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Deli Counter · Cured Beef Sandwich

Pastrami on Rye

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At Katz's Delicatessen, a single hand-carved pastrami sandwich can hold nearly a pound of meat — piled so high that regulars are known to eat it with a knife and fork.

Beef brisket is cured, coated in a heavy black-pepper-and-coriander rub, smoked, then steamed for hours until fall-apart tender and hand-sliced onto rye bread with mustard. Jewish delicatessens on the Lower East Side, led by Katz's since 1888, still carve it to order at the counter.

Why it's made this way: Eastern European Jewish immigrants brought pastrami-curing techniques to New York's Lower East Side delis, and the towering deli sandwich became a defining New York meal.
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