A quick tour of the delicatessen where the recipes of a global diaspora come together to form a paradoxical spread of hedonistic abundance.
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 allthingsbbq | 2023-06-06 20:00:03 |  471,665 Views |
Pastrami vs. Corned Beef
Serious Mealtimes / Vicky Wasik
Despite its name the Jewish deli is for everyone. If there’s one thing it’s the heaping sandwich of pastrami or corned beef or brisket that helped Jews assimilate to the United States after the great migrations of the 19th and 20th centuries. The deli is where the children of immigrants became Americans where the recipes of a global diaspora inspired by necessity and tradition converged to create a paradoxical spread of hedonistic excess: foot-high stacks of meat bowls of pickles scoops of chopped chicken liver loaves of bread on puffy rye loaves.
It all began over two thousand years ago. As discussed by Ted Merwin in Pastrami on Rye the ancient Hebrews ate meat only after a ritual sacrifice to God when the fresh roast was served to the community as a sacred feast. They believed that consuming the blessed meat meant actually consuming joy (although priests warned that the available joy in the meat would diminish after about two days).
