Armenian · Starter
Basturma
- Advanced
- 40 min
- roughly 3 of 4 for cost
Leads with an earthy, grounding base, warm spice humming through the middle, opening aromatic and staying there.
Ingredients
- 1 kg beef eye of round, trimmed of all silverskin
- 600 g coarse non-iodised sea salt
- 100 g ground fenugreek
- 400 ml cold water
- 60 g garlic, crushed to a paste
- 60 g sweet paprika
- 20 g ground cumin
- 10 g ground allspice
- 5 g hot paprika
- 10 g fine salt
Equipment
Sheet pan
The skills inside
Resting meat & slicing against the grain
Allergen screen
None found among the 14 screened.
Screened for: gluten, dairy, egg, nuts, peanuts, fish, shellfish, molluscs, soy, sesame, celery, mustard, lupin, alcohol. Not screened: sulphites.
Screened by keyword from the ingredient list, not reviewed by a person; check every label for what the list cannot show.
Method
- Bury the beef in the coarse salt in a non-reactive tray, refrigerate and turn it daily until it is stiff to the thumb all through, 4 to 5 days.
- Rinse the salt away, soak 2 hours in cold water, pat dry, then press the meat flat between boards under a 3 kg weight in the fridge for 24 hours. 120 min
- Hang it in a cool draught, around 12C (54F), until dark, firm and about 40 percent lighter than its trimmed weight, 10 to 14 days.
- Stir the ground fenugreek into the water and leave it overnight: it should swell into a tacky paste that holds a ridge. Beat in the garlic, both paprikas, cumin, allspice and fine salt.
- Jacket the meat all over in a layer 3 mm thick and hang it again until the crust is dry to the knuckle and taps hard, about 1 week.
- Slice paper thin across the grain with a long knife held at a slant.
How to tell it is going right
This dish has no standard of its own yet. It is judged on the technique it exercises: checked at the pan, while there is still something to be done about it.
Resting meat & slicing against the grain 56 recipes
- It came off the heat BEFORE the target temperature, measured with a probe rather than by time, because carryover keeps driving the inside up after it is out.
- The probe went into the coldest likely part rather than the easiest one to reach: the reading that matters is the lowest one, not the first one.
- Rested for a time matched to its size, somewhere warm, and not cut into partway through to see how it is doing.
- The board is nearly dry when it is finally cut. A spreading pool means it was cut too early, and that liquid should have stayed inside.
- The grain was found and the knife went ACROSS it, so the fibres are cut short, and the blade was sharp enough that the slices hold together rather than tearing.
Where it goes wrong It was cut straight off the heat, usually because everything else was ready. The muscle is still contracted and the juice still driven to the centre, so it runs out onto the board; the meat is drier than it ever needed to be, and the flavour that left it is sitting in a puddle under the knife.
At the Table
- The Pour
- Cabernet Sauvignon or Malbec
- Also Right
- Tempranillo (Rioja Reserva)
- From the Taps
- Amber ale
- Zero-Proof
- Sparkling water, make room
Tannin binds to seared protein and fat: each bite softens the wine, each sip resets the palate: the steakhouse equation.
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