[17 - 17] hello there welcome back to another
[17 - 18] episode of anything with Alvin where
[18 - 20] today we're going to be taking on
[20 - 22] recreating the famous pastrami sandwich
[22 - 24] from cats's Deli here in New York now
[24 - 26] both the sandwiches and the restaurant
[26 - 28] itself are pretty iconic in New York and
[28 - 30] a lot of tourists usually come from all
[30 - 32] over the world just to try it which
[32 - 34] means it's quite popular with many long
[34 - 36] lines now I'm not usually someone who
[36 - 38] likes to wait that long so I decided see
[38 - 40] if we can make a version of this at home
[40 - 42] and maybe stop in on a day that's not so
[42 - 44] busy to see how our version Stacks up
[44 - 46] let's get started this episode is
[46 - 48] sponsored by bombus aka the most
[49 - 50] comfortable socks I've ever tried and
[50 - 52] while they're comfy the best part is
[52 - 54] that for every item purchased one is
[54 - 56] donated they've donated over 100 million
[56 - 58] articles of clothing so far across all
[58 - 60] 50 states so you're not just getting
[60 - 62] your new favorite pair of socks you're
[62 - 64] helping bombus donate some to someone
[64 - 66] else too feel good and do good with
[66 - 68] bombus knowing your purchase is doing
[68 - 70] some real good new customers get 20% off
[70 - 72] their first purchase just go to
[72 - 75] bombas.com babish and use code babish 20
[75 - 77] at checkout now for today's episode
[77 - 79] we're going to be making two sandwiches
[79 - 81] one is the corn beef Ruben and the other
[81 - 83] is their classic pastrami on rye with
[83 - 85] some mustard I believe these are the two
[85 - 87] meats that they're most famous for and
[87 - 88] so what that means is we're going to
[88 - 89] need to start with some brisket and and
[90 - 92] the first step is to trim the brisket to
[92 - 94] remove any excess fat just to make sure
[94 - 95] that there's not too much fat we still
[95 - 97] want to keep a good amount of fat on the
[97 - 99] meat because that's going to have some
[99 - 101] flavor and help protect the meat against
[101 - 102] the Heat later so not only am I going to
[102 - 104] trim this brisket I'm going to separate
[104 - 106] this brisket into two parts the brisket
[106 - 109] is made of two muscles the point and the
[109 - 111] flat as they are colloquially called one
[111 - 113] is a lot fattier and rides on top and
[113 - 115] the other is on the bottom and is a lot
[115 - 117] more lean if you've ever had fatty
[117 - 119] versus lean brisket the fatty part is
[119 - 121] the part that of the point we're going
[121 - 123] to be using the flat part for the corn
[123 - 124] beef and we're going to be using the
[124 - 127] fattier point part for the pastrami once
[127 - 129] those are nice and trimmed up although
[129 - 130] I'm sure many Master butchers out there
[130 - 132] could do a lot better we're going to go
[132 - 134] ahead and make our brine for the meats
[134 - 137] in a pot I'm combining 8 cups of boiling
[137 - 139] water 3 and 1/2 cups of Koster salt 1
[139 - 141] cup of brown sugar 2 tbspoon of all
[141 - 144] spice berries four stares pods 2 tbsp of
[144 - 147] yellow mustard seeds 4 taspo of cloves
[147 - 150] one stick cinnamon 8 tpoon of sodium
[150 - 151] nitrate would help gives it that pink
[151 - 153] cured look and six spay leaves mixing
[153 - 155] that together until everything is
[155 - 157] combined then I'm going to add in 8 cups
[157 - 159] of ice just to cool this liquid down
[159 - 160] before I go in with both the point and
[160 - 162] the flat part of the brisket then I'm
[162 - 163] going to top this off with a little bit
[163 - 165] more water and make sure to submerge
[165 - 167] this and let this brine for quite some
[167 - 170] time at least 7 days and up to 10 and
[170 - 172] now I'm starting to understand the labor
[172 - 173] that goes into making something like
[173 - 175] corn beef or Pastrami and because this
[175 - 178] takes quite a long time Rachel went
[178 - 179] ahead and made a swap of this at home
