Nine Ways to Serve Smoked Meat, Only One of Them a Sandwich
The sandwich is the classic, and there are reasons it is built exactly that way. Then there are eight other things to do with a carved brisket at…
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Stories From the Counter
Montreal deli history, the craft behind the brisket, serving ideas and the Ontario chapter.
Montreal vs Toronto: Two Cities, One Sandwich
Montreal built a single style and defended it. Toronto built an industry and let it change. Both are real traditions — and one of them is now catering…
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Toronto Had Its Own Deli Golden Age
Spadina Avenue was full of delis, one of which helped bankroll a Broadway hit. Toronto's smoked meat history is stranger than Montreal's.
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Who Really Invented Montreal Smoked Meat?
Four delis claim it. An archivist at the Jewish Public Library found someone earlier than all of them — a kosher butcher advertising smoked meat in 1894.
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Smoke Is Older Than Writing
Every culture that faced a winter invented smoked meat independently — in China, the Andes, the Pacific, the Alps. If your family preserved meat, this tradition is already…
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What’s Actually in Montreal Smoked Meat
Four things make it: one cut of beef, a dry cure, hardwood smoke and a long steam. Here is what each one does, and why smoked meat is…
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Montreal or Toronto: Who Had Smoked Meat First?
The argument that starts at every table where both cities are represented — and the 1894 newspaper advertisement that settles it.
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The Man Who Actually Started It
Schwartz's, Bens and a salami maker on de Bullion Street have all been credited. The archives point to a Romanian butcher on Craig Street in 1884.
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Smoked Meat, Pastrami, Corned Beef: What Actually Separates Them
Same Eastern European ancestry, three different results. The cut, the cure, the spice and the steam — and why Montreal ended up with brisket.
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Everyone’s Hands Are In This Sandwich
Amazonian racks, Andean charqui, Zhou Dynasty la rou, Alpine smoke huts. Smoked meat was invented independently, everywhere — and Montreal's version was a hybrid from day one.
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