After asking both last week and on Facebook, I have decided to keep up What Is It Wednesday for now. I may not post as often this year and I may take a break, but we will continue it for now.
And to start back up with What Is It Wednesday I think……or at least hope, I have a tough one for you. I will give you two clues on this one because I know a lot of you will guess it as bacon.
So, clue number one is that it is not bacon.
Clue number two is that I am guessing it will be a true southerner that will get this one right.
Do you know what it is?
Hog jowls?
Pork belly?!?
fatback
This is my guess, too! I saw an episode of Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives that was all about FATBACK. Sounds gross, but looks delicious. 🙂
@ Ctherine…I saw that episode too…I thought it sounds gross, but it looks sooooooo good!!
Hog Jowls
salt pork
Mmmmm…. jowl! Our favorite cured portion of the pig.
I was originally thinking pancetta, but when I saw clue #2 my first thought was fatback.
I’m going with hog jowls.
Fat back! (Also known as seasoning meat.)
cracklin’s???
my thought too
that’s what my first thought was too but too thick so I’m going with fatback too/
Streak of lean – a form of fat back with some meat in it. Some people consider streak o’ lean, salt pork and fatback the same, but they are not!
interesting!! i’m curious now, what the differences are because they seem so similar to me…..
salt back
Is salt back what we call salt bacon? It comes in a slab and you either get it cut into thick slices or do it yourself. Have eaten it for breakfast. My granddaddy liked it with his eggs, biscuits and gravy. They battered it and fried it.
My mom used it to season beans. Loved to chew on the salty grisly edge piece when I was a kid.
side pork?
It look like it could also be hog jowl!
salt pork
Looks like “fat back” to me, that’s what my mom calls it. She fries it up like that and then puts it in her fresh green beans she simmers down with some red potatoes. Good southern dinner! It’s hard to find in Ohio but it’s worth looking for. Some people use “salt side” which is much fattier and too salty for my tastes as substitute.
streak o’ lean!
Looks like yummy fat back to me as well…anyone want beans now?
fatback
Hog jowls! 🙂
Salt pork- grandma used it with her collards, her green beans and her soup beans.
nice!!! i think that’s what it is too!
I’ve never seen it cut that way but it resembles what we call country ham. Super salty and delicious. You normally cook it in the pan and eat it with biscuits.
I’m guessing hot jowls, too ~
My guess is salt pork.
Okra?
That is TOOO funny! Wish I had read this before I took my guess! I am laughing so hard I am crying and can’t type!!! Reminds me of when Trivial Pursuit first came out and none of us could answer ANY of the questions… it got to the point where every time a questions was asked everyone started answering “7” because it just didn’t matter… you weren’t going to get the answer right any way!!!! Thanks for the laugh and memory… I needed that this morning! :o)
I think it’s fat back. Haven’t had it in years, but my grandmother used to fix it every day.
I believe that is a nice side order of fatback.
Hog Jowl! That’s my guess. We used to have it every now and then… esp. after butchering a hog. MMMMM! Actually just thinking about this the other day… makes me want some :o(
cracklin’?
Gotta go with fatback, too!!
Fatback!
It’s hog jowl….yummy
Looks like fatback to me , too.
It’s Hog Jowl, That’s what we ate for bacon when I was young, we raised and killed our own hogs. My mom would slice it each morning with a large butcher knife. It was great stuff.
Fried fatback. Yum we had it every morning for breakfast when I was young 🙂
Looks like salt pork to me. Can’t make greens without it:)
I am not from Georgia where I heard them call it jowls. In Virginia where I’m from it was called fatback. It looks more like the meat that comes from the knuckles. Knuckles is my guess.
streak o lean
Streak of lean.
If it’s a southern thing-it’s got to be cracklins.
too big to be cracklins
hey there, love the site, love the emails, great recipes!!!
anywhooo
i think this is SALTED PORK. i think that is what it was called anyways. i got it for the first time last week and used it in beans as well as potato soup. sooo yummy, i diced & sauteed with onions for about 3 minutes, and then added the other ingredients. great stuff (if i’m right) and a small package (i paid $3) should be used in three dishes as the flavor is strong & salty (like 1/3 package for 1 pound of northern beans)
Fat Back
I think it is salt pork because it appears to be cured. Fresh side meat is just bacon that is not cured and it doesn’t have a pink look to it. I don’t know what fatback is – never have lived in the south despite loving many southern dishes like fried green tomatoes and grits!! Yum
fatback or slab bacon–Grandma used them both
and it would real good with some poke weed and hard boiled eggs
Fatback or salt pork
Looks to me an awful lot like streak o lean that I use for my bean soups. Fatback with just a little bit of meat, unlike the fried fatback (cracklins) that I use in my cornbread.
salt pork, we cook with it alot here in Arkansas!
A newcomer to the South, I *thought* it might be hog jowl when I saw it last week, but I could never get what I bought to try to look so nice and brown like that. (Holy cow! — or should I say hog? it was cheap — like 89 cents a pound last New Year time so I thought it would be a nice change for the New Year pork thing.)
I’m with Lynn, it doesn’t compare with bacon, too gristle-y and chewy. It takes forever to cook to get anywhere close to looking appetizing too.