Basterma

The beef is salted, pressed under weight until the moisture is out, then hung to dry in open air. The dried piece is coated in chemen, a paste of ground fenugreek, garlic, red pepper and cumin. In Aleppo the product came out of Armenian kitchens, and the city now treats it as its own. Maqaneq is already on this site; basterma is the other half of the same counter.

Do you peel the crust

You do not. The crust is part of the recipe, not a wrapper. Fenugreek has a sharp smell and the heat comes from the pepper. Quality shows in two places — how thin the slice is cut, and how dark the crust is. A good shop cuts it nearly paper-thin. A thick slice tastes dry and salty, and that is the shop’s fault, not the meat’s.

How it is eaten

Three ways. Raw and thinly sliced on a mezze plate, with olives and pickles. Fried in a hot pan with eggs — the heavy end of an Aleppo breakfast, called bayd bi basterma. Or in bread, standing up. The smell is strong and stays with you for hours afterwards, which is where every joke about it comes from.

Why Aleppo has it

After 1915, Armenians who settled in Aleppo and the villages around it brought a family of cured meats with them: basterma, sujuk, maqaneq. Basterma became the best known of the three, and the city adopted it. Charcutiers in Jdeideh and the Armenian quarters still cure their own, and every shop mixes its chemen a little differently.

Where to buy it

If whole pieces hang in the window, the shop cures its own and will cut whatever weight you ask for. Sujuk and maqaneq hang beside it; the same hands make all three. It travels in a suitcase, but the smell spreads inside a closed bag, so ask for it vacuum-sealed.