Beef basturma at home recipe with photos step by step

Due to the high cost of the product, not everyone can afford to enjoy the aromatic dried meat - basturma. But the price is not a reason to refuse the delicacy, because beef basturma can be easily and simply prepared at home.

The process is not complicated, but it will take a long time, so be patient. And believe me: the result will be worth your expectations.

Beef basturma at home - general principles of preparation

Basturma is prepared from fresh fillet meat by salting and drying. The beef is thoroughly washed, excess fat is trimmed, films and skins are removed and thoroughly dried. Rub the piece with salt and leave it to salt for a while, pressing down with pressure.

Then the drying process begins: a thick mass is made from a mixture of water and all kinds of spices, into which the prepared piece of beef is placed. They mainly use paprika, savory, hot ground pepper, coriander, suneli hops, and wine and cognac are often added to the brine instead of or along with water. The salted beef is rolled into the prepared mixture and sent to dry in the fresh air or in the refrigerator - depending on the recipe.

Beef basturma

Recipe No. 1

This beef fillet dish can be classified as a classic preparation, because this is how basturma was prepared back in ancient times.

The main products - meat, salt and spices are taken in the following proportions:

• 600 grams of beef pulp;
• Half a liter of red wine;
• 3 tablespoons salt;
• Spices: a teaspoon of chili pepper (ground), you will need chaman and sumac (also a teaspoon each), a couple of cloves of garlic, nut herb (1 tbsp.).

To roll the basturma a second time, you will need:

• Red wine - 100 ml;
• Salt and chamakh, a teaspoon each;
• Chili pepper and sumac - 2 teaspoons each;
• A little flour.

Prepare the marinade for the dish:

1. Add salt, nut herb, chopped or crushed garlic and all other spices to the wine;
2. Place the beef fillet in a container so that it is completely submerged in the marinade.

A press is placed on the fillet and sent to the cold.

After about a week, the salted meat needs to be rolled in spices again and “sent” to a dark, ventilated room, first wrapped in gauze. Here the basturma will “reach”.

For rolling, wine, salt, ground pepper, chaman and sumac, ground chili pepper, salt and flour are mixed a second time. By the way, you need to add enough flour to get a thick “mash”. Next you need to dip the beef in it.

You can go another way: soak the meat in wine, and then in order in all the indicated products.

Now it’s time for the meat to be ventilated in a room convenient for this, so that in three weeks you can taste the delicious basturma, having first cut it into thin strips.

Recipe No. 2

The flavor of the jerky in this recipe will be slightly different due to the addition of different spices.

Ingredients:

• A kilogram of beef;
• Liter of red wine (dry) +250 ml;
• 150 grams of flour;
• Salt, fenugreek, ground red pepper to taste;
• You can, if desired, add cumin, coriander, chopped garlic.

The cooking process at home looks like this:

1. Cut the beef into small portions, it can be up to 30 centimeters long;
2. Salt generously. Place in a glass container, cover and place in a cool place for 5-6 hours;
3. Then pat the meat dry with paper towels. Poke small holes in the pieces of beef with a fork;
4. Rub the meat with salt, pepper, add fenugreek and garlic;
5. Pour wine, put under pressure for 6-7 days;
6. Then pat all pieces of meat dry with a paper towel and wrap in clean cotton cloth. Place the meat on a tray or cutting board and add pressure on top.

After 2-3 days, when the meat is completely salted, you need to hang a “garland”: “stick” all the meat pieces on a strong thread. It will hang in this form for at least 3 weeks.

Beef basturma at home: an easy recipe

Ingredients:

• beef meat without bones and veins - 600 g;

• sea salt or regular coarse salt – 150 g;

• ground black pepper – 40 g;

• seasoning for meat – 30 g.

Cooking method:

1. Wash the meat, cut off all the veins, dry the piece with paper napkins.

2. Rub the beef with salt and leave to soak for 2 days.

3. Wrap the salted piece of meat again in paper towels to dry.

4. Place the dried meat on cheesecloth, sprinkle with meat seasoning, wrap it well, and tie the ends tightly with a rope. Leave for another 2 days.

5. Thinly slice the finished basturma and serve as a snack.

Armenian basturma

A kilogram of tenderloin without fat, taken from a beef carcass, is cut along the grain into small pieces. They are placed in rows in deep dishes and sprinkled with salt, crushed laurel and ground black pepper.