[179 - 182] home with the exact same recipe so now
[182 - 183] this is what it looks like after it's
[183 - 186] been brining for 9 days now the meat has
[186 - 187] been Brin we're going to pull the meat
[187 - 190] out discard the brine rinse the meat and
[190 - 191] try to get off any of those cloves that
[191 - 193] might be stuck to it then replace the
[193 - 195] water and we're going to leave the flat
[195 - 196] inside the water when we add some
[196 - 199] aromatics to boil our corn beef in this
[199 - 201] is going to be half an onion two celery
[201 - 203] ribs six garlic cloves and two bait
[203 - 204] leaves just to infuse a little bit more
[204 - 206] aromatics in there once this is brought
[206 - 208] to a boil we're going to reduce this to
[208 - 210] a simmer and simmer this for about 3
[210 - 212] hours or so until it's nice and tender
[212 - 214] we're going to set the point the fatty
[214 - 216] part off to the side for the pastrami
[216 - 217] what's really exciting about pastrami is
[217 - 219] that it does get a nice little spice rub
[219 - 221] on the outside before going outside to
[221 - 223] hit the smoker so in a mortar and pestal
[223 - 225] I'm going to go ahead and make just that
[225 - 227] first grinding up four tablespoons of
[227 - 228] whole black pepper corns and 2
[228 - 230] tablespoons of whole coriander seeds
[231 - 233] smashing and mortar and pesing until
[233 - 234] These are nice and broken up there's
[234 - 236] still going to be some slight chunks but
[236 - 238] most of it should be broken down then
[238 - 239] I'm going to add in the rest of the
[239 - 241] ingredients 2 tbsp of brown sugar 2
[241 - 244] tbspoon of garlic powder 1 tbsp of onion
[244 - 246] powder 2 tbsp of yellow mustard seeds
[246 - 248] and 1 teaspoon of mustard powder giving
[249 - 251] that a mix and our spice rub is ready so
[251 - 253] now that the point of our brisket has
[253 - 255] been BR I'm going to go ahead and Pat
[255 - 257] this dry on all sides just to make sure
[257 - 258] that the rub kind of sticks in a little
[259 - 261] bit better and doesn't kind of wash off
[261 - 263] in the process we're going to apply our
[263 - 265] spice rub pretty vigorously all over
[265 - 267] each side of the stami to make sure that
[267 - 268] it's evenly coated and then we're going
[268 - 270] to go ahead and take take this outside
[270 - 272] to our electric smoker Andrew does have
[272 - 274] a smoker that we're fortunate enough to
[274 - 276] use to give it a more classic flavor
[276 - 278] than doing it in an oven smoking this at
[279 - 282] about 225° over some wood pellets for a couple
[282 - 283] 225° over some wood pellets for a couple hours until the internal temperature
[283 - 286] hits about 160 or so that's when people
[286 - 287] refer to that period as kind of the
[287 - 289] stall where it takes quite some time to
[289 - 291] get the temperature all the way up to
[291 - 293] around 200 which is our goal temperature
[293 - 295] once it it's 160 I'm going to wrap this
[295 - 297] in foil to help create some steam and
[297 - 299] help really make that temperature go up
[299 - 300] a lot quicker
[300 - 302] now it takes about 7.5 hours for us to
[302 - 304] make this pastrami hit about 200 at
[304 - 306] which point it's smelling really good
[306 - 308] we're going to go ahead and take this
[308 - 310] off and into our studio and let this
[310 - 312] rest while we go make a visit to Catz
[312 - 315] Deli itself little fi trip to cats Deli
[315 - 317] here in the city which is a pretty cool
[317 - 319] institution it's been around for such a
[319 - 320] long time and I've personally gone past
[320 - 322] it many many times but I've actually
[322 - 324] never gone in maybe it's because of
[324 - 326] tourist maybe it was because of lines
[326 - 327] and the prices but I never really felt
[327 - 329] the urge to try it out but going in I
[329 - 331] can see why this place is pretty cool
[331 - 333] has a very interesting feel to it like
[333 - 335] it's almost like you step back in time a
[335 - 337] lot of people a lot of old vintage signs
