The influence of tumbling and injection of curing solution instead of dry curing on some chemical, microbiological and sensory properties of pastirma was investigated. Effect of the curing techniques on the pH value, moisture and salt contents was significant. On the other hand, tumbling increased the moisture content of dry-cured pastirma and decreased the brine-injected pastirma significantly. Brine injection and tumbling caused significant increase in Staphylococcus aureus, halophilic and lactic acid bacteria. The dry-cured pastirma had higher colour and appearance score than the brine-injected pastirma. Insignificant increases in the colour and appearance score of tumbled brine-injected pastirma and flavour, texture and appearance score of tumbled dry-cured pastirma were seen. © 2007 Institute of Food Science and Technology Trust Fund.