Is that pastrami, or is it smoked meat? We went on a mission to find the difference. In the Jewish deli world, pastrami is king. Except for where it’s not.
Take a trip to Canada, particularly Montreal, and you’ll find a whole different animal: smoked meat.
Sure, it looks a lot like pastrami, and it tastes pretty similar, and the general recipe of cured, smoked, and steamed fatty beef is more or less the same. But go ahead, tell that to the Jewish deli cognoscenti. See how that goes over.
What exactly are pastrami and smoked meat? Should one of them win the North American deli crown? And what makes them different?
I spoke with Eater’s Robert Sietsema, who in 2009 wrote an article for Gourmet about the war of the rosy meats. “Good luck!” he said of the assignment, before describing smoked meat as “darker red, greasier, and less smoky.” The catch? His visit to Schwartz’s, Montreal’s most famous smoked meat slinger, where he found the smoked meat “smokier and richer” than New York pastrami.
