- Camera
- ISO
- Aperture
- Exposure
- Focal Length
- Nikon D3
- 1000
- f/3.5
- 1/2500th
- 48mm
Pastrami, cornichon & honey-mustard bagel
If you’re a long-time follower of The Butty, then you’ll know I’ve been on the hunt for some seriously good pastrami for a good while now. Sadly, it seems most of Britain just doesn’t care about this beautiful, brisket bombshell - hell, one of London’s best known butchers didn’t even know what it was when I asked for tips on a supplier. Undeterred, I kept looking, ferreting around the web like a beef-crazed bloodhound.
In the end, the answer pretty much dropped into my lap. An exasperated call for help on Twitter produced a response from a local butcher - Meat N16 in Stoke Newington - who suggested that they did some great pastrami. So this Saturday, I popped in and ordered up a few slices of their finest to put it to the test. You can see straight away that this is some seriously good beef - great marbling, colour and a nice streak of fat on the edge, glistening with moisture. The texture is perfect too, noticeably lacking that slightly brittle feel that you often see in pre-packaged pastrami at the supermarket. Magic.
When it came to the sandwich, it had to be a bagel, un-toasted - largely because I bought 12 freshly-baked rascals from my local baker on the way back from the Euston Tap the other night, but also because bagels and pastrami go together like gin and tonic. Spread with some Helmann’s mayo, a couple of slices of pastrami went in each, along with a few halved Cornichons and a big spoonful of Dutch honey mustard on top. No salad - you don’t want any leaves getting in the way of the meaty goodness here.
So I’ve found my pastrami. It’s undoubtedly one of the best bits of meat that I’ve fielded in a sandwich so far. No question. What’s more, I’ve found a good butcher that’s just down the road, and based on what I got for my hard earned this time, I’ll be making Meat N16 the Butty’s go-to guy for anything meaty in the future.
