After reading this, I decided to put chili in the crock pot. I didn't buy bloody mary mix, but did use the V8 hot and spicy version.
That's what we had. I cooked my meat with chopped onions, worshire sauce and a tiny amount of soy. Then used V8, diced tomatoes, various beans and seasoned it to taste. Since I didn't have spicy V8 I had to use crushed red pepper to give the kick I desired out of it (along with chili powder and cumin of course)
It wasn't my best work because I went to heavy on the tomato side of things, but it was really good.
Cheeseburger bacon pizza.
I make it the way I like it so it isn't what they have in Montreal. I use slices of a french roll, deli mustard, a pile of meat and havarti and swiss cheese. People from Montreal would probably throw up at the cheese.
It's a lot like pastrami but just has a different taste, texture and rub. Basically the Jewish immigrants came to North America and just used the meats that were available to them, Canada has different cuts than the USA so their meats were different.
Here's a good article on it: http://www.seriouseats.com/2014/06/d...-mile-end.html
the main differences between pastrami and smoked meat come down to the cut of beef and the spice rub it's coated with.
"Pastrami in the United States is almost always made with navel, a cut similar to belly, or what you would make bacon out of on a pig. So it's a little bit denser, a lot fattier, and it's less stringy," notes Sax. On the other hand, Montreal-style smoked meat comes from brisket, as navel is much harder to find in Canada because of its British beef cut tradition. "Smoked meat made from brisket can be stringier and a lot softer if it's steamed right. [Brisket's] not fattier throughout the cut, but it has a larger cap of fat, and it has a stringier texture, more fibrous. American-style pastrami is more marbled with fat and has a denser texture."
In Canadian butchery, the cut called brisket comprises parts of the American brisket and navel (combined the two parts are called "whole brisket.") As such, if you go to a Canadian deli and order fatty, medium, or lean smoked meat, you'll receive a sandwich with varying amounts of meat from each portion of the whole brisket.
Navel and brisket were once some of the cheapest cuts on a cow, but these days their prices have risen much like short ribs and oxtail. So if you step outside the shrinking world of hardcore Jewish delis you'll find pastrami made with brisket and cheaper cuts like top round. Boar's Head makes a top round pastrami that's much leaner than brisket or navel (they also make a pricier brisket version). While lean pastrami is the worst faux pas for pastrami lovers, it appeals to a broader group of deli meat consumers, and leaner meat is easier to slice into cold cuts.
As for the rub, Sax goes on: "Generally pastrami is just spiced with coriander and black pepper, and often sugar." But for smoked meat, "there's really no sugar on the rub. It's generally black pepper, coriander seed, more garlic, and sometimes mustard seed, bay leaf, and other aromatics."
As general manager Frank Silva describes, Schwartz's Deli was founded in Montreal in 1928 by Reuben Schwartz, a Romanian immigrant. Schwartz originally delivered smoked meat by horse and buggy for other wholesalers before realizing he could make a better and cheaper product himself by not spending money on chemical preservatives.
Schwartz's begins their smoked meat by marinating raw brisket with a secret blend of spices for 10 to 12 days. They smoke the brisket for eight to nine hours and steam them for another three before slicing them by hand and serving them on rye bread with mustard. As Silva put it, "by being cheap, [Schwartz] created something that we still do the same way!" Today, Schwartz's is synonymous with smoked meat, and is a Montreal institution, beloved by Anglophones and Francophones alike.
"The Montreal product, while terrific, is different than ours," explains Zane Caplansky, owner of Caplansky's, which since 2009 has led a resurgence of Toronto's once dying deli culture. "I guess I made a slightly odd choice when I decided to call what I was doing 'smoked meat' instead of the more common Toronto term, 'pastrami,' and that, I think from a marketing perspective, I was looking to attract those people that David Sax refers to: the expatriate Montrealers."
Caplansky noted one key difference between his smoked meat and Schwartz's. "Schwartz's doesn't wood smoke their meat. Montreal banned wood smoking in restaurants many, many years ago. So Schwartz's use an old electric smoker and the smoke isn't the same part of the flavor profile." Silva confirms this claim—Schwartz's hasn't wood smoked their meat for nearly 50 years.
Caplansky uses a wood smoker to produce what he proudly calls "Toronto smoked meat." But even an electric smoker can elicit some smoky flavor. Sax and Sietsema, who both consider Schwartz's smoked meat plenty smoky, point out how a brisket's rendering fat produces its own smoke, flavoring the meat in its own way.
We've already documented the pastrami-making process at Katz's, New York's pastrami top dog. It's similar to the process at Schwartz's but with some subtle differences. Katz's uses navel for pastrami and brisket for corned beef. Both meats are cured, or corned, for about three weeks before the navels are wood-smoked for 48 to 72 hours at very low heat. The rub, which consists of garlic, salt, pepper, and coriander, goes on right before smoking. Afterwards the smoked navels are boiled for several hours, steamed for 30 minutes, and sliced by hand.
Joe, how was your chili?
Having sloppy joe's tonight. Haven't had one of those in probably 20 years
Just had a vegetable Madras. It was amazing.
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