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Pastirma or Pasterma, also called pastarma, pastırma, pastrma, pastourma, basdirma, basterma, basturma, or aboukh is a highly seasoned, air-dried cured beef that is found in the cuisines of Albania, Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Romania, Bulgaria, Egypt, Greece, Cyprus, Iraq, the Levant, North Macedonia, Azerbaijan, Turkey and Georgia.

Etymology and history

Basturma existed in ancient Armenian cuisine, where it was known as aboukh' (Armenian: աբուխ). The word abookhd (Classical Armenian apukht) was already used in the Armenian translation of the Bible, in the fifth century AD, meaning “salted and dried meat”.

Pastırma is mentioned in Mahmud of Kashgar's Diwan Lughat al-Turk and Evliya Çelebi's Seyahatname. According to Turkish scholar Biron Kiliç, the term is derived from the Turkic noun bastırma, which means "pressing". The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink writes that pastırma is the word the Ottomans used for a type of Byzantine cured beef that was called paston (παστόν). According to Johannes Koder, an expert in Byzantine studies, paston could mean either salted meat or salted fish, while akropaston (ἀκρόπαστον) means salted meat. Andrew Dalby gives the definition of paston as "salted fish" and akropaston apakin as "well-salted fillet steak". Gregory Nagy gives the definition of akropaston as "smoked", describing apakin as "a kind of salami sausage, probably similar to pastourma". The Oxford Companion for Food says that a Byzantine dried meat delicacy was "a forerunner of the pastirma of modern Turkey".

The English word pastrami came by way of Yiddish and perhaps combined with the word salami.

Preparation and usage

Pastirma is usually made from water buffalo or beef, but other meats can also be used. In Egypt, known as Basterma is made not only with beef, but with water buffaloes as well. Some pastirmas are made with horsemeat. Different cuts of meat may be used; a single cow can produce 26 different "types" of pastirma. Fillet, shank, leg and shoulder cuts are used for the best quality pastirmas. It is usually made during the months of October and November.

To make pastirma, the meat is rinsed and salted before being dried and pressed. After the first drying period, the meat is cold pressed for up to 16 hours. This aids the process of removing moisture from the meat. After the first pressing, the meat is dried for several days, during which the fats melt and form a white layer. The second press is a "hot press". Finally, the dried and pressed meat is covered with a spice paste called cemen. Cemen is made from a paste consisting of caraway, paprika, blue fenugreek, fenugreek, black pepper, allspice, cumin, cayenne, salt and mashed garlic. The dried product is covered with the wet paste and left to dry again. The entire process takes approximately one full month. Pastirma is classified as an "intermediate moisture food". Lowering the moisture level is a form of food preservation that hinders the growth of microorganisms, and the cemen paste "is used to control surface mold growth during storage". Other functions of the cemen include improved flavor, characteristic red coloring, prevention of further drying, and antimicrobial effects.

Cuisines

Today, pastirma is present in the cuisines of Armenia, Egypt, Turkey, Bulgaria and the Levant.

Armenia

The cured meat, which resembles Italian bresaola, is called basturma (բաստուրմա) or aboukht (ապուխտ) by Armenians. Some Armenian pizzerias in cities like Yerevan, Boston and Los Angeles serve basturma topped pizza. Armenian restaurants also serve basturma topped burgers, basturma can be added to salads, and basturma with omelette is also a common breakfast item in Armenia. Basturma, or a basturma omelette can also be wrapped inside a lavash, alongside other ingredients like coriander, chechil cheese, and garlic matzoon.

According to Nigol Bezjian, Armenians who survived the 1915 genocide brought basturma with them to the Middle East. Bezjian recalls that his grandmother used to prepare "basturma omelets fried in olive oil with pieces of lavash bread". He notes that Armenians from Kayseri were particularly renowned basturma producers.

Arabs mocked Armenians with phrases like "It smells like there is basturma here", referring to the strong smell of basturma that is produced by the garlic and fenugreek mixture that the meat is coated in during preservation. Shoushou, a well-known Lebanese comedian of the 1960s–1970s, portrayed a caricature of an Armenian basturma seller; he retired the character after local Lebanese Armenians complained.

In Palestine, Armenian families gather on New Year's Eve and eat traditional foods including basturma, çiğ köfte and a traditional Anatolian confection called kaghtsr sujukh (քաղցր սուջուխ).

Bulgaria

Pastarma (as it is called in Bulgaria) arrived in Bulgaria in the 7th century. Specific products include Пастърма говежда / Pastarma Govezhda, which was registered as a Traditional Speciality Guaranteed in the EU in 2017.

Turkey

In Turkish cuisine pastırma can be eaten as a breakfast dish, and it is a common ingredient in omelettes, menemen (Turkish-style shakshouka) or a variation of eggs benedict.

Pastırma can be used as a topping for hummus, pide bread, hamburgers, and toasted sandwiches with either cheddar cheese or kasar cheese. It can be as a filling for a börek that is made with kadayıf instead of the traditional filo dough. It may be combined with potato to make a filling for traditional böreks as well.

It is also a common addition to many of the traditional vegetable dishes, especially the tomato and white bean stew called kuru fasulye, but also cabbage (pastırmalı lahana), chickpeas (pastırmalı nohut), asparagus (pastırmalı kuşkonmaz) and spinach (pastırmalı ıspanak). It can also be used to make cheesy pull-apart bread.

Production

Turkey produces around 2041 tons of pastirma each year. The pastirma from Kayseri is particularly well known. In their 1893 report the British Foreign Office note that Kayseri, which they call Cesarea, "is specially renowned for the preparation of basturma (pemmican)".

See also

• Biltong – Form of dried, cured meat from southern Africa
• Cecina – Salted and dried or cured meat
• Jerky – Lean meat dried to prevent spoilage
• Montreal-style smoked meat – Style of smoked meat corned beef created by Jewish immigrants in Montreal, Quebec
• List of dried foods
• Pastrami – Meat preserved by partial drying, seasoning, smoking, and steaming

References

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8. PASTIRMA Also known as pasterma, pastarma or pastourma. Mutton, beef or goat meat marinated with strong taste, pastirma forms part of Turkish and Greek mezze and is eaten like dried ham. For more see: New Larousse Gastronomique, Hachette UK, 2018, ISBN 0600635872, p. 562.
9. The Bulgarians and Serbs call it pastarma; the Greeks, pastourmas; the Azerbaijanis, bastirma; the Arabs, basterma; and the Romanians, pastrama. For more see: Robert Sietsema, New York in a Dozen Dishes, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2015, ISBN 0544454316, p. 112.
10. The stuffing consists of what the Greeks call pastourma, known to the Turks as pastırma and to the Arabs as basturmā. For more see: Clifford Wright, Little Foods of the Mediterranean: 500 Fabulous Recipes for Antipasti, Tapas, Hors D'Oeuvre, Meze, and More, Harvard Common Press, 2003, ISBN 1558322272, p. 291.
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Bibliography

• Alan Davidson, The Oxford Companion to Food. Oxford University Press, Oxford 1999. ISBN 0-19-211579-0.
• Maria Kaneva-Johnson, The Melting Pot. Balkan Food and Cookery, Prospect Books, 1995. ISBN 0-907325-57-2.

External links

• Media related to Pastirma at Wikimedia Commons

• Lunch meat
• Raw beef dishes
• Dried meat
• Armenian cuisine
• Balkan cuisine
• Byzantine cuisine
• Middle Eastern cuisine
• Ottoman cuisine
• Turkish cuisine