Montreal-style smoked meat
Encyclopedia
Montreal-style smoked meat, Montreal smoked meat or simply smoked meat
Smoked meat
Smoked meat is a method of preparing red meat which originates in prehistory. Its purpose is to preserve these protein-rich foods, which would otherwise spoil quickly, for long periods. There are two mechanisms for this preservation: dehydration and the antibacterial properties of absorbed smoke...

in Montreal (French: viande fumée or du smoked meat), is a type of kosher-style deli
Deli
Deli may refer to:* Delicatessen, type of food - Delicacies; Fast food * Delhi, the capital of India* Deli, Eurovision Song Contest 2008 entry of Turkey* Deli , a previous sultanate at North Sumatra...

 meat product made by salting and curing beef brisket
Brisket
Brisket is a cut of meat from the breast or lower chest of beef or veal. The beef brisket is one of the eight beef primal cuts. The brisket muscles include the superficial and deep pectorals. As cattle do not have collar bones, these muscles support about 60% of the body weight of standing/moving...

 with spices. The brisket is allowed to absorb the flavours over a week, and is then hot smoked to cook through, and finally steamed to completion.

Although the preparation methods may be similar, Montreal smoked meat is cured in seasoning with more cracked peppercorn
Peppercorn
The original meaning of peppercorn is the fruit of black pepper.It may also refer to:* Peppercorn , a very small payment used to satisfy the requirements for the creation of a legal contractOther plants:*Peppercorn tree*Sichuan peppercorn...

s and aromatic spices, such as coriander
Coriander
Coriander is an annual herb in the family Apiaceae. Coriander is native to southern Europe and North Africa to southwestern Asia. It is a soft, hairless plant growing to tall. The leaves are variable in shape, broadly lobed at the base of the plant, and slender and feathery higher on the...

, and significantly less sugar than New York pastrami
Pastrami
Pastrami , is a popular delicatessen meat usually made from beef and, traditionally in Romania, also from pork and mutton. In Israel, "Pastrama" is the term used for sliced chicken and turkey. Like corned beef, pastrami was originally created as a way to preserve meat before modern refrigeration...

. The meat is typically served in the form of a rye bread
Rye bread
Rye bread is a type of bread made with various percentages of flour from rye grain. It can be light or dark in color, depending on the type of flour used and the addition of coloring agents, and is typically denser than bread made from wheat flour...

 sandwich
Sandwich
A sandwich is a food item, typically consisting of two or more slices of :bread with one or more fillings between them, or one slice of bread with a topping or toppings, commonly called an open sandwich. Sandwiches are a widely popular type of lunch food, typically taken to work or school, or...

 slathered with mustard
Mustard (condiment)
Mustard is a condiment made from the seeds of a mustard plant...

. While some Montreal smoked meat is brine-cured like corned beef
Corned beef
Corned beef is a type of salt-cured beef products present in many beef-eating cultures. The English term is used interchangeably in modernity to refer to three distinct types of cured beef:...

, with spices applied later, many smoked meat establishments prefer dry-curing directly with salt and spices.

History

The origins of Montreal smoked meat is uncertain and likely unresolvable. However, many have laid claims to the creation or introduction of smoked meat into Montreal. Regardless, all of these stories indicate the creators are of the Jewish Diaspora from Romania or Eastern Europe:
  • Some point to Ben Kravitz, who founded Bens De Luxe Delicatessen & Restaurant in 1910, as the introducer of Montreal smoked meat. According to the Kravitz family, he used a brisket-curing method he recalled being practised by Lithuanian farmers. His first smoked meat sandwiches were made and sold from his wife's fruit and candy store.
  • According to Eiran Harris, a Montreal historian, Herman Rees Roth from New York may have created the first smoked meat sandwich in 1908, selling them from his deli, the British American Delicatessen Store.
  • In another claim by Bill Brownstein, the smoked meat was brought over in 1902 by Itzak Rudman, who was an accomplished salami and smoked meat maker selling his wares on Buillon Street (formerly Cadieux Street).
  • In yet another possibility, a butcher by the name of Aaron Sanft who arrived from Iași
    Iasi
    Iași is the second most populous city and a municipality in Romania. Located in the historical Moldavia region, Iași has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Romanian social, cultural, academic and artistic life...

    , Romania in 1884 founded Montreal's first kosher butchershop and likely made smoked meat in the Romanian style similar to pastırma
    Pastirma
    Pastirma or bastirma is a highly seasoned, air-dried cured beef in the cuisines of the former Ottoman countries.-Etymology:The name bastirma is from . bastırma is the gerund of the verb bastırmak , which means "to depress, restrain"...

    .

