Basturma also called pastirma, pastarma, pastourma, basdirma and basterma is a lovely piece of cured meat from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Egypt, Greece, Iraq, North Macedonia, Turkey,
My youngest son and I decided to make an attempt to make it ourselves. We have trimmed a piece of tenderloin (probably raw) and drowned it in coarse sea salt for 4 days. Rinse off the salt and put the meat in a water bath for 1 hour. Wiped well and squeezed out most of the water. Wrapped the meat in a kitchen towel and hung it to dry in the fridge for 2 weeks with a bowl underneath, which caught drips.
After the 2 weeks, we applied the Chaimen Spice Rub, which consists of 1 tablespoon of salt, 3 tablespoons of fenugreek, 3 tablespoons of paprika, 1 tablespoon of black pepper, 1 tablespoon of garlic powder, 1/2 tablespoon of cayenne pepper, 1 tablespoon of allspice, 1 tablespoon of ground cumin and 2 dl warm water. We let the meat hang for another 2 weeks and today we can enjoy the result, a lovely sauna.
