For our ancestors, storing and preparing meat was a challenge, and drying as a method of preserving meat was used in ancient civilizations long before refrigeration.

Our ancestors stumbled upon something magical: salt preserves meat by drawing out moisture; slows down spoilage (meat acquires new textural properties that do not promote bacterial growth); The flavor of the meat is concentrated.

Thanks to this invention, people could live where it was impossible to grow anything; dry-cured meat sustained them during long, cold winters and nourished them during long sea and land journeys. This is how conquerors and discoverers ate as they traveled the world.

Food saltpeter

Then, probably in the 1600s, someone discovered that a mixture of salt and saltpeter rubbed into meat worked better. No one, of course, knew then that the potassium nitrate in saltpeter kills the deadly bacterium Clostridium botulinum, which causes botulism. It has also been observed that potassium nitrate maintains the pink color of meat.

Today, hardly anyone uses saltpeter, including you. Specially prepared mixtures of table salt, sodium nitrite, and sodium nitrate are used by commercial manufacturers and home cooks. This mixture keeps bacon, hot dogs, ham and corned beef pink and with a distinctive strong meaty aroma and intense flavor.

The refrigerator and the modern food industry with its cans and plastic bags have made the average home cook afraid of this simple and healthy food. But dried meat has a striking difference from meat stored in the freezer, where it slowly degrades over time.

Basturma

Basturma is one of the most popular and well-known appetizers for our holiday table. The entire process of making this delicious jerky in our recipe is very simple and takes about 8 to 10 days.

The most important thing is that the meat must be fresh, never frozen, preferably sirloin steak, which guarantees that the basturma will be tender, tasty, melt in the mouth and easy to bite.

Recipe for making dry-cured meat (basturma) at home.

The smell is amazing: salty, with high decibel aromas of fenugreek, cumin and cracked pepper.

We hope that you will prepare basturma according to this recipe and enjoy it!

Ingredients:

• This recipe is for 1300 -1400 gr. beef fillet, make sure the meat is fresh and has never been frozen.
• A pack of coarse salt.

To prepare chaman (fenugreek) paste you will need:

• ½ cup
• ½ - 1 teaspoons (only use half a teaspoon if you don't like the taste too spicy)
• 1 tablespoon
• 2 teaspoons
• 1.5 tablespoons salt
• 1 ¼ cups water

Preparation of paste for coating:

In a food processor, blend until smooth:

• 1 medium head of garlic,
• ¼ glass of water
• 2 tablespoons red pepper paste.

Place all other ingredients in a bowl, mix thoroughly and gradually add the remaining water.

Add the spice mixture to the processor and process until smooth. The paste should be quite thick and viscous.

Preparation:

Step 1

We start by preparing the meat: wash the meat, cut and remove all excess fat and films, cut off the edges that you do not need.

Step 2

Using a pointed skewer or a thick awl, make several holes in the pieces of meat.

Step 3

Sprinkle the bottom of a baking sheet or tray generously with salt and place the meat there. Sprinkle the meat with salt; it should be completely covered with salt. Cover the baking sheet with a lid or plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for 2 days. After some time, check to see if there are areas that have absorbed all the salt and, if there are, cover them with salt.

Step 4

Rinse thoroughly, then pat dry the meat very well. Wrap in several layers of paper towel and place under heavy pressure for 1 day. During this time, constantly check the moisture of the paper towel, and if it gets wet, wrap the meat in a dry paper towel.

Step 5

Remove the towels from the meat and hang it for 2-3 days in a room out of direct sunlight. You can use metal hooks or simple twine to hang the meat.

Step 6

Trim and discard any overly dried out parts of the meat. Generously spread the spice mixture over the entire surface of the meat. Hang for another 3-4 days.

Basturma is ready. Slice thinly with a sharp knife and enjoy!

Store the finished basturma in the refrigerator.

Follow the recipe strictly, then you will be able to prepare real Armenian basturma: hot, spicy, incredibly tasty. The result will captivate everyone.

Traditionally, basturma in Armenia is prepared by men. They generally try to keep women away from meat. And if we are talking about preparing dried beef - basturma - then an exclusively male approach is suitable here. Only a man can choose a decent piece of beef tenderloin and choose the wine for the marinade. And the most important ingredients are spices for coating the meat, which will then dry for several days in a cool place.

Correct basturma in Armenian always contains seasonings in the recipe - chaman and sumac. Without them, basturma is no longer quite basturma. You can look for these spices at the market from traders of Caucasian seasonings - they will certainly be available.