The meat is covered with a cloth and left for 2 days. After this time, the pieces are transferred and left again for 2 days. The top layer of meat should be at the bottom and the bottom at the top.

After this, the pieces are washed with cold water and dried. Wrap the dried workpiece in cloth, press down with a weight and leave for 5 hours. After changing the fabric, the meat is kept under pressure for another 12 hours.

After pressing, the pieces are tied with twine and hung in a ventilated area to dry for 12 hours.

Dry meat is rolled in a prepared mixture of spices and salt, diluted with cool boiled water (if desired, water can be replaced with homemade red wine) to the consistency of sour cream, and the aromatic pieces of meat are hung for 4 days.

The coating and drying procedure is repeated twice more.

Basturma, the recipe for which is given above, must be dry (with a minimum amount of moisture) and covered with a mixture consisting of:

• garlic;
• salt;
• chamana;
• ground red pepper.

Beef basturma - step-by-step instructions with photos

1. Beef basturma is the most affordable and successful version of this snack. Be careful when choosing meat - the flesh should be without streaks, soft and very fresh, tenderloin is best. You can also use the loin or the inside of the leg. Make sure that it is smooth and well cleaned - without connective tissue and tendons. For basturma, choose beef rather than veal. It is more mature, red and aromatic. Another important point is that the meat must be fresh, and in no case frozen.
2. The duration of cooking is due to the fact that the meat is first salted, then kept in spices and dried. These processes require patience.
3. The thicker the piece of meat you choose, the longer it will take to dry. Therefore, it is advisable to take a piece approximately 4-5 cm wide. You can cut it like sausage, but you won’t have to wait that long.

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For drying, it is important that the temperature is low - about 5-8 degrees.

Cooking time: two to four weeks

Ingredients:

• Beef (tenderloin) – 1 kg
• Table salt – 1 pack
• Ground paprika – 3 tbsp.
• Ground coriander – 3 tbsp.
• Cumin – 3 tbsp.
• Chili pepper, ground – 3 tbsp.
• Chaman (aka fenugreek) – half a glass
• Water – 50 ml

Seasonings for elk basturma

A dish made from such meat turns out to be salty, spicy and very tasty. The quantity and type of seasonings can be adjusted independently. For 0.5 kg of elk meat, approximately the following is required: turmeric – 1 tsp; dried garlic – 1 tbsp; cayenne pepper – 0.5 tsp; red pepper – 2 tbsp.

1. When the meat is salted and ready for the next stage of cooking, prepare all the spices - grind them in a coffee grinder.
2. Rub the prepared mixture onto the meat on all sides, hang it to dry in a dry, ventilated place for 5-7 days.

"Attention!" The calorie content of fenugreek is 320 kcal/100 g. The same amount of seasoning contains B/F/U - 25/6.5/58.4 g.

How to select and store basturma

If you decide to purchase a ready-made tenderloin rather than making it yourself, you need to take a responsible approach to its choice. Preference should be given to a product that is sold in vacuum packaging, this guarantees its quality and compliance with storage conditions. Also, through such packaging you can clearly see the cut of the dish. It should have a uniform dark red color, even closer to brown. There should be no unnecessary colored inclusions on the cut.

should not contain The recipe for classic beef basturma includes only tenderloin, spices and salt. To the touch, the tenderloin should have an elastic, dense consistency.

An ideal dish is one that is stored in a shell of herbs and spices , as in the photo:

The product has a pleasant spicy smell. If you feel musty, it is better to refuse to purchase such a product.

When storing basturma, it is very picky about high temperatures; it needs to be stored in a cool place. Those people who prepare the dish themselves at home note that it is not recommended to store it in the freezer or refrigerator. The product is stored in a place with good ventilation in a container without a lid; it can only be covered with a cloth.

The shelf life of the product varies from 2 months to six months under proper storage conditions. It depends on the meat from which the basturma is made, and on the amount of spices and salt used in the cooking process.

You can only store small pieces of basturma in the refrigerator, which will be eaten in the next few days. Then you need to wrap it in cling film or a plastic bag.

Basturma at home - how to cook?

