Whole Muscle Cured Meats

Flyway Pastrami

Smoked Goose Breast Pastrami

Flyway Pastrami is a whole-muscle cured meat made from goose breast, duck breast or venison eye of round. Smoke at 200-225°F (93-107°C) and finish at an internal 150°F (66°C). Exact amounts scale to any batch weight in the DeepWoodz Smokehouse app for iPhone and Android.

Most people grind their goose, because most people have had it cooked to the texture of a boot and decided that is just what goose is. Cured whole and held at 150°F it comes off the smoker sliceable and pink, and the pepper and coriander frame the liver note instead of trying to bury it. Fruit wood matters here — hickory flattens a goose breast. The same cure works on duck, and on a venison eye of round if you give it the extra days.

• Peppery
• Smoky
• Savory
• Gamey

Internal temp

150°F (66°C)

Smoker temp

200-225°F (93-107°C)

What goes in it

• Kosher Salt
• Cure #1
• Brown Sugar
• Coarse Black Pepper
• Ground Coriander
• Dextrose
• Garlic Powder
• Smoked Paprika
• Mustard Powder
• Thyme
• Onion Powder
• Ground Allspice

Amounts are calculated for your batch weight in the app — including the cure, which is held at a fixed, food-safe rate.

The meat

Goose Breast · Duck Breast · Venison Eye of Round

How it's made

1. Weigh your breasts before anything else and let the app scale the cure to that number. Goose breasts run from ten ounces to well over a pound depending on the bird and how hard you trimmed, which is exactly why a fixed brine recipe never fits what you actually carried out.
2. Trim the breasts clean, pulling silverskin and cutting away shot-damaged meat. Leave the skin on if it came through intact. It shields the meat from the heat in the smoker and renders a little fat down through it. If it is torn up, take it off; the cure works either way, it just reaches the meat faster without it.
3. Mix every dry ingredient together thoroughly before it touches the meat, cure included. Then set aside about half of the black pepper and coriander. That half is your rub and it goes on days from now, not today.
4. Rub the rest of the cure over every surface of each breast, working it into the thick end especially. That end is the last place the salt reaches.
5. Vacuum seal, or press into a zip bag with the air worked out so the cure stays in contact with the meat. Refrigerate 3 to 4 days and flip once a day. This is an equilibrium cure, so the salt settles at the percentage you weighed instead of climbing the longer it sits. A day either side will not hurt it.
6. Take the breasts out of the bag and pat them dry. Do not rinse or soak them. The salt is measured to 2 percent of the meat weight and that is exactly where you want it to finish.
7. Press on a heavy coat of the reserved coarse black pepper and coriander, all sides. It should look like too much. A spoon of cracked mustard seed in there is optional and traditional. Then straight onto the smoker.
8. Smoke at 200 to 225°F over cherry, apple or oak, breasts skin-side down. Fruit wood suits waterfowl; heavy hickory or mesquite buries a goose breast rather than seasoning it. If you have the time to spare, running nearer 180°F for longer puts more smoke on it.
9. Pull at 150°F internal, measured in the thickest part of the thickest breast, and hold it there at least 3 minutes. Expect somewhere between an hour and a half and three hours depending on thickness and how hot you ran it, but go by the probe and not the clock. That 150°F hold is the same kill as touching 165°F for an instant, and it is the whole reason this comes off juicy instead of gray and chalky.
10. Rest 10 minutes if you are eating it hot off the smoker. If you want deli-thin slices, chill it through first. Warm goose breast tears where cold goose breast shaves.
11. Slice thin against the grain and serve it with a coarse mustard and pickles. It keeps about two weeks in the refrigerator and six months vacuum sealed in the freezer. To reheat, skip the microwave: drop the slices in a hot dry pan, toss for a minute to release the fat, then add a splash of water and cover for another minute so the steam brings it back. Notes: goose carries a liver note, and the pepper, coriander and thyme are there to frame it rather than hide it. A corn-fed bird taken late in the season is milder than one taken early. This works the same on duck breast, and on a venison eye of round or a small roast if you push the cure to 5 days for the extra thickness.

Wood

Cherry · Apple · Oak

Before you start

• How much Cure #1 per pound
• Venison to pork fat ratio