Rye Steamed Buns w/ Beef Tongue Pastrami, Horseradish Leek Sauerkraut, and American Mustard
Ryan Farr is the owner of 4505 Meats, a phenomenal butcher shop and catering company in San Francisco. We spoke with Ryan for our 2013 summer issue about his new cookbook “Whole Beast Butchery” and his mouthwatering recipe for beef tongue pastrami (see pg. 42).
Because the process to cure and smoke the beef tongue takes upwards of two weeks, we knew that we had to do something more than your traditional deli sandwich to match the scale of the pastrami undertaking. Enter the rye steamed bun.
We’ve had great success in the past making David Chang’s steam buns recipe from his “Momofuku” cookbook. But those buns are as white as Wonder bread and we just weren’t sure whether the recipe would hold up to the heartier rye flour. Because Chang’s recipe amps up the traditional steamed bun dough with added fat and salt, we are happy to report that the finished rye version is as good as the original.
To round out the sandwich on this day, we added horseradish and leek sauerkraut from Midori Farms near Seattle and American mustard from Revival Market in Houston. But you could just as easily sub out the mustard for a bit of Swiss cheese and Thousand Island dressing for an updated take on the Reuben (albeit with pastrami instead of corned beef).