Where to purchase salt pork

Third is the curing method; whether it is cured with salt crystals or brining liquid and whether it contains sodium nitrite or curing salt which is what gives it the distinctive red color. I don't think you need to go crazy in your hunt for salt pork unless you really have a preference for artisanal products.

The traditionally salt cured artisanal product will have a stronger flavor and the meat will be a brownish color. You will also be able to feel the salt when you remove it from the package. The more readily available commercial products will have that reddish color to the meat that looks more like bacon and there will be no salt crystals present on the product. I encourage you to try the different cuts and sources of salt pork in your recipes. It may be considered an acquired taste but once you learn how to incorporate it, you will be glad you did.

Cutting Up Artisan Salt Pork. Commercially Brined Salt Pork. Salt pork usually comes in block form but sometimes will be sold already sliced like bacon.

If you are using commercially brined salt pork and you don't see or feel any visible salt on the product it is ready for use. If you are using an artisanal product and it has salt on the outside, you can rinse the salt off before using it. Some people will soak it or parboil it, especially if it is the featured part of the dish and is not being used as a background flavor.

Next you need to decide whether you want it sliced or cubed and how thick you want those pieces. Once you have it cut up you are ready to get cooking. Salt pork is used in one of three ways. You can use it to render fat as the basis for sauteing vegetables at the start of a dish.

You can put it into a dish like beans where it will add fat and flavor during the cooking process. And last, in the past people used to cure the salt pork as a means of preservation and then use it as a main dish. If you are going to do this I would recommend that you start with plain pork belly and cure or marinate it yourself. So for purposes of this discussion we will focus on frying it and using it in cooked dishes. When you fry salt pork just as you would bacon, there will be two byproducts from the cooking process.

Rendered fat left in the pan, and the bits or slices of salt pork that will be salty, crispy, golden in color and delicious. The rendered fat will add tremendous flavor to any dish you are making such as clam chowder.

And speaking of clam chowder, serve it with oyster crackers and the little bits of salt pork. It will make the dish very special. Frying Salt Pork Cubes. If you are adding the salt pork to a dish like baked beans or black eyed peas, you will want to prepare it in large cubes or strips. Add it right in with all the other ingredients, or just in the water if you are boiling green beans, and it will add a lot of flavor and a velvety texture to the dish.

Boston Baked Beans with Salt Pork. Here's what you do to fry salt pork. So however you decide to use salt pork in your recipes, experiment with it and enjoy it!

Check out the BostonSidewalks recipe for New England Clam Chowder where we use salt pork for rendered fat and for the little cracklings to use as a garnish to the chowder. Or maybe try the Boston Baked Beans where we use it to flavor and add texture to the dish. Print this recipe with the Ingredients only. Print this recipe with the Instructions and Summary.

Deb Brown -- June 18, am. My grandmother-in-law used rendered salt pork fat to fry her latkes. Bob Briggs -- November 15, am. Janet, that sounds interesting. Did she saute the salt pork first to crisp it up or just cook it with the onions or did she just mix it all with the tomato sauce and cook it down that way?

And the cheese and bacon on top is definitely different. Cincinnati chile has cheese on top along with a bunch of optional toppings but that is the only other place I have heard of it. I have a recipe for that I will be posting in the near future. Thanks for sharing with us. Beej, I have never cooked with meatless salt pork but did a little research and as I suspected it is salted fat back. I did fine a place online that sells salted fat back.

It is sold by food4cheap. Janet smith -- November 15, am. My Great Grandmother, out of Annopolis, passed down a recipe to mix with elbow noodles. Salt pork, onions, green peppers, garlic, several jarred hot peppers. Add a lg can tomato juice, and a bouquet garne of pickling spices. Cook down , remove spice bag. Press sauce through a fine sieve. Mix some with noodle, top with cheddar cheese and crispy bacon. I've never met anyone who has heard of this.

It's still a family favorite. Carol Rae Bradford -- November 15, am. Don't like the bacon taste in those dishes. Beej -- September 21, pm. My remembering Skrafky Tom -- September 24, pm. My Polish grandmother fried up salt pork and onions and poured over boiled potatoes. My mother used salt pork as the fat base in spaghetti sauce. You gotta try it, You'll like it better than olive oil. Barb -- August 4, pm.

Salt pork cooked and then mixed with potatoes cooked in the rendered fat. Very good. My grandpa ate tons of salt pork and only lived to Well I have to mention he was hit by a car. Not kidding He also outlived 7 doctors that told him to eat healthier. Fatback is pure fat, while salt pork is meatier and has been dry- or wet-cured.

Pork fatback, in its purest form, is simply a slice of pork from under the skin of the back of a pig. It can be sliced very thin and used to wrap other meats or it can be rendered into lard.

Salt pork is pork fat that has been dry-cured in salt or wet-cured in brine. The fat can come from the back, sides or belly of the pig. To make salt pork, coat slabs of pork in a mixture of salt and sugar. Stack the slabs in a crock, cover and let cure for a week per inch of thickness. For wet-cured salt port, put slabs in a plastic bag with liquid brine. Store both at 32 to 40 degrees Fahrenheit during the curing process.

As the names suggest, fatback comes from the back of the pig, pork belly from the underside. Pork belly usually has both meat and fat and, when cured, becomes bacon. Fatback and pork belly are both considered hard fats. Lard is fat that has been rendered, a process that involves melting the fat and then straining it. Limit your intake of saturated fats to less than 10 percent of your daily calorie intake.

For flavoring: Use a sharp knife to remove rind, if present. Cut the pork into small cubes and saute over medium heat until the cubes are brown and crispy.

Add to green beans, Brussels sprouts, chowder or collard greens. As a meaty component: Add a large hunk of pork to dried beans with chopped onion and flavorings like brown sugar, molasses and mustard.

Cover with water and simmer on top of the stove for an hour. After an hour, transfer the beans to an oven-safe dish and bake at F until the beans are tender.