The Taste Of Pastirma...

One of mankind’s earliest techniques for preserving meat, salting and drying is encountered in all the culinary cultures of the world today. But the process is slightly different in Turkey: as it begins to dry, the meat is coated in a paste of finely ground spices called çemen to produce the legendary taste of pastırma. Pastırma is traditionally made during the mild days in early November known as “pastırma yazı” (“pastırma summer”).

Pastırma worthy of sultans used to be made in Kayseri from the meat of stags and roe deer hunted by the Janissaries in the Istranca Mountains. Cured in the temperate air of the Yeniköy meadows above the Bosphorus, it graced the dining tables of the Ottoman sultans. Among the varieties of pastırma described by Evliya Çelevi, this pastırma made from deer meat was the closest to the çemen-coated pastırma we know today.

Cattle were brought to Istanbul in large numbers to produce enough pastırma to supply the needs of the people. Again, according to Evliya Çelebi, “Herdsmen, most of them Christians from Wallachia and Moldova, would bring some 300,000 live animals from the Istranca Mountains and the area around Lake Terkos every year at 'pastırma time' in early November and sell them at the cattle market outside the city walls at Yedikule for forty days. Most of the meat of the slaughtered cattle went to pastırma makers, while the rest when to makers of 'sucuk' sausages and beef butchers, who were far fewer in number.” 

A magnificent meat product, pastırma is a treat you can consume however you like. You can eat it for breakfast, add it to white bean stew, or use it as a topping on “pide” flat bread. For some more unusual tastes, try the recipes below.

PASTIRMA CORNMEAL MUSH 

Ingredients

100 g cornmeal

50 g Chechil (brined string cheese)

50 g pastırma

1 tbsp butter

50 g meat stock

1 tsp salt

1 tsp black pepper

Preparation

Melt the butter in a medium-sized skillet, add the corn flour and brown. Then add the meat stock and continue stirring. When the mixture begins to thicken, add the pastırma and mix. Add the salt and pepper and cook for five more minutes. Serve hot.

PASTIRMA EN PAPILLOTE

Ingredients

50 g pastırma

1 tomato

15 g vine leaves

1 lemon

1 tbsp butter

half bunch fresh dill

1 long, mild green pepper (Turkish “Çarliston”)

Preparation

Cut the waxed paper in heart shapes and arrange one vine leaf on each piece of paper. Then place on top, in order, the pastırma, lemon, tomato, Çarliston pepper, dill and butter.

Fold the vine leaves closed first, then the paper. Brush with olive oil and cook for five minutes in the oven or on a grill. Serve hot.  

HUMMUS WITH PASTIRMA

Ingredients

50 g pastırma

100 g hummus

1 onion

5 g pine nuts

1 tbsp butter

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

Ingredients for the hummus:

100 g chickpeas (garbanzo beans)

3 tbsp tahina

Juice of half a lemon

1 tsg ground cumin

1/2 tsp ground red pepper (Cayenne)

2 tbsp olive oil

Preparation of the hummus

Soak the chickpeas in water for a day. Drain, remove to a pot, add water to cover and boil until tender. Buzz in a blender. Then add the remaining ingredients one at a time, mixing well after each addition.

Preparation

Melt the butter in a skillet. Add the pastırma and turn to coat both sides. In a separate skillet brown the pine nuts, then add to the skillet with the pastırma and turn again. Spread the hummus on a flat serving plate and top with the pastırma and pine nuts. Serve hot.