Pastirma substitute

Best substitute

Bresaola

Use the same amount as the pastirma you are replacing

Best for pastirmali yumurta and eggs

Close match

Bresaola is the closest substitute at 1:1, since it is the same idea without the spice crust; smear the slices thinly with a paste of 1 teaspoon fenugreek powder, 1 teaspoon paprika and 1 grated garlic clove loosened with water, and you are very close. Prosciutto or speck works at 1:1 if you only need paper-thin salty cured meat. Deli pastrami is not the same thing at all, being wet-cured and moist, though patted dry and crisped in a pan it will do at a push.

Other pastirma substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Basturma from a Middle Eastern Grocer
Close match
Use the same amount
Not really a substitute so much as the same product under a different name.
What changes
Armenian, Lebanese, Syrian and Egyptian shops sell basturma or bastirma, complete with the fenugreek crust.
Best for
all pastirma uses, eggs, bean dishes, sandwiches, meze
Regional versions vary in intensity: Armenian and Levantine basturma is often more heavily spiced and more garlicky than Turkish pastirma, and Egyptian versions can be quite hot from added chile. Buy it sliced at the counter if you can, since slicing a dense slab thinly at home is genuinely difficult without a machine. This is the substitution to make if there is any Middle Eastern shop near you.
3Prosciutto or Speck
Different taste
Use the same amount
The most available paper-thin dry-cured meat in any supermarket, and it does the same structural job: it melts into hot eggs or a bean stew and leaves salt and cured savour behind.
What changes
Best for
eggs, pide and flatbreads, bean dishes, wrapping vegetables, meze plates
It is pork rather than beef, so it is sweeter, fattier and more delicate, and there is no fenugreek or garlic crust at all, which means the dish loses the aroma that makes pastirma recognisable. Speck, being lightly smoked, gets a little closer to pastirma's intensity. Add the fenugreek and paprika paste described above if you want the aroma. Not suitable for halal or kosher cooking.
4Biltong, sliced thin
Taste and texture differ
Use the same amount
Air-dried spiced beef from South Africa, and the closest thing to pastirma in terms of process: salted, spiced and dried rather than cooked or smoked.
What changes
Best for
eggs, bean dishes, snacking, crumbling over dishes
Biltong is seasoned with coriander, black pepper and vinegar rather than fenugreek and garlic, so it tastes tangier and more peppery, and it is usually dried harder so the texture is chewier and less silky than pastirma. Buy it sliced rather than in sticks, or shave it thin with a sharp knife. It softens well in hot eggs or stew, which is where its dryness matters least.
5Deli Pastrami
Taste and texture differ
Use the same amount by weight
The most accessible option, and the one people assume is correct because of the name.
What changes
Patted dry and crisped in a dry pan, it will carry a dish, particularly with eggs.
Best for
eggs, sandwiches, quick weeknight fixes
Understand that this is a different food. Pastrami is wet-brined, coated in pepper and coriander, then smoked and steamed, so it is moist, tender, mild and smoky, where pastirma is dry, dense, intensely beefy and fenugreek-scented. In eggs it works reasonably; in kuru fasulye it dissolves into soft shreds and adds little. Pat the slices very dry and dry-fry them until the edges frizzle to concentrate the flavour.
6Air-Dried or Smoked Duck Breast
Different taste
Use the same amount
A deli option that shares pastirma's key qualities: cured, dense, deeply savoury, and sliced thin with a rim of fat that renders when warmed.
What changes
Best for
eggs, pide, meze plates, salads, bean dishes
The flavour is unmistakably duck, richer and gamier than beef, so it changes the dish rather than replacing the ingredient. The fat rim is an advantage in a pan, giving you something to fry the eggs in, which lean pastirma substitutes do not. Warm briefly and add it at the end, since prolonged heat makes it tough.
7Beef Jerky, finely chopped
Taste and texture differ
Use the same amount by weight
The least-bad last resort when nothing else is available and you need cured dried beef flavour in a bean dish or an omelette.
What changes
Best for
bean stews, long-cooked dishes, eggs at a push
Most jerky is sweetened and often smoked, sometimes heavily, so it can bring teriyaki or barbecue notes into a Turkish dish, which reads as a mistake. Choose the plainest, driest, least sweet jerky you can find, chop it finely rather than trying to slice it, and soak it in a little warm water or stock for ten minutes so it softens. It will never give you a thin translucent slice, so use it as a seasoning rather than a component.

