What Is Bastourma and How Do You Eat It?
Bastourma (also spelled basturma, basterma or pastirma) is a cured, air-dried beef prized across the Middle East, Armenia, Turkey and the Mediterranean. Wrapped in a fragrant spice crust and sliced wafer-thin, it's intensely savoury — the kind of delicacy people fall for at first bite.
What is bastourma?
Bastourma is made by salt-curing beef — traditionally the tenderloin — then pressing and air-drying it, and finally coating it in chemen: a thick paste of ground fenugreek, garlic, paprika and cumin. The result is firm, deep red and richly spiced. Think of it as a drier, more aromatic cousin of pastrami, to which it's historically related.
What does it taste like?
Savoury and concentrated, with warmth from the paprika and a slightly bitter, maple-like note from the fenugreek. Because the flavour is so strong, it's always served thinly sliced.
How to eat bastourma
- On a mezze or charcuterie board, thinly sliced
- Pan-fried with eggs — a classic Armenian and Lebanese breakfast (“basterma and eggs”)
- In sandwiches and wraps with tomato, pickles and flatbread
- Chopped into rice, beans, or savoury pastries and fatayer
- Alongside cheese, olives and fresh Lebanese bread
How to store it
Keep bastourma refrigerated and tightly wrapped. The spice crust is edible — leave it on. A little goes a long way, so a small amount stretches across several dishes.
Buy bastourma in Sydney
We stock sliced bastourma, ready to enjoy (a refrigerated item, available for in-store pickup in Artarmon). Explore more Middle Eastern favourites in our international foods range.
Hero photo by E4024, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons.