In the Americas, Rabinovitch explains, Romanian cooks switched their pastramă meat from mutton or pork to beef. Kosher Jews, who made up the majority of Romanian immigrants, could not eat pork, and beef was much more readily available in the United States than it was in Eastern Europe, especially as the meat industry mechanized during the 20th century.
Sietsema agrees with this take but is quick to point out the historical problem: “What Jews brought with them from Romania bears no resemblance to pastrami. So how did they come up with pastrami? That’s a real mystery.”
The answer, he suspects, is the cross-cultural diffusion that so characterized Jewish ghettos in 19th century North America, where immigrants from a dozen European countries suddenly became neighbors. “There was a lot more swapping around of ideas between Jewish communities around the country and around the world than one might suspect.” Almost every culture in Europe smokes something—ham, cheese, beer—and any combination of them may be responsible for the smoked meat and pastrami we know today.
