Pastrami is a popular delicatessen meat made principally from red meat, chiefly brisket. The raw meat is brined, partly dried, seasoned with various herbs and spices, then smoked. Both the dish and the word pastrami were brought to the United States in a wave of Jewish immigration from Bessarabia and Romania in the second half of the 19th century.

The word, derived from the Yiddish: ???????????(pronounced pastróme), entered the Russian language as pastromá (????????) via the Romanian pastram?, and it is likely rooted in the Turkish past?rma. An analogous dish is known as basturma in Armenian cuisine and as basterma in the Arab world.

Early references in English used the spelling "pastrama", while its current form is associated with a Jewish store selling "pastrami" in New York City in 1887. It is likely that this spelling was introduced to sound related to the Italian salami.

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