I have a bunch of pork belly in the freezer and I have seen Salt Pork in lot’s of recipe’s lately. There is no access to that in this area, unless some small butcher shop i don't know about,
So here I am, looking for good advice for making my own, and thank you in advance.
MAK 2 Star pellet
Big Green Egg
Fuego gasser
Pitboss ceramic griddle
Eastman Outdoors wok burner
Ooni 16 pizza oven
Cast iron chimenea with pizza steel
Breeo smokeless fire pit, with Titan rotisserie and Titan Santa Maria style adjustable grate
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My take on salt pork (based upon absolutely no experience). Cured pork belly is sliced and then heavily salted, for preservation.
When time to cook, it is rigorously rinsed, to desalt it. As a modern substitute, I would consider curing pork belly, perhaps a bit longer then the calculator calls for. Brine it overnite, and proceed. I doubt that the salt in "salt pork" adds much in terrms of flavor or texture.
It readily available where I grew up and my mother frequently used it when she made red beans. I always thought they were the best red beans. I have no idea how it is made, but if you have the App Paprika a search in my recipes might yield a how to.
I've been thinking of making salt pork as well. My mom always complained that modern salt pork isn't as salty as it used to be, she noticed the change in the late 80s and 90s.
Townsends has a couple of videos on making salt pork (Colonial method):
If not cooking outdoors, I am cooking on the stovetop with my 14" carbon steel wok, 12" CI skillet, or in the oven with my two Lodge CI pizza pans, or two dutch ovens. I've also got a nifty Lodge carbon steel grill pan that rocks for veggies outdoors.
My father has told me that one of his jobs as a kid was to go into their "smoke house" daily and repack the hams and meat in the salt they were literally immersed in, while curing. They used the salt pork they made throughout the year. I asked him one time if they used curing salt, but he was a kid at the time, and doesn't know. He thought at the time it was just salt and sometimes sugar.
The only person in my life I know bought and used fatback was my grandmother. She also used something that she called "streak o' lean". Google tells me that is a thing, but I can't say I see either of them in the grocery stores I frequent. Grandma bought it at the A&P back in the day.
If not cooking outdoors, I am cooking on the stovetop with my 14" carbon steel wok, 12" CI skillet, or in the oven with my two Lodge CI pizza pans, or two dutch ovens. I've also got a nifty Lodge carbon steel grill pan that rocks for veggies outdoors.
I recall my maternal grandmother buying and using something called "streak o' lean" in her cooking. It was kind of like really fatty bacon, in a slab that she would slice off of. Back in those days she would have gotten it at the A&P grocery store. Not sure they have that anymore - if its in the grocery stores I shop in, I sure wasn't looking for it.
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