Become a Montreal Smoked Meat Connoisseur, Bagels Too

A Montreal smoked meat connoisseur knows it is not pastrami, and a connoisseur of Montreal bagels knows they are not New York's. Both are products of Jewish immigration to the city, and both reward careful tasting. Mosey has a Montreal Smoked Meat badge and a Bagels badge, each counting the different places you have rated.

What does a Montreal smoked meat connoisseur know?

The beginning is the brisket. Montreal smoked meat uses a variable-fat brisket, where pastrami more often uses the navel or plate cut, so smoked meat has a larger cap of fat and a stringier texture. It is a variation on corned beef and similar to pastrami, but the seasoning leans on more cracked peppercorns, plus coriander, garlic and mustard seed.

The process is simple to describe. The brisket is salted and spiced and left for about a week to absorb the flavours, hot smoked to cook it through, and then steamed to finish. Many delis dry-cure it with salt and spices, while corned beef is typically brine-cured.

How do you order smoked meat lean or fat?

You order by fat level, and the vocabulary is part of the fun. Lean is less flavourful and drier. Medium, sometimes called medium fat, is the most popular, from the middle of the brisket. Old-fashioned sits between medium and fatty and is often cut thicker. Fat comes from the fatty end, and speck is only the spiced fat, with no meat at all.

It is typically served on seedless, light rye with yellow mustard, piled about five centimetres high and sliced by hand, because a meat slicer breaks up the tender meat. If you want to compare places fairly, order the same cut each time.

Where did smoked meat come from?

The origins are uncertain and likely unresolvable, but every claimed creator came from the Jewish diaspora in Romania or Eastern Europe. One family says its founder used a brisket-curing method from Lithuanian farmers; other accounts credit a maker in New York, a salami maker or a butcher from Romania who may have made a version similar to pastrama. Each is a claim, not a settled fact.

How do Montreal bagels and New York bagels differ?

Montreal bagels are smaller, thinner, sweeter and denser, with a larger hole. They are always baked in a wood-fired oven, the dough contains malt and egg and no salt, and they are boiled in honey-sweetened water before baking. The two main varieties are poppy seed, which is black, and sesame, which is white.

Like New York bagels, they were brought to North America by Jewish immigrants from Poland and other parts of Eastern Europe, and the difference in texture and taste reflects the part of Poland where the bakers learned their trade. Accounts of who baked the first one in Montreal disagree, and the city's best-known bagel bakeries each have long histories of their own.

How should you eat a smoked meat sandwich and a bagel?

Eat the sandwich with your hands while the meat is warm, and keep the mustard modest so you can taste the pepper and coriander. A pickle on the side is a good reset between bites. For a bagel, eat one fresh and plain first, because a bagel that is good on its own is the clearest sign of a good bakery.

Take notes when you can: the cut you chose, the crust of the bagel, how sweet the dough tasted. Those details turn a pleasant meal into a comparison, and comparison is what makes a connoisseur.

Why are these two traditions worth comparing?

Both came to Canada with Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe, and both took on a local accent. The bagel's honey water and wood-fired oven and the smoked meat's heavy pepper and hand slicing are choices, not accidents. When you rate several places, you will notice the choices that kitchens make, and that tells you more about the food than any single visit could.

How do you rate bagels and smoked meat on Mosey?

Montreal Smoked Meat and Bagels are separate cuisine families. Each climbs four levels: Sampler at five different places, Taster at ten, Expert at twenty and Connoisseur at fifty. Only different places count, and a level stays once reached.

Keep the notes consistent:

1. For smoked meat, write the cut you ordered and how the fat felt.
2. For bagels, write sesame or poppy, how sweet it was and whether it was warm.
3. Mention the rye, the mustard and any pickle that came with it.
4. Add the Montreal Smoked Meat or Bagels tag to the rating.

A badge brings no reward. It shows beside your name on a rating so another diner knows you have rated five or more different places of the same kind.

Mosey, lists and a fair deal for small places

Mosey is a food app for finding, rating and sharing places to eat. It is free for a place to list, with no hidden fees and affordable tools, which suits the family delis and bakeries behind these two traditions. A rating by the dish is a free way to say thanks.

Make a list called "Smoked meat, lean to fat" and another for bagels. Invite a friend to add their picks, tag who you ate with, and follow people whose taste you trust.

Companion reading: the Montreal smoked meat guide, the Montreal bagels guide and how to order in French at a Montreal restaurant. The food badges page covers the ladder, and the Canadian food guides list more.

For a different Canadian story, see dim sum and Cantonese cooking in Canada.

Get the Mosey app, rate your next sandwich or bagel by the dish and add the tag, then work towards five different places for each badge.