Pastrami---smoked

Ummmm...two words that simply speak volumes. Pastrami and smoked. Lovely language. My brain immediately wants to shift gears to the saurkraut waiting on the shelves from years past and to swiss cheese and rye bread. My mom used to make the best rueben sands with catalina dressing, swiss cheese and rye bread. These are kind of sandwiches that melt in your mouth and leave you salivating for more, more, more.....Will Bodle shared his smoking pastrami recipe with me and I tweaked it just a tiny bit to include some color and a little more flavor...I'm keeping the beer idea...meat should be moist, not dry.

One 3-4 lb. corned beef, rinsed well and patted dry with paper toweling (throw away the spices included in the bag—you don’t want them)

Mix together the dry rub ingredients:

1/3 cup Kosher salt
¼ cup brown sugar
¼ cup black pepper
¼ cup paprika
2 TBSP onion powder
2 TBSP granulated garlic
2 TBSP yellow mustard seeds
2 TBSP ground coriander
(*Note: If you have access to a spice mill, you may want to semi-process 1 TBSP coriander seeds to add to the above—the smell will bring a smile to your lips!)

Completely coat the entire piece of meat with seasoning mix on all sides. I massage this dry rub in for a about 4 minutes. Use ALL or most of the dry rub seasoning mix, it will seem like a lot, but it is not.

Place meat, fat side up in a smoker and smoke for 6-8 hours. Will has a fancy-pants smoker that can control the heat at 175. I do not, so I am smoking mine for twice as long as he recommended. DO NOT use mesquite to smoke--Will said this imparts a bitter taste to your meat. Use any or mix of cherry, apple, oak or alder woods to smoke. Bring meat inside and double wrap in aluminum foil with a ½ can of beer. Bake in the oven at 300 degrees F for 2 hours. Let cool, then slice and serve with provolone or swiss and stone ground mustard on rye with saurkraut.