Fatback is a cut of pork, typically taken off the back of a pig. Its name perfectly describes it. This cut of flesh is virtually all fat, and can be used very much like bacon. Yet unlike bacon, fatback contains very little to absolutely no meat, and in uncooked form resembles all-white strips of bacon.

Today much of the use of fatback in the US is confined to the southern states. Fatback plays an important role in many of the soul foods for which the south is famous. It may flavor dishes like collard greens, be strained to make lard, fried into crispy strips called cracklings, or used to wrap around other types of meat to retain freshness, called barding.

Many people confuse fatback with salt pork. The difference is easily explained. Salt pork, another popular pork product in the south is mostly fat, though it may contain some meat. The main distinction that can be made is that salt pork is cured, while fatback is raw and uncured. Salt pork can also come from other parts of the pig, sometimes the sides or the stomach, where fatback only comes from the pig’s back.

Fatback wasn’t always confined to southern food. You have wonderful descriptions of the use of it in Laura Ingalls Wilder’s books about life as a pioneer. Her mother prepared cracklings after killing a hog. Use of this piece of the hog would have been important—every scrap of meat that could be stored and saved to prepare for long winter months was extremely valuable. Frying the fatback and saving the grease for later cooking was also an important tool to provide cooking oil. It should be noted that Ingalls Wilder does not refer to the fat specifically as fatback.

As the US became more industrialized, particularly during the Civil War, more often only the choice cuts of pork were eaten. The South, still recovering from the Civil War needed to make use of whatever it could, and thus fatback became associated with southern US cuisine. In fact, it may be difficult to find fatback in many of the northern and western states. You can usually order it from your butcher, or many Latin American grocery stores may also carry fatback.

Fatback is not exclusive to American recipes. Medieval Europe had many recipes using fatback, and certain foods from all over the world, like pork sausages, may use chopped fatback. Salo is a popular Eastern European use of fatback. Preparation of salo does involve smoking and curing the fatback, and often covering it with paprika. It may be used to flavor other dishes, eaten sliced as deli meat, and made into a dish similar to cracklings.