The Jewish people know that the long wait for the Mashiach is full of hopes and disappointments.
There was Shabtai Tzvi, about a dozen just like him. But he wasn’t the one.
There was the year Oreos became kosher. No Mashiach.
For those of us from Newton, Mass., there was Julie’s Kitchen, a restaurant/takeout joint with scrumptious, gourmet-quality meat, dairy, and fish options. Still no Mashiach.
All of these heralded new hope that our redeemer was nigh. Yet he continues to tarry.
My latest hope comes with the Israeli deli meat brand Tirat 123: beef prosciutto. Most Jews, especially those who eat only traditional Jewish cuisine, probably don’t fully appreciate the import of this. Allow me to explain.
My earliest acquaintance with prosciutto was purely rhetorical. My father, who had done a stint in the U.S. Navy, had had an Italian American friend who shared with him all kinds of Italian culinary wisdom, such as the fact that pasta e fagioli should be made thick enough for a spoon to stand in upright, a colander was called a macaroni-stay-water-go (according to his grandmother), and prosciutto should be sliced “so thin it’s only gotta one side.”
The first time I tasted prosciutto was at a Monterey, Calif., restaurant 
called the Whaling Station Inn. The restaurant’s Italian menu had a number of appetizers, but my favorite was the wedge of cantaloupe melon served with a slice of prosciutto on top. The combination of sweet and salty flavor was irresistible.
The problem, of course, is that prosciutto is ordinarily made from ham, and thus off limits for the last quarter of my life. I cannot count the number of recipes I’ve purged from my pre-kosher days, or ruefully passed over, because prosciutto was an essential ingredient.
But no more. Melon and prosciutto is back on the menu for summer Shabbat appetizers, Italian pasta salad (with basil and cherry tomatoes) now has a new ingredient, and deli sandwiches will never be hum-drum again. I can’t wait to see what the latest edition of The Joy of Cooking suggests for prosciutto recipes.
Makes me want to burn a candle in the window. Mashiach’s gotta be out there somewhere.
Shimshonit 
But if it’s made from beef, will it taste the same?
Yum!
Is this stuff available in the States?
Raizy: I was amazed at how similar (though not exact) the flavor was to the real thing. I suspect that whatever processing real ham prosciutto undergoes is what they did with the beef, with pretty successful results.
Michael: I would check the Butcherie, and then whatever kosher food outlets exist online for the stuff. If you have no luck, remember we have room in our house for friends from home. Y’all come and see us.