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Turkey Pastrami

A few months ago, we bought two turkey breasts rather than let a $25 coupon go to waste, even though neither of us is big on turkey. I smoked the first, and my-oh-my was it good. Even so, I felt at the time that I had erred: with the breast already prepared, I went to a book on grilling to find a turkey pastrami recipe. Eileene loves beef pastrami, and I’m rather fond of it too, so that felt like an opportunity missed.

I tried the pastrami recipe on the other breast last week, and discovered we hadn’t missed anything. Not that the turkey pastrami was bad, mind you. It was tasty, but not OMG-good. And it didn’t taste anything like pastrami.

I blame the coriander. Steven Raichlen’s recipe calls for a lot of crushed coriander seed in the rub. This lends the bird a pleasant piquancy where you carefully scraped it off, but it’s easy to miss a seed stuck to an odd angle, and it’s easier yet to miss a seed or twelve in the tiny crannies, and those crannies taste like burning. Same problem with the salt caught therein. The mild turkey breast is totally by the seasoning. That can be great if you’re into intense seasoning, but it doesn’t really do justice to the bird.

I’m glad now to have made the “mistake” of unadorned smoking first. Trying the turkey pastrami first would have dampened my enthusiasm considerably for continuing exerimentation.

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