Meats and Sausages
Smoked Back Fat
Smoked back fat is an old classic which tastes great with bread, mustard and beer or it can be used as a flavoring to many other dishes.
| Meats | Metric | US |
|---|---|---|
| back fat (not salted), with skin or without, back fat slab dimensions: about 10-12” long x 3-6” wide x 1” (no skin), 1¼” (with skin) thick. | 5 kg | 11 lbs. |
Ingredients per 1000g (1 kg) of meat
| salt | 350 g | 12.35 oz. |
Instructions
- Salting. Take half of salt and rub into back fat on all sides. Spread salt on the bottom of container. Place back fat skin down in a container. Spread salt on top. Place another slab of back fat on top of the first one using the same procedure. Keep container under refrigeration (40-42º F, 4-6º C).
- After 7 days repeat procedure using second half of salt. Reverse order of slab placement: the slab that was previously on top goes on bottom now and vice versa. You can rub in any spices that you like for instance pepper, paprika, or coriander. Leave in a container for 1-2 weeks longer. This means that the total time is between 2 and 3 weeks.
- Shake off excess salt from the surface of back fat and wash the slab in a lukewarm water. This removes any crystalized salt that has accumulated on the surface.
- Make a hanging loop and hang at cool temperature for 12 hours to dry.
- Smoke with a thin cold smoke for 2 days until back fat develops light brown or brown color.
- Keep in refrigerator.
Notes
There is an excellent version of smoked back fat (Słonina Paprykowana in Polish) that employs paprika. After step #3, apply paprika generously all around the slab, patting the spice in slightly by hand. Then continue with steps 4, 5 and 6.
Sodium nitrite (Cure #1) is not used as there is no meat, just the fat.
