"Into the Fire" on FoodTV the other night did a piece on the
Carnegie Deli. They showed the plant where Carnegie
processes raw beef into their corned beef and pastrami. When
a shipment came in, the guy from Carnegie asked whether the
shipment was corned beef or navels.
I assume that when he said corned beef, he meant brisket.
But what's beef navel? That is, where's Bossie's pupick? A
brief web search suggests that navel is the traditional cut
for pastrami, and that navel is sometimes called plate,
which I have heard of but I don't know what part of the cow
it comes from.
I'm not certain of all the details, but it looks as if
Carnegie injects all the beef to be cured with a brine, and
lets it cure 3-7 days. Then they apply their rub to the
pastrami and smoke it for just 3 hours.
When the meat gets to the restaurant, the corned beef is
boiled and the pastrami is steamed (very important that the
pastrami never touch {liquid} water, he said).
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Louis Cohen Living la vida loca at N37° 43' 7.9" W122° 8'
42.8"