[337 - 340] and just lots of really skilled Cutters
[340 - 342] cutting away at pastrami corn beef and
[342 - 344] just making sandwiches for hundreds of
[344 - 346] hungry diners what's cool is that when
[346 - 348] you go and order your sandwich from the
[348 - 349] Cutters they're cutting it directly for
[349 - 351] you and they give you some samples of
[351 - 352] the meat while you're waiting in line
[352 - 354] for them to make your sandwich it's a
[354 - 356] really fun time just watching them make
[356 - 357] your sandwich right in front of you and
[357 - 359] just seeing their skills the way that
[359 - 361] they handle their knives and the fork to
[361 - 363] cut the meat so quickly so thinly but
[363 - 365] also stack it so perfectly high on a
[365 - 367] sandwich that's bursting with meat was
[367 - 370] was just really really fun experience so
[370 - 371] now that we' brought these back to the
[371 - 373] studio we have to make sure that we know
[373 - 375] the standard that we are up against this
[375 - 377] is the real deal we ordered four
[377 - 380] sandwiches a corn beef Reuben a pastrami
[380 - 383] Reuben a corn beef on rye and a pastrami
[383 - 384] on rye just to see the multiple
[384 - 386] combinations that they can come up with
[386 - 387] let's go ahead and give the corn beef
[387 - 389] ruen a try this one has a lot of flavor
[389 - 391] mostly because there's some extra
[391 - 393] dressing cheese and sauerkraut that goes
[393 - 394] well with the corn beef which really
[394 - 396] helped the sandwich as I think the corn
[396 - 398] beef itself was a little bit dry on that
[398 - 401] day eating their Pastrami and Rye was my
[401 - 402] favorite kind of sandwich you can taste
[402 - 404] the meat more you can taste the smoke
[404 - 406] the flavor and with the Pastrami and the
[406 - 407] mustard together I really like that
[407 - 409] combination so I'm going to be able to
[409 - 411] keep these flavor profiles in mind when
[411 - 413] testing out our version of their
[413 - 416] sandwiches okay so here is our corn beef
[416 - 418] next to our pastrami there's a really
[418 - 419] interesting visual difference between
[419 - 421] between the two which it makes sense cuz
[421 - 422] one's been boiled and one had a spiced
[422 - 424] rub and as was smoked for8 hours so
[424 - 425] first we're going to go ahead and
[425 - 428] assemble our corn beef sandwich I'm
[428 - 430] going to take our corn beef and attempt
[430 - 432] to slice it similarly to how they did it
[432 - 434] in the shop obviously I'm nowhere nearly
[434 - 436] as good so uh my slices definitely are
[436 - 438] on the thicker side so to make our
[438 - 440] Reuben we made a quick Russian dressing
[440 - 442] on the side with a few ingredients
[442 - 443] that's going to go on one side of the
[443 - 444] bread then we're going to use some
[444 - 446] interesting techniques that we did see
[446 - 447] them do at cats when they make their
[448 - 449] reuin which involves cheese and
[449 - 450] sauerkraut what they do is they place a
[450 - 452] pile of sauerkraut on a plate top that
[452 - 454] with a good amount of slices of Swiss
[454 - 456] cheese and then just microwave that
[456 - 457] until the cheese has been melted and
[457 - 459] kind of coats the sauerkraut and then
[459 - 461] when you invert it using a piece of
[461 - 462] bread it doesn't stick to the plate
[462 - 464] because the sauerkraut is touching the
[464 - 465] plate not the cheese and it's a pretty
[465 - 467] easy way to get the cheese and
[467 - 468] sauerkraut on one side of the bread
[468 - 469] without having to stick the whole
[469 - 471] sandwich in some oven which I guess
[471 - 472] would be really slow for a restaurant
[472 - 474] like cats's so I'm a huge fan of this
[474 - 476] technique it's really satisfying to do
[476 - 477] and you can just slap that on the rest
[477 - 480] of your sandwich that is our version of
[480 - 482] the corn beef Reuben from cats's Deli
[482 - 484] now let's make the pastrami sandwich I'm
[484 - 485] going to take our pastrami cut off some
[485 - 487] of those thinner end bits look at the
