffalo had a consistent  texture and mouth feel. 

TOP OF THE TONGUE