Salo (food)

For other uses, see Salo (disambiguation).

Salo, sliced small and sprinkled with black pepper, usually it has a layer of meat

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A slab of słonina aged in paprika, popular in Eastern Europe

Salo (Romanian: slănină, Hungarian: szalonna, Belarusian: сала, Russian and Ukrainian: сало, Bulgarian: сланина, Polish: słonina, Latvian: speķis, Lithuanian: lašiniai) is a traditional Eastern European food consisting of cured slabs of fatback (rarely pork belly), with or without skin. The food is commonly eaten and known under different names in countries across the region. It is usually salted or brine fermented, hence the names slonina/slana/szalonna (solonýna in Ukrainian means any kind of salt-cured meat, such as corned beef). The Eastern European one is sometimes treated with paprika or other condiments, while the Southeast European one is often smoked. The food is also popular in Serbia, Bulgaria and Macedonia.

The Slavic word "salo" as applied to this type of food (it has other meanings as well) is often translated to English as "bacon" or "lard". Unlike lard, salo is not rendered. Unlike bacon, salo is not necessarily bacon-cured. Salo has little or no meat (skeletal muscle), and low-meat high-fat bacon commonly is referred to as salo. It is also identical to Italian lardo, the main possible differences being the thickness of the cut (lardo is often sliced very thinly) and seasoning: East Slavic salo uses salt, garlic, black pepper and, possibly, a bit of coriander in curing process, while lardo is generally seasoned with rosemary and other herbs.

Preservation

For preservation, salo is salted, sometimes also smoked and aged in a dark and cold place, where it will last for a year or more. For flavouring and better preservation salo may be cured, or covered with a thick layer of paprika (usually in the more Western lands, in Russian salo with paprika is called "Hungarian"), minced garlic, or sometimes black pepper. The slabs of fat are cut into manageable pieces, typically 15×20 cm, and smeared with salt. The slabs are placed skin-down into a wooden box or barrel, alternating with one-centimetre layers of salt.

When salo has been aged too long, or exposed to light, the fat may become oxidized on the surface and become yellowed and bitter-tasting. This can be used as a water-repellent treatment for leather boots or as a bait for mouse traps or simply turned into homemade soap.

Culinary

Lašiniai, a Lithuanian type of salo

Salo may be consumed raw, but can also be cooked or fried or finely chopped with garlic as a condiment for borscht (beet soup). Small pieces of salo are added to some types of sausage. Thinly-sliced salo on rye bread rubbed with garlic is a traditional snack to accompany vodka in Russia, or, and particularly, horilka in Ukraine.

Salo is often chopped into small pieces and fried to render the fat for cooking, while the remaining cracklings (shkvarky in Ukrainian, spirgai in Lithuanian, skwarki in Polish, jumări in Romanian, kõrned in Estonian) are used as condiments for fried potatoes or varenyky, even spread on bread as a snack.

The thick pork skin that remains after using the salo's fat can also contribute to the stock for soup or borscht. After boiling it is discarded. If the rind is soft enough, it is sometimes chopped or ground with the salo itself to use as a snack spread with herbs and spices, where it provides bits of a pleasant chewy texture.

Chopped and fried salo can be used as filling for crescent-shaped baked bread roll in Latvian cuisine (in Latvian ― speķa pīrāgi or speķa rauši).

Salo in popular culture

In Eastern-European humour, salo is a stereotypical attribute of Ukrainians, analogous to vodka for Russians or spaghetti for the Italians.

Salo in chocolate

The expression "chocolate-coated salo" (Сало в шоколаді, salo v shokoladi), originating in an ethnic joke about Ukrainians, has become cliché among Eastern Slavs, referring to an eclectic mix of tastes or desires, such as bacon ice cream.

In the 2000s, Odessa Confectionery Factory started production of candies Salo v Shokoladi. The chocolate candies were invented as an April Fool's Day joke. They are not actually salo; they contain a regular caramel filling with a small amount of rendered fat added as a salty flavouring.

See also

• Charcuterie
• List of smoked foods