• Place ground meat into a medium bowl. Add garlic puree and sprinkle with the seasoning. Use your hands to work the spices into the meat.
• Fry a small portion of the meat and adjust the spices if necessary.

Stuff Casings

• Use a sausage attachment on your KitchenAid mixer to feed the seasoned meat through the casings. I used hog casings but you can use sheep casings or collagen casings instead. At this point, you can freeze the sausage or air dry it, which is the more authentic way to make basturma.

Air Dry

• Once the basturma sausage is stuffed in the casings, use a sterilized needle or a toothpick to poke holes all over the casing. This allows any trapped air to escape. Use a piece of butcher's twine, if necessary, to tie a knot at one end of the basturma to make it easier to hang. Hang in a cool place with good airflow until dried. This can take anywhere from 1 to 2 weeks.
• Once the basturma is dry and not squishy when squeezed, it's ready! At this point, you can store it in the fridge or freeze it.

Quick Method

• If you don't want to deal with stuffing the meat in casings, you don't have to! Just shape the seasoned ground meat into a log and wrap it in plastic wrap. 
• Next, partially freeze the basturma before slicing it into patties. Place the patties on a tray and freeze them completely before storing them in a ziplock bag.

Serving Suggestions

• The best way to enjoy Iraqi basturma is fried with eggs. Make sure to serve pita bread, lavash bread, or samoon to sop up the runny egg yolk!