What are the uses of salt pork belly?!
Answers:
As I understand it, to keep a 19th century tall ship crew from starving. They would pack bellies in salt and stack them in a barrel for keeping. These had to be soaked in fresh water and boiled for hours to cut the salt. Some chili recipes call for it as well as some stews.
In the south, we used it as the poor man's substitution for bacon in starting pots of beans and veggies and greens. The fat renders out and adds some pork flavor, along with a lot of salt, but it's super cheap compared to bacon or ham or other pork product.
Seasoning, mainly. And the fat it renders is used in seasoning, or sometimes pan-frying foods. When I hear salt pork, I immediately think of greens (collard, turnip, mustard).
It is a seasoning. It can be used in place of bacon in some soup and stew recipes, if you don't want the smoky flavor of bacon.
it's most commonly used as a flavor component in stocks, soups, chowders, beans, etc.
making clam chowder
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