Salted Beef: Pastrami and Corned Beef

The easiest and most traditional way to draw umami taste out of beef and veal is to boil both the meat and the bones to make a soup stock. But, just as for ham, there are a number of conservation techniques that enhance glutamate in beef. Two well-known examples are pastrami and corned beef. Both of these products have much more umami than raw beef in the form of a dish such as steak tartare. The practice of salting beef is not so much to preserve it as to make it tastier.

Pastrami is made from a cut of beef that has a fair amount of fat, often brisket. It is first cured in a brine to which spices, such as garlic, bay leaves, coriander, peppercorns, and mustard seeds, are added. After being allowed to dry slightly, it is either hot-smoked or cold-smoked. Next it is steamed in order to remove most of the smoky taste. During this final process, the connective tissue in the meat is broken down into gelatin, leaving it very tender.