Smoked meat
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For the general process, see Smoked food.
Smoked meat is a way of preparing cured meats which originated in Central Europe and is often associated with Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It can be served on the plate or as a smoked meat sandwich.
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[edit] General
Smoked meat, also known as salt beef in London, is cured, spiced, and flavoured in ways similar to corned beef and, especially, pastrami. Difference in meat cut and spicing mean that smoked meat's taste is different from either of these, and even varies from recipe to recipe. Because smoked meat is said to originate in Eastern Ashkenazi Jewish communities, it is often associated with other foods popularized by those communities, such as bagels.
[edit] Montreal
Along with bagels, smoked meat has been popular in Montreal since at least the 1920s, and has taken such strong root in that city that many Montrealers, and even many non-Montrealers, identify it as emblematic of the city's cuisine. Current and former residents and tourists make a point of visiting Montreal's best-known smoked meat establishments (Schwartz's, Ben's, Dunn's, the Main Deli, Lester's, Jarry Smoked Meat, Reuben's, Smoke Meat Pete, and the Snowdon Deli), even taking briskets away as provisions. Despite the food's origins in and association with Montreal's Jewish community, and contrary to what is sometimes asserted, none of these delis are able to sell food that is kosher.
Beyond the delis listed here, smoked meat (French: "sandwich à la viande fumée" or "smoked-meat"[1])is offered in many Montreal diners and fast food chains. As it has moved beyond its traditional clientele and into the majority French-Canadian component of Quebec society, smoked meat has been integrated into other popular but less-than-healthy dishes, yielding such concoctions as "smoked meat poutine". Smoked meat can similarly be found across Canada, although aficionados of Montreal's smoked meat claim that nowhere else can it be obtained in its tastiest or even in "true" form. Particularly given the migration to Toronto of a subtantial portion of the Montreal Ashkenazi Jewish community in which Montreal's smoked meat has its origins, however, the premise that Canada's other cities lack the cultural background to create good smoked meat appears dubious. Several restaurateurs have, however, offered to franchise Schwartz's, nail for nail, in cities across North America. Its owners have always refused -- but do deliver mail-order.
[edit] Luxembourg
Among the most typical dishes in Luxembourg's traditional cuisine is Judd mat Gaardbounen, which is smoked neck of pork with broadbeans. Although this dish is not generally referred to as "smoked meat", it is notable that the word which refers to the smoked neck of pork, Judd, is also the Luxembourgish word for "Jew" -- underlying the association of that form of curing meat with the Jewish community. It is ironic that the actual food cured in this manner is pork, whose eating is forbidden to Jews.