Serving

Warm Montreal smoked meat is always sliced by hand to maintain its form, since doing so with a meat slicer
Meat slicer
A meat slicer, also called a slicing machine, deli slicer or simply a slicer, is a tool used in butcher shops and delicatessens to slice meats and cheeses. The first meat slicer was invented by Wilhelm van Berkel in Rotterdam in 1898...

 would cause the tender meat to disintegrate. Whole briskets are kept steaming and sliced up on demand when ordered in the restaurant to maintain its temperature. Unspecialized restaurants outside Montreal typically do not have the volume of smoked meat customers to justify this practice, and usually only have cold presliced meat on hand, reheated when a customer orders one sandwich. Good delis in Canada pride themselves in serving traditional smoked meat - cured, smoked and sliced by hand. The meat should be around 3 mm thick, cut slightly on a bias, and across the grain of the brisket.

Even when hand-cut, Montreal smoked meat produces a lot of broken bits when sliced. These pieces are gathered together and commonly served with French fries
French fries
French fries , chips, fries, or French-fried potatoes are strips of deep-fried potato. North Americans tend to refer to any pieces of deep-fried potatoes as fries or French fries, while in the United Kingdom, Australia, Ireland and New Zealand, long, thinly cut slices of deep-fried potatoes are...

, cheese curds
Cheese curds
Cheese curds in cuisine, or cooking, are the solid parts of soured milk either eaten alone or used in various regional dishes, mostly in Canada and the northeastern and midwestern United States...

, and gravy
Gravy
Gravy is a sauce made often from the juices that run naturally from meat or vegetables during cooking. In North America the term can refer to a wider variety of sauces and gravy is often thicker than in Britain...

 as smoked meat poutine
Poutine
Poutine is a Canadian dish of French fries and fresh cheese curds, covered with brown gravy or sauce. Sometimes additional ingredients are added.Poutine is a fast food dish that originated in Quebec and can now be found across Canada...

.

Montreal-style smoked meat sandwiches are built with seedless rye bread
Rye bread
Rye bread is a type of bread made with various percentages of flour from rye grain. It can be light or dark in color, depending on the type of flour used and the addition of coloring agents, and is typically denser than bread made from wheat flour...

 and piled with hand-sliced smoked meat about 2 inches high with yellow prepared mustard. The customer can specify the amount of fat in the smoked meat:
  • "Lean": The lean and less flavourful end. Healthful but dry.
  • "Medium" and "medium fat": The most popular cuts from the middle of the brisket. Occasionally, a sliced mix of lean and fat meats. Preferred by the renowned Canadian writer Mordecai Richler
    Mordecai Richler
    Mordecai Richler, CC was a Canadian Jewish author, screenwriter and essayist. A leading critic called him "the great shining star of his Canadian literary generation" and a pivotal figure in the country's history. His best known works are The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, Barney's Version,...

    .
  • "Old-Fashioned": Basically the cut which is in between Medium and Fatty and often cut a bit thicker.
  • "Fat": From the fat end of the brisket. Fires the fat taste receptors
    CD36
    CD36 is an integral membrane protein found on the surface of many cell types in vertebrate animals and is also known as FAT, SCARB3, GP88, glycoprotein IV and glycoprotein IIIb . CD36 is a member of the class B scavenger receptor family of cell surface proteins...

    , but may be an acquired taste.
  • "Speck": Consists solely of the spiced subcutaneous fat from the whole brisket without meat. An attributed cause of death for some of its connoisseurs.

Cultural identity

Along with bagels, smoked meat has been popular in Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...

 since the 19th century, and has taken such strong root in that city, many Montrealers, and even many non-Montrealers, identify it as emblematic of the city's cuisine. The location is also a veritable melting pot for Montreal where all cultures converge and people of disparate classes share tables when eating. Current and former residents and tourists make a point of visiting Montreal's best-known smoked meat establishments, even taking whole briskets away as take-out
Take-out
Take-out or takeout , carry-out , take-away , parcel , or tapau , is food purchased at a...

. So loved is smoked meat by native Montrealers that renowned Montreal writer Mordecai Richler
Mordecai Richler
Mordecai Richler, CC was a Canadian Jewish author, screenwriter and essayist. A leading critic called him "the great shining star of his Canadian literary generation" and a pivotal figure in the country's history. His best known works are The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, Barney's Version,...

 once jokingly described its flavour from Schwartz's in his novel Barney's Version, as a "maddening aphrodisiac" to be bottled and copyrighted as "Nectar of Judea".

Despite the food's origins in, and association with, Montreal's Jewish community, and contrary to what is sometimes asserted, these delis are not certified as kosher.

Availability

Smoked meat is offered in many diner
Diner
A diner, also spelled dinor in western Pennsylvania is a prefabricated restaurant building characteristic of North America, especially in the Midwest, in New York City, in Pennsylvania and in New Jersey, and in other areas of the Northeastern United States, although examples can be found throughout...

s and fast food
Fast food
Fast food is the term given to food that can be prepared and served very quickly. While any meal with low preparation time can be considered to be fast food, typically the term refers to food sold in a restaurant or store with preheated or precooked ingredients, and served to the customer in a...

 restaurant chains throughout Montreal, Quebec, and Canada. Smoked meat has become popularized beyond its Jewish origins into the general population of Quebec, where smoked meat has been integrated into popular dishes, such as, smoked meat poutine
Poutine
Poutine is a Canadian dish of French fries and fresh cheese curds, covered with brown gravy or sauce. Sometimes additional ingredients are added.Poutine is a fast food dish that originated in Quebec and can now be found across Canada...

or Québécois
French Canadian
French Canadian or Francophone Canadian, , generally refers to the descendents of French colonists who arrived in New France in the 17th and 18th centuries...