What is needed for basturma in Armenian

Ingredients for Armenian basturma:

• 2 kg beef tenderloin (young meat).

For the marinade:

• 1 liter of homemade red wine (dry);
• 7 tbsp. spoons of coarse salt;
• 1 small head;
• 4 teaspoons of hot red pepper (freshly ground);
• 1 tbsp. a spoonful of sumac seasoning (this is dried in a special way and ground).

To coat meat before drying:

• 0.75 glasses of dry wine (also red);
• 4 teaspoons salt;
• 2 teaspoons each of sumac and chaman;
• 3 tsp. hot red pepper (finely ground);
• flour.

A certain amount of salt, chaman, ground pepper and sumac will be needed for the final coating of the basturma.

Recipe for making Armenian basturma

1. The process begins by mixing all the ingredients for the marinade in a wide bowl and chopping the garlic. By the way, it is better to take coarse rock salt.
2. The tenderloin, previously washed, is immersed in wine with spices so that it is completely hidden under the liquid. On top - sterile gauze and oppression. Leave covered in a cool room. We wait 1 week.
3. Remove the marinated beef. The meat will become unusually aromatic. We hang it to let the marinade drain.
4. In the meantime, prepare a dough based on seasonings, wine, flour and salt (ingredients for coating). The consistency of the dough is slightly thicker than for pancakes. Spread the dough onto the meat so that the layer thickness is about 3 mm.
5. In a separate bowl, make a mixture of spices and salt. When the dough dries a little, but is still sticky, roll the dough.
6. Then we pierce it with a long hook or string it on culinary thread. Hang in a dry place with cool air. We gain patience and dry the meat for 2 weeks.
7. Now you can enjoy the magnificent spicy taste of basturma - the No. 1 hit!

Video recipe: classic basturma

You will probably find many variations in the preparation of basturma - from chicken breast, turkey, even pork. However, real Armenian basturma is made from beef. The classic video recipe is attached!

Oh, how I love everything salty, spicy and dried! And you don’t need any sweets or chocolate, just fish and salted pork. Almost everyone knows how to salt lard and dry fish, too. In search of something tasty, I decided to make basturma myself.

Basturma is dried meat, salty, spicy and incredibly tasty. Everything I like. If you are a lover of salted meat, then my new article will come in handy. I offer you several recipes for this delicacy. How to cook basturma at home read on, and also watch a video recipe for making dried chicken meat at home.

BASTURMA or how to cook dried meat

Fragrant basturma, cut into translucent slices or strips, is a real gourmet snack. A special mixture of herbs and spices gives the meat a lasting and incredibly special aroma. The taste and aroma of basturma is also enhanced by the fact that the meat is dried for long days and weeks in the sun.

Basturma is considered a national dish of Turkish, Caucasian and Central Asian cuisines.

Nowadays, real basturma can only be found on the shelves of the most expensive meat deli stores. In the old days, basturma was not an outlandish delicacy, but only a way to preserve meat supplies without refrigeration.

Drying beef or horse meat in spices has ancient roots. The very name “basturma” is of Turkic origin, coming from the word “basdirma”, which literally translates as “pressed, pressed meat”. When the Turks were still nomads, they ate exclusively horse meat, and in order to preserve the meat for a long time, pieces of meat were thickly greased with sea salt and placed in canvas bags.

The bags were hung on both sides of the saddle. When the rider sat on the horse, he pressed down the bags of meat with his feet, so the meat became flat and compressed. This was probably the most ancient way to preserve meat products during the hot season.

Many centuries later, basturma acquired a shell of hot spices; the pungent and pungent taste and aroma repelled insects and animals, so the meat was preserved even longer.

There are several rather interesting facts associated with basturma.

Even a very small portion of real basturma makes a person’s sweat even more pungent and odorous. Moreover, sweat acquires a persistent aroma of spices in which the meat was marinated, and it is impossible to overcome this smell even with the most persistent and expensive deodorants. Scientists have not yet figured out what causes this effect of basturma. Fortunately, the smell disappears on its own after 10-15 hours.

In the East, a relative of basturma is called sujuk - these are thin dried sausages made from minced beef with hot seasonings. By the way, sujuk is still sometimes prepared from horse meat.

Classic basturma is made from good beef tenderloin. Mostly the middle edge is taken, but the thick one can also be used. The most important thing is that the piece itself is voluminous and thick. When drying, the meat dries out and loses almost half of its original weight. All the liquid evaporates, and if the piece was from the wrong edge, then the delicacy will turn out to be very small.

