I finally caved in. After two years of yearning, I finally broke down and sent for a Katz’s pastrami. Arguably serving the best pastrami in this or any other country, Katz has been in business since 1888 and now processes 10,000 pounds of pastrami a week, among other things. It’s now boiling on the stove (I bought a whole pastrami) and will be done in about 2 more hours. I also got a loaf of NY rye bread. Price for a 2-1/2 pound pastrami, the bread, plus shipping: about $80. Yeah, I know, but holy shit is this stuff great, and I’ll get a lot of sandwiches out of that much meat. Drool. 
I’m a fan. I still get to Katz’s about once a month, for a pastrami on rye, with mustard. And pickles on the side.
Now I want to go to Katz’s for dinner tonight.
I love Katz’s. I don’t get to eat there very often, though, since I live in California. In fact, I think I was last there in 2007.
If you make it like they do, that’s only like 3 sandwiches. 
Ha! You may be right. The bread is the #3 sandwich rye, though, which is fairly smallish. Huge loaf of bread, so I’ll have to freeze some of it. Had to pay overnight shipping, of course, which was about the same price as the food. Think I’ll have mine with some Swiss and brown mustard, homemade pickles on the side. The smell of it cooking is making me weak.
Katz’s has my favorite sign: “Send a salami to your boy in the Army”, which is supposed to rhyme. 
What is it? Thousand Island dressing and sourkraut and you got your self a Reuben!
Dammit, now I’m hungry.
God damn, you guys, send some to the rest of us please.
Well, that’s with corned beef instead of pastrami, but it’s what my wife did to her sandwich awhile ago and she pronounced it good. I felt that it was nearly grounds for divorce, but I suppose some would think that Swiss cheese is also sacrilege.
By the way, it’s spelled “sauerkraut”.
babygoat666: at those prices, I’m afraid you’ll have to order some yourself.
Now I want some pastrami. Hard to find in the Midwest.
This classic movie scene comes to mind.
Have you had the Pastrami at Kenny and Zuke’s? Might not be Katz’s but still pretty good and a lot closer.
drools with envy
OK, I’ve never eaten Pastrami and have just spent the last 20 minutes on Google reading what it is and how it’s made.
I’m now going to have to buy a corn beef from the supermarket and see what happens when I give it a dry rub, and smoke it for a while before steaming it (instead of boiling it).
Could be interesting, if it comes out remotely edible I’ll have a new summer dish. Thank you.
Not sure where you are located, but in California, the Pastrami Reuben is kind of a thing. Seems more popular than a corned beef Reuben.
It’s good to live in California!
Yeah, it’s essentially beef cured with spices (brisket is typical, navel is perhaps the most traditional, and round can also be used, but is far leaner and not as flavorful, in my opinion.) A corned beef brisket will work fine. Traditionally, pastrami is cold smoked, (or sometimes both cold and hot smoked), but you’ll have a fine product if you just hot smoke it, too, even if purists might not call it pastrami. (I call it “hot smoked pastrami” if there’s anyone around who would know the difference, otherwise, just “pastrami.”)
After it’s been smoked and steamed, it has to be boiled for about three hours until fork tender. I’ve never made one, but that’s how this one was done.
Typo: I had to read up a bit more. It turns out that corned beef is basically just salted beef, traditionally brisket. Nowadays, seasonings are added and it’s boiled. Pastrami can also be brisket (it can also be pork, lamb or poultry), traditionally navel meat (as mentioned by Pulykamell), but the preparation is quite different, as mentioned above. In the end, they’re both just cured meats, and how they’re eaten is purely a matter of personal taste, much like hot dogs. My comments were tongue-in-cheek.
It’s interesting to me how pastrami can taste a bit bland, but when you add brown mustard (or other condiments), it comes alive.
bigdog: we ate at K&Z a few years ago and I can’t for the life of me remember what I had. Don’t know why we haven’t been back. I may have to give it another try.
I remember my first time at Katz Deli. I ordered a pastrami sandwich at the counter and the guy sliced two pieces of pastrami and handed them over the counter to me. I had no idea why he was doing this and I must have gave him a quizzical look. He said “Something to nosh on while I make your sandwich.” And a damn fine sandwich it was.
That would be better phrased as “cured beef with spices.” (With coriander and black pepper being the predominant ones. Another product quite similar to pastrami is Montreal smoked meat.) If you want to go into a bit more detail, it can be dry or wet cured. (Dry cured is just salt & spices; wet cure involves a brine.) I don’t know whether Katz’s starts with dry- or wet-cured beef, but from what I glean from the internet, it seems to start with a dry cure. (That will also lead you to a good hot-smoked pastrami recipe that starts with wet-cured corned beef.)
Oh, cool, found this pretty cool run-down of Katz’s process. Looks like it’s dry-cured (at least that’s how I take the “salted” part) and it’s cold smoked for two to three days off-site.
Is there some sort of map that can outline pastrami availability in the United States? I thought everyone had access to pastrami. I mean, don’t they sell (admittedly inferior) pastrami sandwiches at places like Subway and Arby’s?
God, now I really want a pastrami Rueben.
I have money! I’m just too far.