Anyone Like Boiled Fatback?

[Redbow]

I do my Grandpa taught me that I suppose. Being ole farm folks long ago my Grandma had to season her cooking with what was available. She used a piece of fatback mostly in her collards, butterbeans field peas, green beans and other foods she cooked along with black pepper. She might add a bit of salt also.

When our food was ready and we got around the table my Grandpa would take the boiled fatback then cut it into small pieces and eat it. I would ask for some of the boiled fatback as well. I still use fatback to season with at times but not like my Grandma used to. And when I season our food with fatback I also eat it when our meal is ready.

My Wife won't touch it, boiled nor fried. On the farm we had fried fatback quite often along with scrambled eggs a pan of hot homemade biscuits and molasses or peach preserves. Sliced ham or shoulder meat on other mornings with the eggs and biscuits. When we killed hogs and grandpa stuffed his sausage we ate it every morning until it was gone, some of the best link sausage I ever ate. Grandpa knew how to season it.

Grandma made the best souse meat I ever ate. She baked hog skins for us and of course we had cracklins and sweet taters. To me what my Grandparents fed me when I was growing up was then and still is the best food I ever ate. Old time country eating cooked on an old wood fired stove.

 

[dslc6487]

Sir: What you have written is your post is the best eating known to man, especially if you are a southerner. I was raised on the same menu.........

 

[treemanjohn]

Streak o lean, green beans, and cornbread

 

[JustUs4All]

I have eaten my share but prefer fried jowl, a true delecasy that I try to reserve for New Years.

 

[Redbow]

I have eaten my share but prefer fried jowl, a true delecasy that I try to reserve for New Years.

Man, jowl is too good to have just for news years but I have done the same. With black eyed peas also.

 

[Doug B.]

I'm not real crazy about boiled fatback, but I could eat my weight in fried fatback! My wife don't like for me to eat it. It causes my blood pressure to ascend!!

 

[Railroader]

Let me find a piece still in the greens at the local country buffet, and watch what happens.... ?

 

[TJay]

Yep, fatback and smoked pork jowl but I like pork jowl the best. There is a Chinese dish called twice cooked pork where you boil a big piece of pork fat, usually pork belly, and then slice it and throw it in a screamin' hot wok with the usual veg. Good stuff.

 

[fireman32]

I prefer it fried, but I won’t throw it away if a bit of boiled hits the plate.

 

[Big7]

My Grandmother taught me to cook the country ways. A lot, if not most, came from her farm.

She wouldn't allow anyone to butcher one the bought on the property but they did when my Grandfather was alive.

She has chickens to butcher and lay. Guineafowl to butcher and lay too.

She had a big garden as long as she was able, well into her 80's.

She used fatback in greens, peas and beans. Ham bones, hocks and whatever else was on hand.
I ate it fried, still do but I haven't deliberately boiled it to eat. I like it crispy but not burnt and the rind on and bubbled up like a cracklin'. ? ?

PS.. You couldn't tell by her demeanor but she was quite well off and still made her own Sunday dresses by patterns from the Sears or Belk catalog.
On a pedal Singer at that. She made it to 92. We were very close.

 

[oldfella1962]

I have not. My grandfather used to eat pickled pig's feet. Hard pass on that!

 

[Redbow]

I have not. My grandfather used to eat pickled pig's feet. Hard pass on that!

I still love me some pickled pig's feet with good ole Premium Saltine crackers. I remember when all the old country stores had them on the counter in jars. The proprietor would fish you one out and wrap it in a special paper so it wouldn't leak. I wish I had one of the jars they came in from back in the 50's.

 

[snuffy]

I love it with pepper sauce.

Can,t find good fat back anymore. they cut all the fat off.
Haven't seen Streak o lean in years.

Go in a store and ask for it sometime and see the reaction you get.

 

[specialk]

yes redbow, yes to all...boiled and fried....i remember in the summer it would be bad bad hot and there was no a/c or ceiling fans, but they did have window fans....one in the kitchen and one in living room....one blowing in and one blowing out created a nice breeze all day....she would make a huge pan of biscuits in the morning and we would eat on them thru supper....trying not to turn the oven back on during the day....

 

[Redbow]

I love it with pepper sauce.

Can,t find good fat back anymore. they cut all the fat off.
Haven't seen Streak o lean in years.

Go in a store and ask for it sometime and see the reaction you get.

I was lucky enough to find some streak o lean in PIggly Wiggly a few months back. My Wife said she enjoyed that meat more than the bacon we cook. I have not been able to find any since but I look every time I am in there.

 

[Batjack]

Y'all look'n for Streak-o-lean, if you have any international farmer's markets around check them. All 4 in Cobb Co. that I know of always have it, or used to.. haven't been in nearly a year.

 

[snuffy]

Miss the salted side meat when we used to kill hogs

 

[Redbow]

Miss the salted side meat when we used to kill hogs

Yes snuffy, that side meat was a very special treat for us as well. I remember taking a left over piece of side meat later in the day and put that between a left over biscuit for a quick snack. If any of my cousins or Uncles came by they knew Grandma kept both items in the warmer built into the top part of her wood stove and the left over's quickly disappeared.

 

[Nicodemus]

I love the stuff, any way it`s cooked. You can still get it at some of our rural butcher shops down here.

 

[Redbow]

I love the stuff, any way it`s cooked. You can still get it at some of our rural butcher shops down here.

I still think a chunk of fatback is the best seasoning ever for a fresh mess of field peas.