BASTURMA recipes

Dried beef basturma recipe

Ingredients:

• beef - tenderloin
• chilli
• garlic

Cooking method:

1. Wash the tenderloin and dry with a towel. Please note that the meat for basturma should not be too thin. Otherwise, you won’t end up with basturma, but something resembling a “sole.”
2. Season the meat with salt. Leave at room temperature for 10-15 minutes. Then clean off all excess salt.
3. Place the meat in a deep bowl and place a weight on top. Place in the refrigerator for a day.
4. Then remove the pressure, wrap the meat in gauze and hang it to dry in a draft. The place for drying must be ventilated! Leave the meat to dry for 4-5 days.
5. Place garlic cloves, tween seeds and ground red pepper in a blend. Seasonings are all taken according to taste and desire, but so that in the end there is enough for all the meat. Grind all prepared ingredients in a blender.
6. Remove the basturma from the hook, remove the gauze.
7. Roll the meat in spices on all sides. You can rub it with your hands for better penetration.
8. Wrap each piece of basturma in foil and leave at room temperature for 4 days.
9. Before serving, peel off the spices and cut the delicacy meat into translucent slices.

Pork Basturma recipe

Ingredients:

• 1 kg lean pork tenderloin
• pepper
• turmeric
• coriander
• hot chili pepper

Cooking method:

1. Make a brine from 1 liter of water and 4 tbsp. l. salt.
2. Peel pork from films and cut out all fatty layers.
3. Place the meat in brine and refrigerate for two days.
4. Sprinkle the salted meat with spices.
5. Rub thoroughly with your hands.
6. Wrap the meat in gauze and hang it in a ventilated place for 2-4 days. Check the drying time yourself; if you like soft basturma, then after 2 days you can take a sample. But if you prefer truly dried meat, I recommend waiting 4-5 days. Believe me, it's worth it.

Basturma recipe from duck breasts

Ingredients:

• 500-600 gr. duck breasts
• 3 tbsp. l. ground cumin
• 6-8 garlic cloves, minced
• hot red pepper

Cooking method:

1. Clean the breasts from skin, films and fat. Wash and place in a bowl.
2. Sprinkle enough salt on the breasts so that the meat underneath is not visible at all.
3. Place the bowl of breasts in the refrigerator for three days.
4. Remove the salted meat and rinse with running water.
5. Cover the breasts with cold water and leave to soak for an hour or two.
6. Peel the garlic and grate it on a fine grater. Mix garlic with ground cumin, red and black pepper. Pour a little boiled water into the resulting mixture and stir until it reaches the consistency of liquid sour cream.
7. Pour the spice paste over the meat, stir, close the container with a lid and put it in the refrigerator for a day.
8. Then wrap the breasts in gauze and hang them on the balcony or in another ventilated room for 5-10 days. It turns out to be a very tasty dish. One is bad, eaten in one sitting. My advice is to make several servings at once, you will thank you later when you try it.

• Basturma can and should be prepared from different types of meat. Try making basturma from beef, pork, turkey, duck, chicken and decide which one you like best. The tastiest thing to my taste is the beef and duck basturma; my son and husband liked the pork basturma, and my mother liked the chicken basturma. Conclusion, everyone has different tastes, and basturma made from any meat is a delicacy.
• Select spices for basturma to your taste. Various peppers, garlic, dry mustard and cumin go well together in basturma made from any meat. There are recipes for basturma with coriander, cumin, hops and even juniper. The taste of such basturma is unusual and is not for everyone; you need to try and make a small portion with strong-smelling spices so as not to spoil a large piece of good meat.
• Be sure to hang the basturma in a draft to dry out. You cannot dry basturma in a room with closed windows, as you risk it falling off.

Have you tried making homemade basturma? I look forward to your recipes and reviews!

Basturma is one of the most delicious dishes of Armenian cuisine. However, many professional chefs argue about this: the Turks, for example, claim that it was in their country that they began to cook meat using this technology. But be that as it may, for us basturma remains aromatic dried meat with seasonings and spices. It is traditionally cut into very thin pieces and served as a cold appetizer. In stores, such a delicacy is obscenely expensive, so we suggest preparing it in your kitchen. Be patient: you will have to wait at least two weeks.

This snack is prepared using the salting and drying method. It is best to buy meat from a young animal for this purpose. The classic recipe uses beef, but there are quite tasty options with horse meat, lamb, pork and even chicken.

