I visited Montreal last week and made a trip to Schwartzs’s deli. Schwatrz’s is a big deal, the oldest deli in Canada, a Montreal institution.
So of course I had a smoked meat sandwich. “Smoked meat” is something halfway between corned beef and New York-style beef brisket.
I thought it was worse than either.
Any of your Canadians want to stand up for your meat?
I like it fine, but it’s not that fantastic. I’ve heard the same things as you probably have and I too was underwhelmed on my first taste.
My mum used to make brisket that was as good, if not better.
We here in Canada mostly refer to it as Montreal Smoked Meat, not Canadian-style. Where did you come across this moniker?
I like it, it’s pretty good stuff, but I don’t find it to be too far removed from a quality corned beef.
ETA I won’t stand up for my meat, as my meat is usually required to stand up for me. 
I’m not Canadian, but Schwartz’s smoked meat was among the best cured & smoked beef sandwiches I have ever eaten in my life. And, yes, I’ve had a few pastramis and corned beefs from New York delis, including Katz’s and Carnegie, although I’m sure some New Yorker will tell me that’s not the best, you gotta go to this little joint down on 7th, yaddayaddayadda.
First thing I did on getting back to Chicago was research recipes so as to figure out how to make at least a simulacrum of that smoky perfection. Obviously, your mileage varied.
By the way, here’s the recipe and technique I finally settled on (you have to scroll down to a link by a poster named “porker.”) My comment from another forum on that recipe and smoked meat in general was “I confess, I like Montreal smoked meat more than pastrami. That recipe is not trying to be a clone of Schwartz’s, but it’s pretty freaking awesome, if not a bit time consuming in prep.”
I’ve seen smoked meat on the menus of lots of restaurants in Toronto. Is this like New York-style pizza, where NYCers say that nobody else makes pizza? Nobody in the U.S. cares what they say.
I make beef brisket regularly. Beef brisket - which is what the waiter said it was when I talked to him about the difference - is not anything like pastrami or corned beef. Or smoked meat. It’s much better.
And thanks for getting the straight line. 
Well, actually, both pastrami and corned beef are usually beef brisket–just the former is cured-and cold-smoked, while the latter is just cured. (Occasionally, other cuts are used, but brisket is the usual.) I’m guessing you probably know that, but just in case…
I suppose what you’re talking about is pot roasted beef brisket. (Like Jewish mother style beef brisket?) That stuff is okay, but has never compared to smoked styles of brisket. I like it better than corned beef, though (except on a sandwich.) Pastrami, Montreal smoked meat, and barbecue brisket, though, are in a class of their own. When I buy brisket–which is not very often, as it’s special occasion food to me–it’s gotta get smoked.
Ah, that explains it. Toronto.
This is just an extension of the rivalry between the Leafs and Habs, and not to be taken seriously by TROC.
Are there any places in the NY-area that they serve Montreal Smoked meat? If not, I go to Toronto quite frequently, so any good spots up there would be good to know of as well.
Yes.
Blasphemy! Your smoked head on a pike!
Mile End Deli in Brooklyn (haven’t had it myself so don’t know how well it compares to Schwartz’s, which I love).
Well, I love it.
I also love Katz’s corned beef when I’m in NYC. But they are different.
Or whitefish, either is fine.
Should we also get on the Montreal style vs NY style bagel debate?
(What I loved almost as much as Schwartz’s were the Hungarian sausages at Charcuterie Hongroise a little bit down the street. Closest I’ve had in North America to the sausages I’ve had in Budapest.)
Yep, pretty much. “Montreal smoked meat” is much like “Chicago pizza” or “Manhattan clam chowder”–it describes a style of food, not necessarily the origin of the food itself. I’ve had a Montreal smoked meat sandwich and a Chicago pizza in such neither-Montreal-nor-Chicago places as Calgary, for example.
That being said, there is something about getting a real food item in its city of origin. The best Chicago pizza I’ve ever had was in Chicago itself, and the best Montreal smoked meat I’ve ever had was in Montreal.
But overall, Chicago pizza describes a deep-dish stuffed pizza, Manhattan clam chowder describes clam chowder made with tomatoes, and Montreal smoked meat describes something between corned beef and pastrami.
Me, I love the stuff. I’m in Toronto right now; and time permitting, I’m looking forward to visiting a Toronto deli and having a Montreal smoked meat on rye, accompanied by a cold draft beer.
Pastrami is hot-smoked, not cold-smoked. It cooks during the smoking process. I know because I’ve made it myself from a commercial recipe.
Also, corned beef is usually cooked by simmering it in water.
Pastrami is supposed to be cold-smoked (or a combination of cold-smoked and hot-smoked). I make hot-smoked pastrami, as well, but to me it’s a bit like hot-smoked bacon. Gets in the ballpark, but not quite.
A recipe from a book on charcuterie
The whole reason for cold-smoking pastrami was for preservation. Hot smoking doesn’t preserve the meat the way cold smoking does.
Like I said, I’ve made pastrami using the “cure some beef and hot smoke it” approach, but that’s not traditional pastrami.