Pastrami is a popular delicatessen meat usually made from beef, and, like corned beef, originally created as a way to preserve meat before modern refrigeration. For pastrami, the raw meat is brined, partly dried, seasoned with various herbs and spices, then smoked and steamed. Although beef navels are the traditional cut of meat for making pastrami, it is now common to see pastrami made from beef brisket, beef round and meat turkey.Both the dish and the word pastrami are likely rooted in the Turkish pastırma (pressed) and were introduced 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: פּאַסטראָמע (pronounced pastróme), entered the Russian language as pastromá (пастрома) via the Romanian pastramă.