Pastrami

Made this yesterday and enjoyed it today. Easy and oh so yummy

I used to go to Katz's Delicatessen in lower Manhattan and loved the Pastrami sandwiches. Unfortunately I can no longer enjoy them, not just because I'm 1200 miles away, but I inevitably get heartburn when I do indulge my self with a pale imitation here in Florida. 

Chef John is a cool dude...Ive used many of his recipes.

I love homemade pastrami made from point cut brisket.

I used to go to Katz's Delicatessen in lower Manhattan and loved the Pastrami sandwiches. Unfortunately I can no longer enjoy them, not just because I'm 1200 miles away, but I inevitably get heartburn when I do indulge my self with a pale imitation here in Florida. 

Katz' is awesome and no heartburn for this cat.

That looks delicious, I think I might have to give that a try.  I do enjoy pastrami and smoked brisket generally. 

I used to go to a barbecue place in a market where the owner made an awesome brisket sandwich.  Below are before and after pictures of the last sandwich I ever had from that guy - he tragically and suddenly passed away a few days after I had that sandwich from a massive heart attack.  Occupational hazard I think but I'm pretty sure they're enjoying some awesome barbecue in Heaven

Marko, I thought that about fat as well because I believed the media and the BS they push. The study that all of that "fats cause heart disease" is based on was fraudulently done. No one would ever produce such a study today and if the medical community and media had taken even the slightest interest in finding out how it was done it should never have gotten the traction it did. Dietary fats have little to no effect on cholesterol and triglycerides in the blood. No studies since that first fraudulent one has ever been able to duplicate the results it got because they've been done as real studies and not studies designed to get certain results. That sort of study is science terribly done. (man-made global warming anyone?)

OK, when I read that I couldn't believe it. But I was beginning a diet to keep me in ketosis (keto diet) so I made the perfect guinea pig test subject. I knew my base numbers when not eating fats and taking my statin to keep my liver in check (the liver produces most of the cholesterol, yada, yada). After months of eating the worst possible diet, according to the fraudulent study, I should have been the poster child for an imminent heart attack, yet I wasn't. My numbers were still excellent. Now just a bit more info'. There is some data that suggests eating fats and cholesterol actually drives the bad stuff down by sending a message to the liver that it can back off on producing the bad stuff.

The short story is that it's not diet but an out of control liver that's the problem, but that's not all. I'll get to the rest of it in a bit.

That's why I'm still on keto (and in ketosis) months after starting the diet and have no plans on returning to a diet that mixes carbs and fats. If it was bad for me I never would have started it. BTW, I have heart disease and my Dr's couldn't be happier with my health and results.

There was a competing theory at the time of the fraudulent study and it claimed that carbs were actually to blame for heart disease. One study was rushed to print and the other was never heard from. I could write a bunch, but I'm not eating significant carbs if that tells you anything. I do eat carbs but I try to stay under 40 grams/day which is easy to do. Yeah, I miss a bunch of things that I ate in the past. Maybe during harvest time I'll come out of ketosis, just like our hunter/gatherer ancestors did. Maybe. Maybe if I want to put my body through that.

But back on subject, I have some brisket coned beef out in the freezer. I'm thinking about turning it into pastrami. I've been thinking about it for some time now, but this thread may have pushed me over the edge. Of course I can't eat it on a sandwich however much I might like to.

Hi ShadowsDad , its great to hear that your health is doing good.  Its so hard to sort the BS from the truth out there these days but your account doesn't surprise me - I have no idea what caused the barbecue guy (Derek) heart attack but he had been in the catering business a long time and was carrying about 100 pounds more than he should have.  He was only mid 40s young kids.  Sad.  The media loves to jump on little bits of early research and trumpet the results as the next breakthrough in human health (can you hear me Dr. Oz) Often the science doesn't even apply to humans.  Sometimes there is no science.  The whole trip down the trans fat road was not caused by any scientific or medical research or any facts at all but one middle aged guy who liked fast food and had a heart attack in his 40s - he also happened to be wealthy so he decided based on his own experience that saturated animal fat was the cause of his problems so he started a self funded media blitz campaign against the fast food industry and the snack food industry and they all eventually buckled - Mcdonalds stopped using beef tallow to fry its fries because of him.  The food industry had to find something that was both palatable and stable and not animal fat so hydrogenated vegetable oil came to the rescue.  Talk about out of the frying pan and into the fire!! The point is there was no documented peer reviewed studies supporting the switch away from animal fats to hydrogenated vegetable oils just one angry, obsessed guy with a lot of money.  

I've been reading some of the books written by Joe Schwartz and they're interesting and entertaining.  He does a lot of debunking quacks and so forth and also discusses the science of everyday life.  

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=joe+schwarcz+...b_ss_i_5_8

Yeah, overweight is not a good thing, so many other medical issues are associated with it that end in death. Overweight is a result of mixing carbs and fats. One needs to choose a lane and stay in it. For me it made sense to chose fats for everyday fuel. But either lane will work for most folks. I and my family just happen to have a genetic predisposition as many do. I learned that months after my problem showed itself. But it probably wouldn't have made a difference if I had known. I was superman back then, then one day I suddenly wasn't.

Yeah, overweight is not a good thing, so many other medical issues are associated with it that end in death. Overweight is a result of mixing carbs and fats. One needs to choose a lane and stay in it. For me it made sense to chose fats for everyday fuel. But either lane will work for most folks. I and my family just happen to have a genetic predisposition as many do. I learned that months after my problem showed itself. But it probably wouldn't have made a difference if I had known. I was superman back then, then one day I suddenly wasn't.

I don't recall if I was ever superman but I was certainly more super than I am today.  I was harder to injure and quicker to heal and when I lifted weights my body got bigger and stronger reasonably quickly.  Now at 60 I injure more easily and recover more slowly and I've never worked so hard in the gym for so little - its not a question of gains anymore but rather slowing the decline and being able to enjoy a relatively pain free life.  Diet is far more important now than it "seemed" to be and overweight is as you say not a good thing.  11 years ago my wife put us both on a reduction program and over 8 months I lost 47 lbs.  It made a huge difference to my general health and all my blood chemistry numbers improved and returned to normal.  No more acid reflux and my gall bladder began to function normally again.  I've managed to keep most of that weight off over the past decade but it requires ongoing discipline.  Now I'm primarily dealing with musculoskeletal issues, arthritis in my hips and spine and some c-spine issues all requiring maintenance - I feel like that old beater car I had back when I was young where one weird thing after another would breakdown and each time you'd repair it you'd think, well, that should take care of things and then...  But looking on the bright side the arthritis gives me pain when I'm sedentary so I keep moving and moving is good and if I somehow had perfect health then what the heck would I have to talk about?