-style pizza
Pizza
Pizza is an oven-baked, flat, disc-shaped bread typically topped with a tomato sauce, cheese and various toppings.Originating in Italy, from the Neapolitan cuisine, the dish has become popular in many parts of the world. An establishment that makes and sells pizzas is called a "pizzeria"...

.

Two of Montreal's best known smoked meat delis include:
  • Bens De Luxe Delicatessen & Restaurant, opened 1908, closed in 2006
  • Schwartz's
    Schwartz's
    Schwartz's, also known as the Montreal Hebrew Delicatessen is a delicatessen established in 1928 by Reuben Schwartz, a Jewish immigrant from Romania. It is a landmark at 3895 Saint-Laurent Boulevard and the most famous Montreal-style smoked meat restaurant. Schwartz's often has a line extending...

    , since 1928


Some notable establishments in the Montreal area that produce or serve smoked meat include:
  • Abie's Smoked Meat
  • Casino de Montreal
  • Chenoy's
  • Dunn's
    Dunn's
    Dunn's Famous is a smoked meat restaurants chain founded in Montreal, Quebec, Canada in 1927 by Myer Dunn. The original location is one of the oldest delicatessen's in Montreal.There are currently nine locations, some of which are:...

    , since 1927
  • Georges Smoke Meat
  • Jay C's Express
  • Jarry Smoked Meat
  • Lester's Deli (note: unrelated to Lester's Foods Ltd.
    Lester's Foods Ltd.
    Lester's Foods Ltd. is a Canadian meat processor based in Laval, QC. Founded in 1931 by Eastern European immigrant Max Lester who sold meat products out of his deli in Montreal. The business continued under his sons Moe and Joe who opened a plant in 1964 to keep up with demand.The company's main...

    )
  • Main Deli
  • Pete's Smoke Meat (note spelling variant)
  • Reuben's Deli
  • St-Laurent Deli
  • Snowdon Deli

Smoked meat can similarly be found in the Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...

 area:
  • Caplansky's Deli
  • Centre Street Deli
  • Moe Pancer's Delicatessen
  • Shopsy's
    Shopsy's
    Shopsy's is the name of a delicatessen restaurant in the Greater Toronto Area and a brand name owned by Maple Leaf Foods for a line of meat products.-History:...

     of Toronto
    Toronto
    Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...

    , 1921
  • Druxy's

Similarly, smoked meat can be found as far afield as Burlington, Vermont
Burlington, Vermont
Burlington is the largest city in the U.S. state of Vermont and the shire town of Chittenden County. Burlington lies south of the U.S.-Canadian border and some south of Montreal....

 and Winnipeg, Manitoba. Many smoked meat connoisseurs claim it cannot be obtained in its tastiest, or most authentic form, outside of Montreal. Several restaurateurs have offered to franchise Schwartz's in cities across North America. Its owners, however, have always refused, but do deliver by mail order. Schwartz's also caters worldwide, but the cost of transporting the smoked meat and flying a counterman to serve at the catered located must be included in the catering.

The largest commercial producer of Montreal-style smoked meat is Lesters Foods Limited, which had its origins as a Jewish delicatessen in 1931 on the historic Saint Laurent Boulevard, also known as "the Main". Lesters Foods supplies Montreal smoked meat to many restaurants, delis and grocery stores throughout Canada. Montreal-style smoked meat can be found in the US, as Lesters does supply delicatessens in some US cities.

Montreal smoked meat can also now be purchased in Brooklyn, New York from Mile End deli, which was opened and is run by a Montreal native.

See also

  • Deli meat
  • Montreal-style bagel
    Montreal-style bagel
    The Montreal bagel, , is a distinctive variety of hand-made and wood-fired baked bagel. In contrast to the New York-style bagel, the Montreal bagel is smaller, sweeter and denser, with a larger hole, and is always baked in a wood-fired oven...

  • Reuben sandwich
    Reuben sandwich
    The Reuben sandwich is a hot sandwich of layered meat, sauerkraut and Swiss cheese, with a dressing. These are grilled between slices of rye bread. The meat is either corned beef or pastrami, and the dressing is either Russian or Thousand Island dressing...

  • New York-style pastrami
    Pastrami
    Pastrami , is a popular delicatessen meat usually made from beef and, traditionally in Romania, also from pork and mutton. In Israel, "Pastrama" is the term used for sliced chicken and turkey. Like corned beef, pastrami was originally created as a way to preserve meat before modern refrigeration...

  • List of sandwiches
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