[Sca-cooks] fat back or salt pork

[Angie Malone]

>Angie Malone wrote:
>>
>>  What is the difference between fat back and salted pork.
>>
>>  IIRC the fatback looked more like a hunk of fat cut off a slab of
>>  bacon and when I found the salted pork in the store yesterday it
>>  looked more like a hunk of bacon that hadn't been smoked.
>
>Fatback is a particular cut; as the name implies it is the fatty
>portion, normally, from just under the skin near the shoulders, from
>what we would call the blade or shoulder butt. It has some meat on it
>but not much. Normally it is dry-rubbed with salt, essentially buried in
>salt, rather than being rubbed in a vat where a brine is allowed to
>form. This is why it generally tastes like salted fat, rather than
>having that pickled tang such as you find in salt pork, corned beef, etc.
>
>Salt pork is generally brined; it can be any cut of pork, either
>dry-rubbed and stored in a vat or crock, where the meat juices exuded in
>the salting dissolve the salt and form a brine, or an actual brine can
>be added, sometimes including wine, spices, or other ingredients in
>addition to salt. Commonly salted portions in the U.S. are jowls,
>fatback, and side or belly meat.
>
>Adamantius
>--


Hmm that brings a dilemma.  If  I can't find  fat back wonder what I
should substitute for it for the blancmange I am making.  When I
tested the recipe to see how much it would make for quantity  I
didn't have any fat back so I sliced a little bacon off the slab I
had in the freezer and used that since I thought it would have
probably the same consistency but NOT the same taste.  It did give it
a good taste though.

	Angeline