1. Preparing the meat for salting. Cut the tenderloin or fillet into pieces of 400-500 grams. Cut across the grain, not lengthwise. Try to choose an even cut so that when slicing, you get pieces of equal thickness and weight. Then the cooking time for them will also be the same.
2. The first process, brining, aims to dehydrate the meat. Some recipes advise piercing the fillet with a sharp knife to drain the blood and juice. This will speed up ripening a little.
3. So, take a ceramic or glass container into which the meat can easily fall. Pour in coarse crystalline salt and level it. We create a “beach” for beef; it should be at least half a centimeter. You can use any salt, table salt, not iodized.
4. We lay the fillet on the salt, it is important that it is smooth, not crushed and without creases. Otherwise it will remain that way.
5. Add salt so that the meat is not visible at all. It’s good if the top “salt crust” is also at least half a centimeter in height. The purpose of salt is to draw out all the moisture from the basturma. Therefore, it will become soggy as the beef dehydrates.
6. Everything should sit for three days. Every day, for example in the morning, remove the salt (scrape it off with a knife) and add a new portion. This is done to ensure that relative dryness is maintained and no brine appears. Otherwise, the dish may be too salty.
7. After three days of drying, the meat will noticeably darken and harden. It needs to be washed, all crystals removed and dried. You can immediately thread stainless steel wire or natural fiber ropes for hanging. As an option, use plastic puffs.
8. To ensure that the shape is even and beautiful, place the meat under a press. To do this, wrap the bars in cotton or linen cloth and press down with a weighted cutting board. This could be a five-liter bottle of water or a special press. Any heavy sports equipment will also help greatly.
9. It is important to check the fabric - it may need to be changed to dry every few hours. One day under pressure will be enough. Put everything in the refrigerator or, if it’s the cold season, on the balcony.
10. For the next three to four days, the beef should be dried in a well-ventilated area at a temperature of 20-24 degrees. Make a small drying box out of mosquito net or gauze. This way you will protect the product from midges, but will not block the air supply. Avoid direct sunlight

The next stage is a spread of spices. It is important to prepare it in the evening so that all the ingredients are well combined and infused. The main ingredient is chaman or fenugreek. It is used in India, Pakistan, the Caucasus and Central Asia. The spice belongs to the legume family, has a strong aroma and is used as a preservative.

Preparing the pasta:

1. mix fenugreek, paprika, ground peppers, dry or fresh garlic, coriander, cumin, suneli hops and dry dill. In order for the paste to be spreadable, dilute the spices with boiled water. We introduce water in portions. If you're worried that you've added a lot of water, add a couple of tablespoons of wholemeal flour. Lastly, add vegetable oil (literally a spoon or two) for elasticity and a solid crust in the end.
2. Tip: if you want a richer taste, replace the water with dry red wine.
3. Coat the dried meat with spices in an even, not very thick layer (otherwise, when it dries, it may simply fall off). Let it hang on the balcony for a day, the crust will dry out, and the beef will absorb the spices.
4. After a day, you can coat it again if you want a thick crust. Rub the resulting cracks with a wet finger.
5. Leave it like this for 3-5 days. On the third day, check the elasticity of the basturma - if it looks like dry-cured sausage, then you can move on to the final stage.
6. Wrap the product in cotton or linen cloth and leave for a week in a cool, ventilated place. Let the beef mature and you will enjoy the wonderful taste of homemade basturma.

The homemade delicacy can be stored for up to 3 months at a temperature of 5-10 degrees.

Pork basturma

If you want to taste a self-prepared delicacy as soon as possible, then you need to cook it from pork.

You will need:

• pork – 1 kg,
• garlic – 2 heads,
• chaman - to taste,
• ground black pepper - to taste,
• ground red pepper - to taste,
• salt - to taste.

Cooking method

• We wash a suitable piece of meat. Dry with napkins.
• Rub the meat with a mixture of peppers, garlic passed through a press and chaman.
• Place the meat in a deep bowl. Sprinkle generously with salt.
• Place the meat in the refrigerator to harden for 5 days.
• Place the salted meat in a clean bowl and fill with cold water. We put it under pressure. Leave it for two days.
• Dry the soaked meat. Rub again with salt, a mixture of peppers, don’t forget about the garlic (it needs to be put through a press) and chaman. We leave the meat at room temperature, it is advisable to hang it in a well-ventilated area. After just 4 days, you can invite your friends to visit and treat them to delicious basturma.