MealMap #74

A cured delicatessen meat, originally a way of keeping meat before refrigeration: the raw joint is brined, partly dried, rubbed heavily with herbs and spices, then smoked and steamed. Lamb is the classic — the earliest versions were made from young ram — though pork, mutton, goat, beef, goose and even fish get the same treatment today. It is eaten sliced cold, or thrown on a grill and served with a ball of cornmeal porridge. The name comes from a verb meaning "to keep" or "to preserve", and it is the direct ancestor of the pastrami that emigrants carried to New York's delis in the nineteenth century — the spelling drifted, probably to sound more like salami.

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