What is Pastirma?

Pastirma is Pastirma, also spelled bastirma and known as basturma across the Middle East, is salt-cured, air-dried beef pressed into dense slabs and coated with cemen, a thick paste of ground fenugreek, garlic and paprika, then sliced paper-thin.

Cooking tips

Pastirma's job is concentrated salt and cured-beef umami, plus the fenugreek, garlic and paprika aroma of the cemen crust. That is why substitutes split into two groups: cured meats that get the salt and the texture right but need the spice paste added, and spiced products that get the aroma right but not the texture.
Warm it, do not fry it hard. Twenty to thirty seconds in a dry pan is enough to release the fat and the aroma; any longer and the slices curl into brittle chips and turn bitter. In pastirmali yumurta, lay the slices in the pan, crack the eggs straight on top and cover.
In bean dishes such as kuru fasulye, add pastirma or its substitute in the last five minutes rather than at the start. Long simmering leaches out the spice crust and leaves grey shreds, and you lose the aroma that was the whole reason for adding it.
The cemen crust is edible and is where much of the flavour lives, so do not scrape it off. If it feels overwhelmingly bitter, that usually means very heavy-handed fenugreek, and you can trim some of it away, but removing all of it leaves you with plain dried beef.
Do not attempt to make pastirma at home by improvising a cure. Dry-curing whole muscle depends on controlled salt levels, temperature and humidity over weeks, and guesswork is genuinely unsafe. Buy it from a Turkish or Middle Eastern butcher, or use bresaola with the spice paste, and if you do want to cure meat at home follow a tested recipe from a reliable authority without altering the salt or the timings.

Frequently asked questions

Can I just leave pastirma out?

In kuru fasulye or a mixed pide, yes, and you lose depth and saltiness but the dish still works, particularly if you add a little extra salt and a pinch of paprika. In pastirmali yumurta the meat is the dish, so omitting it gives you fried eggs. If you have no cured meat at all, bloom a quarter teaspoon of fenugreek powder and half a teaspoon of paprika with a crushed garlic clove in butter and cook the eggs in that, which captures a surprising amount of the aroma.

Is pastirma the same as pastrami?

No, and this is the confusion worth clearing up. They share a linguistic root but they are made differently and taste nothing alike. Pastirma is salt-cured beef, pressed and air-dried for weeks until dense and dry, then coated in a fenugreek and garlic paste and sliced paper-thin. Pastrami is beef brisket soaked in a wet brine, rubbed with pepper and coriander, smoked and then steamed until tender and juicy. Substituting pastrami for pastirma gives you a mild, moist, smoky result instead of an intense dry one.

What is cemen and do I have to make it?

Cemen is the reddish-brown paste smeared over pastirma before its final drying, made mainly from ground fenugreek seed with garlic, paprika and water. It is what gives pastirma its distinctive slightly bitter, curry-like aroma. If you are substituting with bresaola or prosciutto, a quick version, roughly 1 teaspoon fenugreek powder, 1 teaspoon paprika and 1 grated garlic clove loosened with water, smeared thinly on the slices, makes a big difference and takes two minutes.

Is pastirma eaten raw or cooked?

Both. It is fully cured, so it is served raw in paper-thin slices on meze and breakfast plates, and it is also warmed with eggs, baked onto pide or stirred into bean dishes. The important thing is that heat should be brief and gentle: cooking it hard drives off the fenugreek aroma and turns the slices tough and bitter, which defeats the purpose of using an expensive cured meat.

Where can I buy pastirma?

Turkish butchers and grocers stock it, and Armenian, Lebanese, Syrian and Egyptian shops sell the same product as basturma or bastirma, often at the deli counter where they will slice it for you. It is expensive by weight because a great deal of moisture is lost during drying, but you use very little, since it is served in almost transparent slices. If you cannot find either, bresaola from an Italian deli plus a homemade fenugreek paste is the best available answer.

Related substitutes

More meat & protein substitutes

Pastirma substitute

Other pastirma substitutes

2Basturma from a Middle Eastern Grocer

3Prosciutto or Speck

4Biltong, sliced thin

5Deli Pastrami

6Air-Dried or Smoked Duck Breast

7Beef Jerky, finely chopped