Pork, cured, separable fat (from ham and arm picnic), unheated

This is the fat trimmed from cured ham or the arm picnic cut, sold raw and unheated, similar in role to fatback or salt pork used in traditional Southern and European cooking. Cooks render it slowly in a pot along with beans, collard greens, or other simmered vegetables to work its cured, salty flavor into the dish over a long cooking time, much the way a ham hock is used. It can also be cut into small pieces and rendered in a skillet to provide the cooking fat for frying potatoes or onions, carrying a smoky, cured flavor into the dish.

Keep this fat refrigerated and use it within a few days of purchase, or freeze it for longer storage since it is sold raw. Because it comes from cured ham, sodium is notable at 505 mg per 100 g, so it is used more as a flavoring ingredient added in small pieces than as a food eaten on its own. At 579 calories per 100 g, nearly all from its 61.4 g of fat, it functions as a rendering fat rather than a lean protein source, though it does carry 5.68 g of protein per 100 g, about 11 percent of the daily value, from the meat fibers still attached to the fat.