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Meat from Türkiye

Pastırma (Kayseri pastırması, Erzurum pastırması)pastırma

Large cuts of beef are slit, packed with nitrite curing salt, washed, pressed flat and air-dried, then coated in çemen, a paste of fenugreek, garlic, red pepper and cumin, and dried again. It is mainly a salt-and-drying cure; staphylococci and lactic bacteria grow in the meat but there is no deliberate sour stage.

Fully documentedMeat14 days – 21 days

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceAmounts are for one tonne of meat in the Kayseri Pastırması geographical indication (registration no. 36, amended 2022).
Beef from the back, leg and shoulder of healthy male cattle aged 2–5 years and at least 250 kg1 tonne[kayseri]
Nitrite curing salt (5 g nitrite per kg salt), known as "karıncabaş"60–80 kg[kayseri]
Wet çemen paste15 % of the meat weight45 % fenugreek–vetch–wheat flour (30 % fenugreek seed flour, 30 % vetch, 40 % wheat), 5 % spice (1.5 % sweet and 1.5 % hot red pepper, 2 % cumin), 5 % garlic, 45 % water; ice instead of water in summer to prevent souring[kayseri]
Starterspontaneous

Total time across the recorded steps: 14 days – 21 days

Start
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What changes: Slits cut at 45° are packed full of nitrite curing salt

Step 1 of 9
Cut slits at 45° (şaklama) and fill with curing salt
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Staphylococcus xylosus

Nitrite salt fixes colour and flavour and holds back pathogens, above all Clostridium botulinum, and rancidity. Output: slit beef packed with curing salt.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

At a glance

Large cuts of beef are slit, packed with nitrite curing salt, washed, pressed flat and air-dried, then coated in çemen, a paste of fenugreek, garlic, red pepper and cumin, and dried again. It is mainly a salt-and-drying cure; staphylococci and lactic bacteria grow in the meat but there is no deliberate sour stage. Made in 9 steps over 14 days – 21 days. The longest step, hang to drain, takes 5–7 days (TÜRKPATENT 2002). Salt is 6–8 % (TÜRKPATENT 2002). Coagulase-negative staphylococci (Staphylococcus xylosus, S. equorum and S. vitulinus were isolated from pastırma), the predominant group in pastırma does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step5–7 daysSet[kayseri]Hang to drain
Temperature0–30 °CSet[kayseri]Air-dry
Salt6–8 %Set[kayseri]Salt in chrome tubs

What makes this one different

Pastırma is slit and packed with curing salt, pressed flat twice and finished in a thick çemen paste of fenugreek, garlic, red pepper and cumin. It is cured and dried rather than soured.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Erzurum pastırmasıRib-eye, sirloin and leg of cattle fed naturally on Erzurum's high pastures; per 100 kg of product 115–125 kg meat, 9.5–12.5 kg salt, 7–12.5 kg çemen and 50 mg/kg sodium nitrite. Two salting rounds (24–48 h, then 12–24 h), çemen-drying 8 days at 20 ± 1 °C and 70 ± 2 % humidity; pH 4.5–5.8, salt at most 7 % of dry matter, in three grades with çemen at most 6, 8 or 10 %.

Safety

Nitrite curing salt is used to hold back Clostridium botulinum and other pathogens. The Kayseri rule says finished pastırma can be kept 3–4 months at 0–4 °C. Staphylococcus aureus, including MRSA with enterotoxin genes, was found in 9 % of samples along the production chain. Pastırma is raw beef that is salted and dried, not cooked. The curing salt in this rule holds 5 g of nitrite per kg (0.5 %). Never use a stronger cure mix at the same rate. A mix of 6.25 % sodium nitrite at 60–80 kg per tonne would apply about 3,750–5,000 mg of nitrite per kg of meat, and the US CDC warns that nitrite poisoning can be fatal.

Hazards the sources name: Staphylococcus aureus, including MRSA with enterotoxin genes (9 % of 400 production-chain samples); Clostridium botulinum (the specification uses nitrite curing salt to hold it back).

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

Kayseri pastırması was registered as a Turkish geographical indication (no. 36) in 2002. It appears in Evliya Çelebi's Seyahatname and other historical documents.

  1. [kayseri] TÜRKPATENT, Kayseri Pastırması, Mahreç İşareti no. 36 (registered 25.06.2002, amended 01.09.2022, Bulletin 132)spec
  2. [erzurum] TÜRKPATENT, Erzurum Pastırması, Mahreç İşareti no. 1311spec
  3. [fettahoglu2023] Fettahoğlu K., Kaya M., Kaban G. 2023, Evaluation of autochthonous coagulase-negative staphylococci as starter cultures for the production of pastırma, Foods 12(15):2856paper
  4. [ertekin2024] Ertekin Ö., Kaban G., Kaya M. 2024, Genotypic diversity and antagonistic activities of enterococci isolated from pastırma, Journal of Food Science and Technologypaper
  5. [dincer2022] Dincer E., Kivanc M. 2022, Evaluation of metabolic activities and probiotic characteristics of two Latilactobacillus sakei strains isolated from pastırma, World Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnologypaper
  6. [gungor2021] Gungor C., Barel M., Dishan A. et al. 2021, From cattle to pastirma, contamination source of methicillin susceptible and resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) along the pastirma production chain, LWT 151:112130 (abstract)paper
  7. [cdc-nitrite2002] US CDC 2002, Methemoglobinemia following unintentional ingestion of sodium nitrite, New York, 2002, MMWR 51(29)gov
  8. [wisc-cure] University of Wisconsin–Madison Extension, Restricted ingredients calculations (curing salt at 6.25 % sodium nitrite)web