Montreal Smoked Meat
Montreal's answer to pastrami: a whole brisket dry-cured for a week, soaked, crusted with pepper, coriander and dill, smoked low, steamed in foil until tender and piled on rye with yellow mustard.
Montreal smoked meat is brisket that is dry-cured with salt and spices for about a week, hot-smoked and then steamed, and it is hand-sliced to order and served on light rye with yellow mustard; customers choose lean, medium or fat. Who made it first is DISPUTED and, in Wikipedia's words, likely unresolvable: Benjamin Kravitz, who founded Ben's De Luxe in 1910 and whose family says he used a curing method from Lithuania; Herman Rees Roth, who may have sold a smoked meat sandwich in 1908 (historian Eiran Harris, via David Sax's "Save the Deli", 2010); and earlier Romanian Jewish butchers. After Quebec's language law, Bill 101 (1977), the government language office told delis to call it "boeuf mariné"; the delis fought back, and the term "smoked meat" won legal recognition in 1987 (Wikipedia, citing the Montreal Gazette and Ottawa Citizen). Serious Eats writer Leah Colins says that before her first trip, almost everyone told her to try the smoked meat at Schwartz's.
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Why it works the kitchen science
Cure, then soak
Seven days in a dry cure lets the salt and nitrite reach the middle so the meat is pink and firm all through, and the long soak pulls back enough salt to make it edible (Serious Eats).
Smoke, then steam
Smoke flavors the meat while it is cool enough to take it, and wrapping it in foil at 170°F stops the stall and steams the collagen into gelatin, the same job a Montreal deli's steamer does.
Step by step
- Step 1
Mix the salt, pepper, coriander, curing salt, sugar, bay leaf and cloves. Rub the cure over every surface of the brisket, put it in a 2-gallon zip-top bag (or a covered tray) and refrigerate at 32 to 40°F for 7 days, flipping it once a day.
- Step 2
Rinse off as much cure as you can under cold running water. Cover the brisket with cold water and soak 2 hours, changing the water every 30 minutes, then refill with fresh water and soak it overnight in the refrigerator. Rinse and pat dry.
- Step 3
Mix the rub ingredients and press all of it onto the brisket.
- Step 4
Heat a smoker to 225 to 275°F and add 3 or 4 wood chunks about 3 inches across. Smoke the brisket fat side up until the thickest part reads 170°F, 6 to 10 hours.
- Step 5
Wrap the brisket airtight in a double layer of foil, put it back fat side up and cook until it reads 195 to 200°F, 3 to 6 hours more.
- Step 6
Move the wrapped brisket to an empty insulated cooler, close it and rest 2 to 3 hours.
- Step 7
Slice against the grain about 1/4 inch thick (some shreds are normal) and pile the meat on rye spread with yellow mustard.
Montreal Smoked Meat
Serves 12 · 1 whole brisket, sliced (about 12 sandwiches) · 15 hr total
Cure
- 3/4 cup (108 g) Diamond Crystal kosher salt (or the same weight of table salt)
- 3 tbsp (21 g) freshly ground black pepper
- 3 tbsp (18 g) ground coriander
- 1 tbsp (22 g) pink curing salt #1 (Prague Powder #1)
- 1 tbsp (13 g) sugar
- 1 tsp ground bay leaf
- 1 tsp ground cloves
- 1 (10 to 12 lb) whole beef brisket, fat cap trimmed to 1/4 inch
Spice rub
- 3 tbsp (27 g) coarsely ground black pepper
- 1 tbsp (6 g) ground coriander
- 1 tbsp (7 g) paprika
- 1 tbsp (10 g) garlic powder
- 1 tbsp (10 g) onion powder
- 1 tsp dried dill weed
- 1 tsp ground mustard
- 1 tsp celery seed
- 1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
To serve
- 24 slices light rye bread
- Yellow mustard
Method
- Mix the salt, pepper, coriander, curing salt, sugar, bay leaf and cloves. Rub the cure over every surface of the brisket, put it in a 2-gallon zip-top bag (or a covered tray) and refrigerate at 32 to 40°F for 7 days, flipping it once a day.
- Rinse off as much cure as you can under cold running water. Cover the brisket with cold water and soak 2 hours, changing the water every 30 minutes, then refill with fresh water and soak it overnight in the refrigerator. Rinse and pat dry.
- Mix the rub ingredients and press all of it onto the brisket.
- Heat a smoker to 225 to 275°F and add 3 or 4 wood chunks about 3 inches across. Smoke the brisket fat side up until the thickest part reads 170°F, 6 to 10 hours.
- Wrap the brisket airtight in a double layer of foil, put it back fat side up and cook until it reads 195 to 200°F, 3 to 6 hours more.
- Move the wrapped brisket to an empty insulated cooler, close it and rest 2 to 3 hours.
- Slice against the grain about 1/4 inch thick (some shreds are normal) and pile the meat on rye spread with yellow mustard.
Adapted from Serious Eats, "Montreal Smoked Meat Sandwich" by Leah Colins (updated March 14, 2024), as written for a 10 to 12 lb whole brisket; we call it 12 servings. We give the smoker method; the charcoal-snake method is in the Tips. Serious Eats weighs its tablespoon of curing salt at 22 g; we keep that weight. Its curing salt dose works out to under half of USDA's dry-cure limit (our arithmetic; see Food safety baseline). The 32 to 40°F curing temperature is from Mississippi State University Extension. Serious Eats. Ingredient list follows the source; the method is in our own words.
All sources (2)
Tips
- No smoker: Serious Eats' charcoal-snake method on a 22-inch kettle grill smokes to 170°F in 4 to 6 hours, then 2 to 4 hours wrapped to 195 to 200°F.
- Order it "medium" in Montreal: Wikipedia calls it the most popular cut.
- Cooked brisket keeps 2 weeks refrigerated airtight according to Serious Eats; USDA FSIS's general advice for cooked corned beef is 3 to 4 days, so freeze extra.
The rules people argue about
What the sources agree on, what they don't, and what is just a good story.
- Who made it first. Disputed: Benjamin Kravitz (Ben's, 1910), Herman Rees Roth (possibly 1908), Itzak Rudman (said to be 1902) or Aaron Sanft (a Romanian butcher from 1884) (all via Wikipedia).
- Smoked meat is just pastrami. Disputed: Serious Eats calls the process almost identical; Wikipedia says smoked meat uses brisket while New York pastrami usually uses navel, and smoked meat carries more coriander, garlic and mustard seed.
- Montreal bans wood smoking, so delis use electric smokers. Folklore: Serious Eats and AmazingRibs both say so; we did not find the city rule itself.
- Never use a slicing machine. Documented as Montreal practice (Wikipedia): a slicer breaks up the tender meat.
- The name had to be French. Documented: Quebec's language office ordered "boeuf mariné" after 1977; "smoked meat" won recognition in 1987 (Wikipedia).
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