Pastirma

History and etymology

The first recorded mention of Basturma was first recorded between 95-45 BC in Armenia during the reign of Tigranes the Great. It's believed that the technology of air-drying meats was first developed to preserve basturma being traded from Armenia to China and India. During the Byzantine period, it was called apokt. One story gives its origins as the city of Caesarea (modern Kayseri), where there was a Byzantine dish called pastón, which would be translated as "salted meat" and was apparently eaten both raw and cooked in stews. Armenians were known throughout the Levant as the most skilled makers of basturma. In Caesarea (Kayseri), the production of basturma was entirely run by Armenians. The Armenian family name of Basturmajian was held by families that processed the meat. Some authors claim that the medieval Central Asian nomad traditions to modern production of pastirma during the Ottomans is an extension of that older tradition.

Accordingly it has been claimed that also the word pastırma is related to the earlier Byzantine Greek παστόν (pastón), but standard Greek dictionaries do not assert this connection and gloss pastón simply as "salted (meat)". The word has thereupon been borrowed into other languages of the region: Albanian: pastërma, Arabic: بسطرمة‎‎ (basṭirma), Armenian: բաստուրմա (basturma), Azerbaijani: bastırma, Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian pastrma, Bulgarian: пастърма (pastărma), Greek: παστουρμάς (pastourmás), Hebrew: פסטרמה‎‎ (pastrama) and Romanian: pastrámă. The American cured meat product pastrami has its origins in pastirma via Yiddish: פאסטראמא‎ pastrama.

Pulitzer Prize-winning food critic Jonathan Gold wrote of basturma in the December 1999 issue of LA Weekly:

The Armenian cured beef called basturma may be the most powerfully flavored cold cut in the world, less a foodstuff than a force of nature, with a bit of the chewy translucence of first-rate Italian bresaola, a ripe, almost gamey back taste, and then – pow! – the onslaught of the seasoning, a caustic, bright-red slurry of hot pepper, fenugreek, and a truly heroic amount of garlic that hits the palate with all the subtle elegance of a detonated land mine.

Preparation and usage

Pastirma is prepared by salting the meat, then washing it with water and letting it dry for ten to 15 days. After that the blood and salt is squeezed out of the meat which is then covered with a cumin paste called çemen (lit. "fenugreek") prepared with crushed cumin, fenugreek, garlic, and hot paprika, followed by thorough air-drying. Even though beef is the most common meat today, various meats are also used depending on locality, including camel, lamb, goat, and water buffalo.

The Armenians introduced pastirma to Syria and Lebanon in great quantities, and it is usually served as a meze in thin slices, usually uncooked, but sometimes lightly grilled or added to eggs for breakfast. It may be added to different dishes, the most famous of which is a bean dish, and various pies. The traditional Armenian pastirma strictly uses beef as the meat and this remains as the most common usage.

In Turkey, where it is eaten as a breakfast with eggs and as a meze with rakı, there are more than 22 kinds of pastirma. The version from Central Anatolia, often called Kayseri pastırması, is the one most common. The less-common Rumeli pastırması "Balkan pastırma", is simply salted and dried.

In Greece Kayseri pastırması was introduced by the Cappadocian Greeks, refugees from the region of Kayseri. In Cyprus παστουρμάς is cooked like sausage.

In Iraq, pastirma (basturma) is used for breakfast, with fried eggs, and it is usually prepared by butchers . In Egypt, it is used for breakfast. It is also used as a topping for pizza, and a filling for a variety of oven prepared stuff dough dishes, whether they are made from regular bread-like dough, or a flaky multilayered puff pastry-like dough.