Montreal smoked meat is beef brisket cured with a peppery spice blend, smoked, steamed until tender and hand-sliced onto rye with yellow mustard.
Where to eat it: 3 restaurants across 1 city.
Brought by Romanian and Eastern European Jewish immigrants, smoked meat became a Montreal institution through delis like Schwartz's, which opened on Boulevard Saint-Laurent in 1928. Unlike pastrami, Montreal smoked meat uses more black pepper and less sugar in the cure. It is still cured for about a week, smoked, then steamed and carved by hand to order.
Common allergens: Gluten, Mustard
Tip from the editors. Hand-slice it thick and against the grain; a machine-thin cut loses the tender, peppery texture that defines it.
Schwartz's keeps carving smoked meat until midnight on weekends in Montreal, a rare late-night chance to eat the city's signature sandwich at a real deli.
Try: Smoked meat sandwich
Tip: The takeout counter is quicker than the dining room after 11; order medium-fat and eat it on the walk.
Why locals love it: The Outremont smoked-meat deli locals send you to when the Schwartz's line is out of hand, quietly curing its own brisket since 1951.
Tip: It is calmer and roomier than the Plateau delis; a medium sandwich with fries is the play.
Wilensky's Special is one of Montreal's great cheap eats, a griddled bologna-and-salami sandwich from a 1932 Mile End counter for the price of a coffee.
Try: Fried bologna special
Tip: Add a hand-mixed cherry or lime soda from the fountain; the whole lunch still comes in under ten dollars.
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