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Salt Pork and Fatback: Uses?

 
Timothy Norton
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Salt pork is essentially what the name leads on.

It is salted pork, usually from the belly or side in current times, that has been used in a myriad of cuisines and dishes over the years. I am familiar with salt pork from my proximity to New England and the recipes that come from the area. Seafood stews and baked beans are the first two examples that come to mind. I commonly portion up my salt pork into chunks and store it in my freezer for easy use. If I'm making something such as refried beans, I can throw a hunk in the pan and add some porky goodness to the dish.

Sliced salt pork on a wooden cutting board.
Sliced Salt Pork


I've heard of its usefulness in relation to cooking down greens, something found in some Southern cuisine. I have yet to try this.

What do you use salt pork in?

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Timothy Norton
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For a historic view on salt pork, I highly recommend checking out Townsends.



Here is a related instruction video for the historical process.



They even show how to utilize salt pork in a time period appropriate recipe.

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Ulla Bisgaard
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Growing up, my parents relied heavily on salt preserved foods. When it was the legal season, my father and his friends, would do fishing and hunting. Most of the fish, would be stored in salt, in a large barrel. Salted pork that was lean, was used raw in sandwiches or cooked, after soaking for a while to remove some of the salt. Other pieces of meat, would first be salted and then smoked. This was the case for some of the fish as well.

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Pasta all'Amatriciana.
 
              
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Growing up there was NEVER any salt pork in the fridge. But I spent a lot of time a G'ma's house where Mom was raised and G'ma ALWAYS had a slab in here fridge. Many things she made, that if she needed oil in the pan, she'd dice up some cubes of salt pork. Gosh I acquired a taste for it from G'ma. But it's not typically found in grocery stores unless we go to the big city and to a store in an ethnic part of town.
 
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Timothy Norton wrote:For a historic view on salt pork, I highly recommend checking out Townsends.


Excellent links! Thanks!
 
Timothy Norton
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Something I felt could be added onto this thread is the idea of fatback.

I've seen salt pork and fatback, in some settings, to be words that are interchangeable with each other while being two seperate things.

Salt pork, generally, is a cured and salted product sourced from either pork belly or fatback.

Fatback is the pork fat found near the backbone that consists of a layer of accumulated subcutaneous fat.

Diagram of a hog highlighting the different areas that exist (1. Jowl, 2. Shoulder, 3. Fat Back, 4. Loin, 5. Ribs, 6. Belly, 7. Ham, and 8. Hock.)


Curious how fatback is utilized in the kitchen? Check out this video.



I have heard of similar terms of 'Lardon' and 'Streak-o-Lean' but am not familiar enough to be comfortable giving them definitions.

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Timothy Norton
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I am impressed with the sheer amount of good, detail rich, videos out there on making your own salt pork.

For a more classic time tested process, check out this video.



Here is another good video on the process of preserving pork through salting. It even brings in the discussion of utilizing a smoking process.

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Jennie Little
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I bought some salt pork a while back and it got pitched, unused, because there was no date and I couldn't say "otherwise" to my partner. So I let it go. Acc. to "still tasty" it lasts a month in the fridge and freezing isn't recommended... A month seems a bit short for something that was a pre-industrial preserved resource, but what do I know?

Thank you for the info about using it.

btw, I freeze lard and bacon fat.

Still Tasty info: stilltasty.com/fooditems/index/18261

How long do you keep it? Do you freeze it?

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Timothy Norton
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Jennie Little wrote: How long do you keep it? Do you freeze it?



I tend to use a little bit at a time, so I purchase a 'block' of salt pork and when I bring it home I divide it up into usable segments. I store it in the freezer so far with good effect. I use it up within a few months without noticing any issues. :)

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Timothy Norton
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If you can't tell, I'm having a great time learning all about Salt Pork.

This video looks at the United States Civil War era use of salt pork from a soldier's perspective!

Check it out.





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Timothy Norton
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There is now a badge bit for the SKIP PEM program to make Salt Pork!

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