Pastırma

Pastirma, basturma, pastourma, bastirma, basterma or pastırma is a highly seasoned, air-dried cured beef that originates in Armenia, and has spread to various countries, from the Balkans to the Levant.

The first recorded mention of Basturma was between 95-45 BC in Armenia during the reign of Tigranes the Great. It is 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: (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.

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