Ukrainians eat fat? As a dish?

Cafe Society
1

I’m halfway through reading Wolves Eat Dogs (Simon & Schuster 2004), Martin Cruz Smith’s latest novel about Russian militia (police) detective Arkady Renko. This is the first novel to show us Renko in post-Communist Russia. (But don’t worry, he’s still the Lone Honest Man Serving a Corrupt System; it’s only that the form of the corruption has changed.)

Renko spends a good part of the book in the Ukraine, particularly in the radioactive, sparsely inhabited “Zone of Exclusion” around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant that melted down in 1986. At one point he’s invited to dinner by an old peasant couple who still live (illegally) in the same house they had before the accident. While feeding his pig, the peasant husband tells Renko, “Russians raise pigs for meat. Ukrainians raise pigs for fat.” I figured that must mean Ukranians like to fry things in hog-lard, or spread it on their bread in lieu of butter, or something. But in the next scene, Renko and other guests are at dinner, and one of the dishes on the table is a plate of salted fat. At one point, the hostess asks Renko, “Would you like a slice of fat?” He declines but does not appear to be surprised or disgusted.

Do Ukrainians really eat fat? As a dish on its own? I’ve never heard of such a thing in the cuisine of any culture.

2

Yeah, it’s called Salo. Russians eat it too. One of the guys I work with loves the stuff. A little hunk o fat on some bread is just the right way to start the day. :slight_smile:

3

Apparently yes

Also

What’s gross is the Ukranian tradition of eating chunks of salted fat.
and

4

My father grew up in a very Ukranian part of northern Alberta. He said some of the Ukranian kids at school would eat lard sandwiches for lunch.

5

Anyone for chocolate covered pork fat? I’m bettin’ I could make a fortune selling them at the TN state fair as “Uncle Bobby’s Mountain Pies.”

6

Has any Doper actually eaten this salo? Is it any good?

7

So is this salo stuff much different from the lardo stuff from Italy?

8

Fat is yummy. You can also call it “white bacon” or “raw bacon.” It’s basically bacon without the meat.

It’s a common peasant dish throughout Central and Eastern Europe, and I suspect much of Western Europe, too. It’s not exactly that popular anymore, and I think much of the current generation is revolted by the idea of eating pure fat, although I find quite appetizing. In Polish, it’s called “slonina,” in Hungarian it’s “szalonna” or “zsirszalonna” if you want to be technical. All throughout the region you find variations of this. I don’t think it’s particularly weird at all.

Usually, the fat is salted and smoked and comes in slabs with a rind. There are a few ways of eating it. One is to simply cut it into chunks and eat it along with thick slices of bread and raw onions. Another popular method is to skewer it alongside an onion and roast it in a campfire, catching the drippings from time to time on a piece of bread. Yummy!!

Actually, when I stayed over at an ex-girlfriend’s house in Hungary this November, her family had a slab of salted fat in the cupboard, which her dad (a working-class socialist type if there ever was one) would eat exactly in the first manner I described. And these are people who can afford decent food.

My mother—who grew up on a farm in Poland—thinks it’s absolutely disgusting that given the choice, I would actually eat the stuff, but I really think it’s good.

One thing that does remain popular—in Hungary at least—is zsiros kenyer, or “fatty bread.” It’s thick white bread spread with lard, onions, and a dash of salt and paprika. Occassionally with chicken liver, too. You will find these in a lot of bars in Budapest, and it seems equally popular with all age groups. It goes especially well with wine, believe it or not.

American palattes are generally taught that fat is evil (quite ironic given the fat consumption in the US) and that animal fat aka lard is particularly gross. It’s too bad, because animal fat is one of the most flavorful and culinary useful oils out there. (Ever have potatoes cooked in duck lard/fat? mmmm…)

9

Assuming that “salo”, “Szalonna”, and “slonina” are the same thing (and I’m willing to bet they are), then that lardo stuff is somewhat similar, although the Eastern European versions are not spiced, herbed, or deliberately aged and do not have that cool looking crust. They just have a light to medium-brown rind and pure white interior (as the lardo does.)

10

I remember an episode of the old BBC dramedy All Creatures Great and Small about Yorkshire vetrinarian James Herriot, in which one of the old salt-of-the-earth Yorkshire farmers James was always serving invites James to dinner and offers him a large serving of pork fat as a dish. James was utterly disgusted, but as I recall ate some anyway out of politeness.

I don’t recall the incident from the stories by real-life vet James Herriot, on which the television series was based, but I didn’t read most of them. (They were good though. I ought to pick up a collection and read all of them.)

11

I’ve tried it. I had it in a Russian deli not too far from here. From what I recall, it was curred pork fat. It had a slight pinkish hue to it. It doesn’t taste bad,pulykamell’s description of it as bacon without the meat comes about as close to describing it as anything I can think of as well.

It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, but I don’t see myself going out of my way to find it.

12

Ate quite a bit of it during a couple of winters in Kharkov as a kid. It ranges from passable to awful when eaten by itself, but can be pretty decent with vegetable soup, Borodinskiy (pumpernickel?) bread, and raw onions. Keep in mind that Ukraine had/has chronic food shortages and excessive processing of this hog fat would be wasteful.

13

I do, though I forget exactly what book it was in. But it one of the later volumes where he was married. He mentioned his lifelong horror of fat of any sort, bad enough that his wife carefully trimmed all of his meat for him. In the episode in question he was offered a bit of “bacon” which was pure fat and stone cold ( about as bad as it could get from Herriot’s perspective ). He got though it without vomiting by copiously covering it with some British concoction with which I am unfamiliar, but sounded like some sort of homemade chutney or salsa-like creation that was thankfully also sitting on the table.

  • Tamerlane
14

Branston Pickle?

15

Not recalling the name, but I don’t think that was it. Started with a “p”, I think. Pick-a-something, maybe?

  • Tamerlane
16

Piccalilli?

17

Interestingly, my book of Ukranian Cuisine fails to mention Salo. OTOH, it does have a wonderful recipe for Tomatoes stuffed with Brains.

18

That sounds right :).

  • Tamerlane
19

I’ve eaten fatty bread or bread spread with fresh lard, paprika and capsicums as a child growing up in NZ. My dad’s ethnic Hungarian. I can remember him eating pork fat. I never really liked it much.

20

I read the same incident in one of his books - never saw the programme (in fact I came to the thread to mention this exact anecdote).

Let us not forget, too, that “dripping” (fat that was collected under a cut of beef during the roasting process) was a favourite spread for bread in England in the early/mid part of the 20th century. My dad used to take dripping sandwiches to school with him in the 1940s and 50s.

Also, my wife once had a Portuguese cookbook, the first recipe in which is “lard soup” (we threw it out).