Fatback bacon holds a special place in Southern cuisine. This rich, fatty cut of pork provides incredible flavor and texture to classic dishes like greens, beans, soups and more. But what exactly is fatback bacon? Where does it come from and how is it used? This comprehensive guide will cover everything you need to know about fatback bacon.
What is Fatback Bacon?
Fatback bacon refers to the thick, pure layer of fat from the back and sides of a pig. It’s essentially 100% fat with no streaks of meat running through it. The term “fatback” comes from the Old English words “fætt” (fat) and “bæc” (back).
Fatback bacon is taken from the back and sides of the hog, running along the length of the spine. When sliced, it reveals a thick slab of solid white fat that can range from 1 to 3 inches thick depending on the size of the pig.
Where Does Fatback Bacon Come From on the Pig?
Fatback bacon comes from the back of the pig, specifically along the spine behind the shoulders. Here’s a quick overview of its location
- It’s directly above the pork belly, where regular bacon is cut
- Below the loin muscle, where pork chops and other cuts come from
- On either side of the backbone, running along the ribs and spine
The back of the pig contains the thickest, most abundant layers of fat Fatback bacon is essentially pure fat trimmed away from the loin section.
How Does Fatback Bacon Differ From Regular Bacon?
While both come from pork, there are some key differences between fatback bacon and regular bacon:
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Fatback Bacon – Pure fat, no streaks of meat. Fresh, not cured or smoked. Sold in a solid slab. Very high fat content.
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Regular Bacon – Cut from the pork belly, not back. Has streaks of meat throughout fat. Cured, smoked and sliced. Eaten as its own food item.
How is Fatback Bacon Used in Southern Cooking?
There are several classic ways fatback bacon is used to add flavor in Southern cuisine:
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Seasoning greens, beans, soups – The pork fat gives them a silky texture and rich flavor.
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Making sausage and charcuterie – Diced fatback keeps these items incredibly moist.
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Barding lean meats – Wrapping or layering meats with fatback keeps them juicy.
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Flavoring stews and gumbos – Fatback adds richness and depth.
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Making cracklins – Bits of fried fatback give crunch.
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Rendering into lard – For frying and baking with mild porky essence.
So fatback is rarely eaten alone, but rather used as a behind-the-scenes flavor booster in many Southern kitchens.
What Does Fatback Bacon Taste Like?
The flavor of fatback bacon is best described as extremely porky, rich, and fatty. Since it’s nearly 100% fat, you get the full essence of pork without any smoky, salty meat flavors.
The taste is all about pure, creamy, unctuous pork fat. When cooked into dishes, the fatback melts away imparting this strong pork richness without overpowering other ingredients.
How to Cook with Fatback Bacon
Cooking with fatback bacon is easy once you know the basics:
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Buy it in a solid slab around 1-2 inches thick.
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Cut into small 1/2 inch cubes or slices before adding to food.
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Briefly sautéing enhances flavor but avoid high heat.
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Simmer it slowly to melt into beans, greens, soups, etc.
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Remove any unmelted pieces after cooking.
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Use sparingly as a little fatback goes a long way.
Follow those tips, and fatback bacon will add just the right amount of richness and porky flavor to your Southern classics.
Is Fatback Healthy?
Like most animal fats, fatback bacon is high in saturated fat and cholesterol. But enjoyed in moderation, it can have a place in a balanced diet. Recent research has reexamined saturated fats, finding the health risks may be overblown.
Most experts recommend limiting saturated fat to less than 10% of calories for good health. The key is keeping your overall fat intake in check through a diet focused on plants, lean proteins, and healthy unsaturated fats.
The Takeaway on Fatback Bacon
While rarely seen outside the South, fatback bacon plays an integral role in traditional Southern cuisine. This pure pork back fat adds moisture, richness, and incredible flavor to classics like greens, beans, stews, and more. With its intensely fatty and porky essence, a little fatback goes a long way in boosting taste. Follow basic cooking tips to use this specialty ingredient successfully. And enjoy fatback bacon sensibly as part of an overall healthy lifestyle.
How to Use Fatback
There are many ways to use fatback. Here are some of the most important ones.
- Along with foods made from ground meat, like sausages, pâtés, hamburgers, meatloaf, and meatballs Fatback can be added to almost any dish with ground meat to make it taste better and keep it moist. Adding it to burgers, meatloaf, stuffing, and other dishes with ground meat makes them more juicy. Because fatback has a lot of water, though, too much of it or cooking it for too long can make things like burgers or meatloaf shrink. The amount you add mostly depends on how much fat is already in the meat, but 20 percent or so is a good general rule. To get the most even mixing of fat and meat, it’s best to grind fatback and meat together. It’s more likely for the grinding plates to get stuck if nothing else is done. If you want to chop or grind fatback, it is easier to do if it has been well chilled. For the best results, freeze pieces of fatback for 10 to 15 minutes. Then, mix them with pieces of meat, season them as needed, and grind them all together.
- As an ingredient in cured meats like salami and mortadella Similar to the last step, but for salumi, the mix (often called “forcemeat”) is ground or chopped much more coarsely. Instead of being cooked, it is piped into a casing, tied off at regular intervals, and hung in a cool, well-ventilated area for a long time to cure and dry out. A different type of salami is called mortadella. It comes from around the city of Bologna in Italy. It is made by stuffing very finely ground forcemeat with pieces of fatback and pistachios and steaming it. The whitish fatback and pale pink meat can be told apart when the meat is cooled and thinly sliced, but when you eat it, they melt together into a silky harmony.
- You can add strips or pieces of fatback to leaner meats or poultry to make them taste better and stay juicy. Some types of meat, like pork loin, venison, and turkey breast, are naturally low in fat. This can make them taste and be less juicy. Adding pieces of fatback to larger fat-free pieces of meat or poultry is a good way to improve both the taste and the consistency. Roasting is the most common way to cook it. As it cooks, the fatback that was inserted into the meat melts, adding flavor and juiciness. This is called “larding,” and a larding needle is the best tool for the job. Another similar method is barding, which involves putting thin slices of fatback around a lean piece of meat and then tying them in place while the meat is cooked in the oven or on a spit.
- Rendered fatback, also known as lard, can be used in cooking or as an ingredient. Because rendered fat has a very high burning point, it can be used instead of butter when sautéing at a very high temperature. It can also add a bit of pork flavor. This tastes great with chicken breast, veal scaloppine, or pork medallions. You can also use rendered fat instead of butter in recipes. But because it tastes like meat, fatback is usually not a good choice for delicate things like pastry doughs.
Fatback vs. Lard
Fatback and lard are both fat, and both come from pork. But not all fat is created equal. Lard is pork fat that has been rendered, which means it has been slowly melted and strained before being allowed to cool and solidify again. Fatback is a solid slab of fat from the back of a pig. The rendering process makes lard smooth and scoopable, like whipped butter. Fatback, on the other hand, is solid and fibrous. But this is not the only difference.
While fatback can only be made from the pig’s back, lard can be made from almost any fatty part of the pig, which there are many. So, though fatback and lard are both pure pork fat, they are not interchangeable. If you used lard instead of fatback in a sausage recipe, it would turn into a huge mess. Also, there is no good way to use fatback instead of lard in pie dough. There is a way to make lard from hard fatback, but the porky result is not nearly as desirable as leaf lard made from soft fat from the abdomen. Lard from fatback will have a more noticeable pork flavor than leaf lard does.
How to make fat back
FAQ
What is the difference between bacon and fatback?
What does fatback taste like?
What else is fatback called?
Is fatback the same as pork belly?