Montreal Style Smoked Meat
I got notification a week or so ago that Harrington's of Vt. was having a special sale with an order you got some cheddar and bacon which is a favorite of ours. What I did not know was that they are offering Montreal style smoked meat. My order came today and I just tasted a slice. Oh boy dinner is going to be yummy tonight. It is so smoky, tender and delicious. I am glad I doubled my order. Going to have to have some on hand more often.
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Candy
Mar 2, 2007 07:00 AM
IF YOU ALL WILL GO BACK AND LOOK AT THE TITLE I said Montreal STYLE smoked meat and no it is not processed. It was delicious, tender, moist and juicy. Is it exactly the same as i used to get in Montreal? Well no. Is it similar? Yes. Am i happy to be able to get something this delicious delivered to my door in Bloomington, IN? Well hell yes!
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re: Candy
Hey Candy, no need to yell. Some of us take our Jewish deli (which is rapidly disappearing from earth) with a seriousness bordering on the absurd.
I don't see what's on that website as Montreal style, but I'm certainly glad that it tasted good. I'm guessing that Bloomington IN isn't crawling with great delis. I'm also curious -- since you aren't dealing with the border that divides our supposedly free (hah) trade zone, can you get really good pastrami from, say, Katz's in NY or Zingerman's in Ann Arbor?
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re: embee
Candy
Mar 2, 2007 11:31 AM
Sure I could but having spent my HS years near Montreal I do love smoked meat. Kind of a taste of home. We also have some very good pastrami in Indianapolis at Shapiro's. Bloomington has no idea of what a true deli is. They sell ham in thier delis. I am not real interested in paying Zingerman's overly inflated prices. I know the difference between pastrami and smoked meat and I was not saying they are alike someone else started that. All I was saying that the Harrington's Montreal Style smoked meat was very good and had not known before that they had it. In no way was i suggesting it is or was similar to pastrami. That is someone else's argument that i don't want to be a part of.
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John Manzo
Mar 1, 2007 06:12 PM
Living in Canada, I SO miss pastrami. Smoked meat is a pale imitation and not nearly as good. Thank God we're getting a Carnegie Deli (yes, the real thing) in Calgary. Smoked meat is one of the biggest disappointments of Canadian citizenship.
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re: John Manzo
If it's the "real thing", be prepared for, hmmm, say $18.95 for a sandwich and really surly service. But I'll be very surprised if it's the "real thing" and will mail order some to find out. Since they aren't allowing USDA inspected, kosher Hebrew National products to cross the border, importing Carnegie pastrami would be quite a feat (and a hellishly expensive one).
If you are comparing REAL pastrami with REAL smoked meat, neither is a "pale imitation" of the other, or of anything else. The meat sold by Katz's in NY (assuming it hasn't deteriorated recently) and by Schwartz's in Montreal are differently spiced versions of, essentially, the same thing. Each stands on its own as an exemplar of its type. The New York version of real pastrami uses plate, while it's brisket almost everywhere else. Real Montreal smoked meat is always brisket.
Since I can make a mean pastrami, but have never gotten the smoked meat spicing exactly right, I miss the smoked meat more. PS, I grew up in New York, lived in Montreal, and now live in Toronto. Most smoked meat AND most pastrami is a pale imitation of anything real. When the product on offer is chemically injected round with smoke flavouring added, it ain't smoked meat OR pastrami. And that's what is mostly sold.
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Echoing FlavoursGal:
I'm glad you like whatever it is, but it isn't Montreal smoked meat OR its cousin, pastrami. It looks fabricated somehow or other and it has no fat. It certainly isn't "immersed in a secret marinade", since the needle marks where the curing agent was injected are clearly visible.
Just guessing, since I've never tasted it, but it appears to be a chemically cured Black Forest ham type of thing, only made from beef.
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Candy, I just took a look at the photo of the "Montreal smoked meat" on Harrington's website. It doesn't look like the real deal - too lean, the description sounds weird, and your comment about it being smoky is the real clincher.
Montreal smoked meat should contain fat (it's not well-trimmed before "cooking") and it does not have a smoky flavour. It also looks really strangely coloured in the photo. And I cringed when I read that it comes pre-sliced.
If you've never had Montreal smoked meat, enjoy this imitation, but don't reckon that this is how it's supposed to look or taste.
http://www.harringtonham.com/prod.cfm...
By the way, the photo shows a jar of Dijon mustard alongside the smoked meat. This is sacrilegious. Smoked meat is accompanied with prepared yellow mustard. And rye bread (seedless). Period.
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re: embee
Wow there do seem many suggestions, but none that I need. Here is the story, I am attempting, as best I can to imitate a Montreal Hebrew Deli (Schwartz's brisket. A nice point brisket, salted and herbed, is now in the fridge in a plastic bag and massaged and rotated each day. I only started two days ago, and it has nice juice already.
The question is to the cooking. I will leave the brisket in the fridge,as above for two-three weeks, then soak for maybe five hours to eliminate much of the salt. I would like to steam it, as I have a steamer, and it looks from what I have read that this will produce a nice piece, so I can have a double fat, double mustard, with a Mrs. Whyte's pickle on the side. But how long to steam the meat. I cannot find anything anywhere on this, so assistance of any sort would be greatly appreciated. Then I can post a recipe on line that others might try. Digcare, in Victoria, BC
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re: FlavoursGal
Gary Soup
Mar 1, 2007 06:28 PM
Lester's Deli will ship real smoked meat to the US. Grades from lean to medium fat. St. Viateur Bagels, too!
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re: Gary Soup
Okay then, a bit more bluntly: The smoked meat from Lester's Deli in Outremont is, in my opinion, not worth the bother. If I am going to the trouble and expense of importing a meat product, I'd want it to thrill. Lester's deli doesn't.
I also need to wonder about how they can get it into the US when US Customs will often tear apart a car crossing the border when they find someone carrying their lunch. My understanding (subject to correction if someone working for the relevant US agency happens to see this) is the the US banned, essentially, all Canadian meat products from entry over mad cow and Canada retaliated by banning the import of, for example, Hebrew National and Nathans franks.
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re: embee
Gary Soup
Mar 2, 2007 08:52 AM
In this instance it was either the "trouble and expense" of ordering from Lester's (around $10/lb. plus overnight shipping) or the trouble and expense of hauling my butt from San Francisco to Montreal (which I already have to do every summer to visit my mother) and back in a 72-hour period to cover a party request with something superior. Either that or no MSM at all, based on the best info I had at the time.
I'll admit this was several years ago, and possibly before the total ban, but Lester's web site suggests they still ship to the US.
I've noticed Lester's has at least a few fans, albeit auslanders like Jackie Mason and Jim Leff.
Chill out (er, warm up?) as it appears the Winter is getting to youse guys up there!
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re: FlavoursGal
Infomaniac
Mar 2, 2007 03:27 AM
I agree with all your points, and it just doesn't look like the smoked meat I'm used to getting in Montreal, but if Candy says it's good, I'm sure it is.
The picture makes the slices look to thin also.
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