[487 - 489] spice rub and the marbling on that I'm a
[489 - 491] really big fan of this bark and how good
[491 - 493] this looks it's almost like pastrami
[493 - 494] burnt ends which will make a really nice
[494 - 496] snack for everybody off camera I'm going
[497 - 498] go ahead and give this a slice as well
[498 - 500] still uh not really good with the
[500 - 502] slicing yet so these are thicker slices
[502 - 504] of pastrami than maybe people are used
[504 - 505] to but we're going to cut it in the same
[505 - 507] and use a really interesting cutting
[507 - 508] technique where they trim the edges of
[508 - 510] the slices then stack them on top of
[510 - 512] each other so that it ends up being the
[512 - 514] perfect width of the bread giving it a
[514 - 516] nice beautiful fanned out curved shape
[516 - 517] that makes the sandwich looks really
[517 - 519] cool one side of the bread is going to
[519 - 522] get mustard slap that on top and this is
[522 - 524] our version of the pastaman rice
[524 - 526] sandwich from cats's Deli cut these in
[526 - 527] half examine the cross-section and make
[528 - 530] sure that these are in fact loaded with
[530 - 532] a lot of meat so comparing these with
[532 - 533] some sandwiches that we brought back
[533 - 535] from cats's I'd like to say that they're
[535 - 537] actually very very visually similar our
[537 - 540] meat ratios are pretty spot-on and uh
[540 - 541] our meat color might be slightly Pinker
[541 - 543] but that's because we pulled it fresh
[543 - 545] and I'm pretty happy with how almost
[545 - 547] indistinguishable they are now let's
[547 - 549] time for the real test what does it
[549 - 551] taste like so our corn beef Ruben tasted
[551 - 553] a little bit different I think our corn
[553 - 555] beef was a little bit stronger with the
[555 - 556] freshness of the aromatics and the
[556 - 558] spices and I liked it because it was a
[558 - 561] lot juicier than the one we had at ctis
[561 - 562] and inside a corn beef Ruben style
[562 - 564] sandwich I think it was really really
[564 - 567] really good as far as the pastrami I
[567 - 568] actually liked ours a little bit better
[568 - 570] too because I personally prefer more of
[570 - 572] like a chewier steak-like texture versus
[572 - 573] a kind of meat that just kind of
[573 - 576] crumbles and falls apart but hey each
[576 - 577] their own a lot of people in the studio
[577 - 579] also had differing opinions but the most
[579 - 581] important part was that we had fun while
[581 - 583] making all of these sandwiches and to be
[583 - 584] quite honest it was a lot of Labor
[584 - 586] Rachel did a lot of the work by doing it
[587 - 588] ahead of time but to make this sandwich
[588 - 591] does require a lot of time 10 days and
[591 - 593] some smoking and hours of boiling if
[593 - 594] you're doing the other method so hats
[595 - 596] off to anybody that has a business that
[596 - 598] sells or makes these kinds of sandwiches
[598 - 600] because it's not as easy as people might
[600 - 602] think well the best part is we had about
[602 - 604] 12 people in the studio that day which
[604 - 606] was perfect because with all this meat
[606 - 608] and bread and sandwich flying around
[608 - 609] everybody got to take some home and got
[609 - 611] to take a little bit of almost
[611 - 614] everything this episode is sponsored by
[614 - 616] bombas aka the most comfortable socks
[616 - 618] I've ever tried and while they're comfy
[618 - 620] the best part is that for every item
[620 - 622] purchased one is donated they've donated
[622 - 624] over 100 million articles of clothing so
[624 - 627] far across all 50 states so you're not
[627 - 628] just getting your new favorite pair of
[628 - 630] socks you're helping bombus donate some
[630 - 632] to someone else too feel good and do
[632 - 634] good with bombus knowing your purchase
[634 - 636] is doing some real good new customers
[636 - 638] get 20% off their first purchase just go
[638 - 641] to bombas.com babish and use code babish
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