A variety of spices are used for beef basturma, ranging from ground red pepper, hop-suneli, savory, and ending with garlic, coriander and paprika. It is customary to mix it in one container, then add water (wine or cognac). The thickness of the resulting mass should be like sour cream. Slices of meat should be rolled in this mixture and then left for two to three weeks. That's all from theory: let's move on to practice.

Option 1

Cooking beef basturma in Armenian style

How long to prepare: three days

How many servings will it make: for five to seven people.

Calorie content: 150 kcal per hundred grams of product.

When to Serve: Great for a holiday appetizer.

Which cuisine does it belong to: Eastern (Armenian, Turkish).

Let us immediately emphasize that preparing basturma is by no means a quick process: before serving the dish to the table, you will have to wait for it for about two weeks. In addition to the recipe below: Eastern cooks advise adding juniper berries to the mixture of spices used.

You will need:

• four cloves of garlic;
• one hundred grams of salt;
• two tea spoons of sugar;
• seven hundred grams of beef tenderloin;
• one chili pepper;
• two bay leaves;
• six tablespoons of chaman;
• one clove;
• half a teaspoon of coriander seeds.

Let's start cooking:

Step 1. In order for the beef tenderloin to be perfectly soaked, it is advisable to cut it lengthwise into two halves (maybe into 7-8 medium-sized pieces: the main thing is that they are not too small). Then sprinkle the meat with salt (it is best to use coarse sea salt, it will make the basturma tastier).

Step 2. Now the pieces need to be rolled in two teaspoons of sugar, then covered with gauze and left for at least twelve hours in the refrigerator.

Step 3. After twelve hours, the meat must be turned over and left again for the same time. After this, rinse it under running cold water and dry with paper towels. The pieces again need to be wrapped in gauze and tied well with ropes. We put a press weighing about eleven kilograms on the future delicacy. We keep the product in this form for about twenty-four hours.

Step 4. Let's untie our meat “cocoons”. We take a deep container in which we combine all the above spices and garlic. In order for the garlic to impart its maximum flavor to the sauce, it is worth crushing it under pressure. Add water to the mixture and mix using a mixer or blender until the mass is as homogeneous as possible.

Step 5. Carefully coat the beef with our spicy sauce and leave it in the refrigerator to soak for three hours. We repeat the same thing twice.

Step 6. The final stage: we tie the basturma on a thread in a place that is well ventilated. In suitable weather, this is most often done on the balcony. We leave it for fourteen days, and after this period the dried beef using Armenian technology is ready - feel free to serve it!

Option 2

How to make homemade beef basturma: a classic recipe

How long to cook: sixteen days.

How many servings will it make: for seven to eight people.

What is the calorie content: 240 kcal per hundred grams of product.

Best time to serve: at the holiday table.

Which cuisine does it belong to: Eastern (Armenian, Turkish).

Degree of difficulty of preparation: medium.

You will need:

• two kilograms of beef tenderloin;
• one pack of dried garlic;
• one bag of ground black pepper;
• one pack of paprika;
• half a bag of chili pepper;
• salt (preferably sea salt);
• one pack of khmeli-suneli.

Let's start cooking:

Step 1. Take a deep pan, pour water into it and add sea salt. It is better to cut a piece of beef into several pieces (they should be elongated). Place the pan in the refrigerator for two days. To prevent the meat from floating in the water, it is better to press it down with something.

Step 2. After two days, the beef can be taken out. Place the pieces on the table and immediately place pressure on top. So the future basturma should lie all night.

Step 3. All the spices mentioned above need to be mixed together. Mix water and spices for beef basturma. You don’t have to add water, but wipe the pieces with a loose mixture. Then we make holes in the meat through which you can thread the rope.

Step 4. The final stage: wrap the delicacy in gauze (you can use cling film, it is only important that it fits tightly). We wrap the pieces with rope and hang them in a well-ventilated place. Ready!

Option 3

Alternative recipe: basturma with cognac

You will need:

Let's start cooking:

Step 1. Before cooking, be sure to rinse the piece of meat under cold running water. Make several cuts with a knife and wipe thoroughly with sea salt (you can use regular salt, but sea basturma tastes better). Leave in the refrigerator for two days.

Step 2. After two days, take it out of the refrigerator, wrap it in gauze and press it down with a weight. We put it in the refrigerator for another two days, and after that we hang it in a well-ventilated place for a week.

Step 3. Now let's start with the seasonings: choose a few of your favorite spices, mix them with chaman, then add a little water and cognac (or wine). We do not indicate proportions, since it is important to achieve the desired creamy consistency. Rub the resulting sauce onto our beef and hide it again for a week in a cold place. After this time, we take it out, wrap it in gauze and hang it in a ventilated place. You'll have to wait a long time, but the result is worth it!

