Pork, cured, salt pork, raw

Salt pork is a slab of pork fatback, sometimes with a streak of lean meat attached, cured in salt and traditionally used the way bacon or lard is used today: rendered for cooking fat and to season long-simmered dishes rather than served as a main course on its own. Small dice of it are fried off at the start of New England clam chowder, baked beans, or braised collard greens and black-eyed peas, where the rendered fat and salty pork bits carry flavor through the whole pot; it's rarely eaten on its own the way sliced bacon is, since a raw or lightly cooked piece is mostly firm, salty fat.

Because it's a raw cured product, salt pork keeps well refrigerated for weeks and freezes for longer storage, many cooks rinse or blanch it briefly before cooking to soften its intense saltiness before it goes into the pot. At 748 calories and 80.5 g of fat per 100 g, it functions as a cooking fat and flavor base rather than a portion-sized food, a small ounce-sized piece (113 g serving) goes a long way in a pot of beans or greens for an entire family meal. Its sodium is high at 2,680 mg per 100 g, which is exactly why it can serve as both the salt and the fat in a traditional recipe without needing extra seasoning added at the stove.