Make your own pastirma – Delicious Turkish dried meat
- Type
- Cured sausage
- Level
- Medium
- Rating
- Rate this recipe
In this post, I’ll show you how to make your own pastirma. It takes a little time to prepare, but it’s definitely worth it!
Pastirma is a traditional meat specialty from Turkey, consisting of a beef nut rubbed with a spicy paste of garlic, paprika, fenugreek and other spices. It is then air-dried to develop an intense flavor.
Pastirma is often served in thin slices as a starter or in various dishes such as salads or sandwiches.
But enough chatting now…
Here you can find the complete pastirma recipe as a video or to read through.
Have fun and good luck making it!
Table of Contents
Pastirma – What do you need to make it?
Ingredients per 1 kg
| Ingredient | Grams | Percent |
|---|---|---|
| lean piece of beef for example beef round | 1,000 g | 100 % |
Spices per 1 kg
| Ingredient | Grams |
|---|---|
| For dry curing | |
| salt | 29.5 g |
| Cure #1 | 2.5 g |
| For the paste | |
| water | 125 g |
| paprika | 25 g |
| fenugreek | 25 g |
| garlic powder | 10 g |
| salt | 5 g |
| allspice | 5 g |
| cumin | 5 g |
| black pepper | 3.5 g |
| cayenne pepper | 3.5 g |
The equipment to make Pastirma
For curing in a vacuum bag, you need a vacuum sealer. Dry curing without a vacuum bag is an alternative; see my guide to curing meat.
Place to dry and mature the sausage
To age this raw sausage, you need an environment where both humidity and temperature are relatively constant. There are several possibilities for this. I have already matured cured sausages in the fridge or cellar without any problems.
Optional: If you want to be on the safe side, then a ripening cabinet is the best choice. My recommendation: Dry Ager DX 500
Make Pastirma – Step-By-Step Instructions
Put the beef nut in a vacuum bag. Make sure that all the salt and cure #1 ends up in the bag.
Vacuum the meat.
For the pastirma, we want a uniform piece of meat. To do this, place something heavy on the piece of meat.
Place the bag in the refrigerator for the minimum curing time (1.5 days / cm meat thickness). Turn the bag occasionally. You can also cure your piece of meat for longer, but not shorter.
Pat the meat dry with a kitchen towel. Then insert a hook into the piece of cured meat.
Now hang the meat in the fridge/cellar/maturing cabinet to dry. It is important that the humidity is approx. 80 % and the temperature remains below 15 °C (59.0°F). My piece lasted approx. 1 week. Important: The better the humidity can be controlled, the more evenly the Pastirma will dry. If it dries too quickly, this can lead to a dry edge.
Put all the spices and water in a bowl.
Mix everything into a paste. The paste should still be easy to spread.
Spread the paste on the piece of meat. Make sure that everything is covered with the paste.
Optional: If you want the paste to be smooth on your meat, you can smooth it out with a little water.
Now hang the meat up to dry again in the fridge/cellar/maturing cabinet. It is important that the humidity is around 80 % and the temperature remains below 15 °C (59.0°F). My piece took approx. 2 – 3 months.
Your pastirma is ready 🙂 Enjoy it.
Frequently asked questions
Pastırma, basturma, pasturma – what is this meat called?
Pastırma, basturma, pasturma – what is this meat called?
All of them, depending on who is spelling it. The name goes back to the Persian “bastırma”, which means pressed, and that is not decoration: pressing is step 4 of this recipe. You weigh the cured beef down so that it dries as one even slab rather than a rounded lump, and the flat, dark slices that come off it at the end are the result. English speakers usually meet the whole thing as “Turkish pastrami”.
What is the çemen paste?
What is the çemen paste?
Çemen is the Turkish word for fenugreek, and it is also the name of the paste the fenugreek goes into. That paste is what makes a pastirma a pastirma: fenugreek and paprika as the body of it, with garlic, cumin, allspice and pepper behind them, stirred with water until it spreads.
It goes on late rather than early. The beef is cured first, then hung and dried on its own, and only then does the paste go on, in steps 8 to 10. Spread it over every side, smooth it with a little water if you want an even coat, and the meat goes back up to dry a second time. That second drying is the long half of the recipe.
How long is the shelf life of the Pastirma?
How long is the shelf life of the Pastirma?
Your pastirma will keep for approx. 2 – 3 months. However, it will gradually lose more moisture and eventually dry out completely. It therefore makes sense to store it in a vacuum in the fridge.
Dear Daniel Wulf,
First, thanks you for the recipes. I made several air-dry ham, like the Bresaola ham.
Or ham with thyme. In stead of eating them directly, I let them for one year in the refrigerator for a better taste and character.
My next step is to make the Pastrami and the beef salami from your videos.
In the beef salami you recommend The Spice Way Mace Ground and. The Spice Way Allspice – ground at Amazon.
I see already for several months, that both spices are not available.
Oder them directly from the US, will cost around 36Euro
My question: is there an alternative that you can recommend?
Best regards Jos Teunissen