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  • This machine is called a pickling injector and it's directly injecting a saltwater brine into this cut of beef, infusing it with flavour.

  • It's one of the first steps that turns this into this traditional pastrami that New Yorkers have been eating since the 1900s.

  • We take a closer look at the meat itself and see how traditional pastrami is made.

  • Pastrami is a classic new york Deli meat that comes from the navel of a cow these days, it's most common to use beef brisket.

  • What makes it distinctive from other meats like corn beef is, it's brining process and it all starts here at a warehouse in the Bronx.

  • First, you have to start with the best cut of meat.

  • This identifies that its choice meat, which is a higher cuts of meat.

  • Choice beef is known for its tenderness, juiciness and flavor and is well suited for dry heat cooking with the demand, we've been able to produce almost every day of the week.

  • New york city is home to a couple of dozen jewish Delhi's.

  • So it's no surprise that the warehouse goes through so much brisket.

  • So this is part of the reason why our pastrami tastes the way it is because it has a, the perfect blend of the fat and the lean meat content.

  • We could go through all between 10 and £15,000 a week of the brisket, 10 to £15,000.

  • Yes.

  • The meat seen here is kosher.

  • As many old school Delhi's in new york City are jewish to be labeled kosher.

  • Animals have to be slaughtered in a certain way so that they cannot feel any pain and the meat must be soaked and salted for me to remain kosher as it's shipped from a manufacturer to a facility like this.

  • A mushroom or supervisor must inspect the establishment to ensure it meets kosher standards.

  • My job is to make sure that when these products come in that they are kosher, you'll see this box, it says northland kosher beef and in addition, right here in hebrew, it says kosher meat kosher means fit for use and the bible tells us that the jewish people must keep kosher.

  • And so what if let's say you do find something, then we've got to start from zero.

  • The product is no good.

  • You got to throw it away.

  • The meat is actually labeled with a K.

  • You see the kosher, Okay.

  • The meat also has a plum book and lets you also know that that is kosher.

  • The meat itself is washed every three days when all is inspected, the meat can move on to the pickling or the brining process.

  • Gone are the days of the industry where meats like pastrami r bryan for 2 to 4 weeks.

  • Now, machinery like this speeds up the process by injecting the brine solution directly into the meat.

  • This allows the meat to retain the same amount of flavor it would get from brining the old fashioned way all in just 24 hours.

  • So I honestly came in here assuming that we would have the beats in the brining solution and you'd have like a ton of refrigerators of just them soaking up.

  • But this is this is the this is the fastest way.

  • Yes.

  • And is this a standard across the board for the volume that we're doing?

  • We wouldn't have the time to wait the 2-3 weeks.

  • We need to get it in and get it out.

  • The cuts of beef are pickled one at a time and injected to ensure the juices and flavors penetrate the meat thoroughly.

  • The brine and the solution that we use is proprietary just for us.

  • We created it.

  • It took many years to get it right, but after years and years in the making, we got it down.

  • This is the solution we use, No one else has anything like it.

  • There's some salt and some pepper, there's garlic, there's herbs, there's spices, but it would all be in the powder and the liquid form that we turn into it, it's just the perfect flavor.

  • So when you eat our pastrami, it's like, wow.

  • So now that the meat is brined.

  • Yes.

  • What is the next step, what we're gonna do is obviously we're gonna seal each individual piece.

  • Cryovac sealed And then that's it within by the next day, tomorrow could be sold to the stores for consumption.

  • Mark's team aims to Brian in vacuum sealed, £5,000 of pastrami at a time And after 24 hours, the Pastrami is headed to Delhi's like Pastrami Queen, this is a brisket, this is the stomach part of a cow.

  • It's the most fatty and meatiest part of a cow.

  • If you didn't have the fat or as much fat as you need, it would dry out as it cooks slowly, the fat burns away and melts away slowly into the meat, bringing the flavor further into the meat and therefore keeping it tender and juicy.

  • What happened if you kept more of the fat on the meat, you would damage the tenderness and the, and the quality of the meat?

  • The balance is very important.

  • What do we want to taste with the final product?

  • It has to be juicy, it has to be savory.

  • You have to taste the fat, the meat all the flavor that goes into it to get the pastrami ready for the smoker cooks add a dried rub, it's been 14 days, remove the meat from the brining process.

  • You add the salt, the pepper, the brown sugar to balance out the salty sweet flavor and then caramel.

  • We actually have caramel so you could be able to rub it and it's evenly around the meat, which causes the perfect browning of the meat while it's being cooked and make sure the whole meat is covered.

  • So you brine it in these ingredients, then you're also rubbing it.

  • Yes, if you keep the flavor.

  • So as the meat breaks down and the fat breaks down, the flavor continuously is being re infused into the meat, which makes the perfect pastrami And that's why you do twice like a Brian and a dry rub.

  • Two towns is always better than once.

  • The meat is then placed into a smoker for 2-4 hours at 225°F. Next comes the steep.

  • The piece of Pastrami lies in a steamer for 4-6 hours.

  • This is what a final pastrami brisket would look like at Pastrami Queen.

  • Yes, sure.

  • You see all the seasoning and everything is still together.

  • It has a good consistency.

  • When you slice it, it stays together.

  • So when you get a bite it's a fulfilling, savory, salty, sweet caramelized flavoring that looks salivating holy moly.

  • It's hard not to take a bite of.

  • This means right now this is our version.

  • I think it works.

  • Best proof is in the pudding.

This machine is called a pickling injector and it's directly injecting a saltwater brine into this cut of beef, infusing it with flavour.

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