Greek Pastourmas

I have never eaten pastourmas until a few days ago. Even my Greek husband has never eaten it and did not even know what it was like.

Pastourmas is a sort of ham of Turkish origin and its varieties are eaten everywhere in ex-Ottoman countries and in neighbouring countries. It is basically a dried meat coated with spice paste.

Here is 200 grammes of pastourmas.



You can find it even in humble supermarkets, so I presume that it is a common food in Greece, but you hardly see it in restaurants.

Can you see the red rind around the meat? It is the spice paste.



It was not as stinky as I suspected, but it did have a very strong flavour, saltiness and spiciness. It was in fact too strong to eat on its own, and I combined it with melon, as many do with Italian prosciutto crudo. Hubby, who has children's taste buds - was not particularly keen on it.

I bought also some beef sausages.



I have not tried them yet. The seller told me that I could grill them.



90% of contents are beef and they look rather dry. I will tell you how they are, when I eat them.