Does anyone know where I can find it? Salt pork seems readily available, but I can never find fatback anywhere. Thanks.

SFW had it the last time that I made sausage. It is packaged with some salt, but it can be easily washed off.

I seem to face this question every year when I make paté. If you're looking for fresh, unsalted fatback, Niman Ranch sells it online, five-pound minimum. Otherwise, the salted variety is pretty easy to find around here. Eastern Market has it, and I've even seen it at Safeway on occasion.

I am pretty sure that Whole Foods sells the Niman Ranch stuff. Look in the case with the bacon.

I'll look again, but in the past, at Bethesda, Rockville, and Kentlands, I've found NR salt pork, but not fatback.

I have a much used CD of the Fatback Band, one of the truly great ones (only big-eared, fully maze-tested--shout outs to William Kotzwinkle's "Dr. Rat"--funketeers allowed) which you are welcome to borrow anytime. Just be careful not to blow out the speakers in the Z.

I always have some backstrap--those who know what it is to live off of scraps know what I'm talking about--available, if you want.

Packaged fatback used to be in the case at the Cleveland Park grocery store where Pam The Butcher works.

Mission accomplished: Magruder's on Rockville Pike. They also sell lard.

Porcupine: Might I ask what you intend to do with your fatback?


Alas, Pam the Butcher is Pam the Cheesemonger at Eastern Market . All the interesting things she ordered for Brookville are gone along with everything else that made a visit to the counter at the back of Brookville worthwhile. Regulars from the staff have taken over the department and there's no telling them about the difference between the slabs of Virginia ham she used to carry and the ham steaks now in the cases. I miss her stories, too. What a presence.

* * *
Speaking of fatback, has anyone compared the different domestic (only legal option) brands of mortadella sold in this area? I can easily buy some at Vace, but I wondered if there are any strong opinions about alternative sources. It's destined for stuffed pasta.

It's for the cappelletti I keep going on about in the pasta thread. I'm thinking of starting an on-line diary of my attempts at making these things, as it's gone beyond hilarious and into the ridiculous. I don't whether to insert the tongue-sticking out icon or the angry face here...

Anyway, I'm trying to recreate the filling based on notes left by my mother, grandmother, and great aunt. All call for fatback; one notes "gives good flavor", and another reads "not saltpork!!"

Cool! I wonder where your grand/great family developed their recipe. I just looked at the three versions of cappelletti in The Splendid Table:

a- Faenza: 3 cheeses, lemon zest, nutmeg, yolk
b-Ferrara: pork loin, [very lean] salt pork, turkey breast, salami, cinnamon, nutmeg, white wine, Parm, egg
c-Imola: mild sausage, roasted pork loin, mortadella, Parm, ricotta, nutmeg, egg.

Since mortadella contains fatback, maybe there's a relationship there.

Fatback is fresh fat from the pig's back, not salted, not cured, and not smoked. Salt pork is belly fat, salted, cured or smoked.

Seems like anybody who butchers pigs can sell you fatback, no? Or can't you use fresh fat trimmed from a pork loin?

I don't know if this is a hint that I still need to work on that Summer Challenge diet or not, but I was sent an anonymous package inside which there's a tshirt that reads, "Home of the Fatback Hotbar" on the front, and Jomar's Family Restaurant--Lancaster, South Carolina.

Aside from the fact that I don't know who sent it, what in God's name is a fatback hotbar? And why would you want to eat at a fatback hotbar? I'm not even getting anything vaguely interesting on google. And it's not on dixie dining.com, roadfood.com, or hollyeats.com. Any guesses?

A hot bar is like a salad bar, only with hot food. A "fatback hot bar" would probably be one that featured such things as fatback. Just guessing.