You will find even more delicious and simple recipes in our regular

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Among the various meat delicacies, basturma stands out especially. If a person is not a principled vegetarian, from time to time he definitely allows himself to enjoy this wonderful dish. One problem: it is very, very expensive. In addition, the taste views of the consumer do not always coincide with the opinion of the manufacturer. And disappointment after taking a sample from a tasty morsel can be very painful. However, there is some comforting news: you can make delicious beef basturma at home! The recipe will require the cook to be patient. But the result will be exactly what the cook planned to get.

Step one: salting

In order to get the correct, at the same time tender and dense basturma, it is necessary to salt the meat first. There are two ways to do this.

First method. The beef is generously sprinkled with salt; you can even lay it on a bed of salt and pour a snowdrift on top. It won’t absorb excess meat, so you don’t have to worry about over-salting it. The container is covered and placed in a cool place. The recipe does not specify how long homemade beef basturma will be salted: the time greatly depends on the size of the pieces, the age of the slaughtered animal and the desired degree of salinity. Minimum - three days. But many last up to a week. The main rule is to remember to turn it over regularly.

Second method. The brine is prepared at the rate of two tablespoons of salt per liter of water. When cold, pour it over slices of meat, press it on top and also place it in a cool place. With this method, the beef is salted faster - after a day or two you can proceed to the next stage.
we recommend using the first option. The brine method is bad because the meat becomes loose after it. And the next steps in processing it will take more time.

Step two: drying

After the allotted time, the corned beef is removed from the salting container and carefully washed in running water. Left unremoved salt crystals will greatly spoil the meat: firstly, in some places it will be saltier, and secondly, it will be tough and dry. If for some reason running water is not available, the beef is soaked in a basin for about five hours with frequent changes of water in it.

After washing, the meat is blotted with napkins, wrapped in a clean hoe, placed between two boards (can be cutting boards) and pressed down with pressure. This procedure will allow you to squeeze out every drop of remaining water from the beef. The future basturma should lie under pressure for 2 to 4 days. Don't forget to change the napkin regularly.

Step three: drying

Any recipe for making beef basturma requires at least a week (and usually much longer) to dry the salted meat. To do this, it is rubbed with spices. Their choice may be individual; the most common is pepper. After this, a hole is made in the piece of future basturma, through which twine or a thick thread is pulled. The beef is wrapped in gauze (to prevent dust and insects from getting together) and hung in a secluded place. It has certain requirements:

1. The room should not be humid.
2. Basturma needs constant ventilation. So look for a corner where there is a draft.
3. The meat should not be exposed to the sun. In fact, it would be nice to keep it in a dark room, but not everyone has it. So at least shade the hanging delicacy.

The recipe suggests taking the dryness of the outer layer and the darkening of the meat in the middle as a signal that you have beef basturma that is already ready for consumption. This usually takes from 10 days to two weeks.

Important: chaman

If beef is your favorite, the recipe recommends using chaman. This is the name of the spicy mixture in which the drying should take place. To make it, dissolve a glass of fenugreek in a glass of warm water, add a spoonful of sugar, crushed garlic to taste, ground allspice, red and black pepper, chopped bay leaf and cumin (a spoonful). The mixture should be very thick and viscous. It is infused under a napkin for half a day, after which the beef is coated with chaman. Further steps are the same as when preparing other types of basturma. The only difference is that after three days of drying, the chaman needs to be scraped off and a new layer applied.

Secrets of basturma

Beef basturma at home: recipe with wine

Some people find this delicacy a bit harsh and dry. For them - an alternative way of preparing it. A kilogram of beef is divided into strips, generously rubbed with salt on all sides and hidden in a closed container in the refrigerator for five hours. Then the beef is dried from the liquid that has emerged, pricked in a couple of places with a fork, rubbed with salt again, only now mixed with red pepper, garlic and fenugreek, and returned to the salting vessel. The meat prepared in this way is poured with dry red wine so that it does not protrude anywhere - you will need about a liter and a quarter. There is oppression on top - and put it in the refrigerator for a week. After the basturma, it is dried, wrapped in cotton cloth - and loaded, in the refrigerator, for another couple of days. Next, it is suspended for four days in a suitable place for initial withering. And finally, it is coated with a mixture of black pepper, salt and flour, taken one spoon at a time and stirred in half a glass of wine. You can also add coriander and cumin. After ten days of drying, you can try.