The "raw bacon" I ate in Odessa (Ukraine, not Texas) salo? What was it really?

#1

With the Ukraine (sadly) in the news, I recalled a dinner in which we ate rather more of a dish called “salo” or something like that. It was described to me as raw bacon but I’m guessing it wasn’t just straight raw bacon as there wasn’t any meat on it to speak of. The locals ate it with a dark rye bread after spicing it up with pepper, paprika, garlic, some green chopped up stuff. It wasn’t bad but I have been meaning to ask what it really was and this has to be the place where the “fat eaters” can advise. Gracias.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #2

I take it you’ve discounted the notion that it was actual raw bacon?

I only ask, because I have enjoyed steak tartare and carpaccio, and they are both forms of raw beef. Not to mention sushi/sashimi, which is raw fish. They all taste very different from the cooked versions.

(I’ve also had raw oysters, but found them uninteresting enough not to care if I never have them again. But thanks, @marklifestyle, for getting me to try them.)

(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #3

@Fracmeister My Russian wife confirms that ‘salo’ or something like that - emphasis on ‘sa’ - is bacon. So likely what you ate was indeed raw bacon. I can confirm from observation that raw bacon is a Russian ‘thing’.

#4

I ate plenty of unidentified stuff in Russia.

In Mongolia it was mainly horse and mutton. But since they cooked mutton everywhere, every thing smelled like mutton.

thanks for the insight. going to go with raw bacon but I suppose it could have been lightly cured and be essentially raw

(Bob M) #5

I read and listened to a lot of Jack London. At one time, he did stories in a paper that were subsequently published. That’s one of the ones I listened to, and they were mainly stories about people in the Yukon looking for gold. They ate raw bacon a lot. Probably a great food, as it’s got a good mix of protein and fat and is high calorie, which I’m sure you’d need.

(David Cooke) #6

You mean there are people that actually COOK oysters? Ye gods…

#7

Oh I didn’t know they say it similarly to us :smiley: It’s szalonna in Hungarian. All pork belly and pork jowl is called like that and I am super lost when I try to talk about these things in English.

I still don’t know what bacon is but it involves a lot of processing and zillion ingredients, isn’t it? Szalonna is a WAY wider thing than that. It’s pork belly (and sometimes jowl), sometimes raw, sometime cooked (it’s best very slowly cooked), sometimes 100% pork belly, sometimes other things are involved (salt is the most common, then comes paprika and the bacon has even sugar, it’s super weird and pretty foreign, why would one put sugar into MEAT? I hate that. Okay, I know US is all about sugared meat, apparently. We don’t often do that and some of us never).

I am a Hungarian, Ukraine is a neighbour country but the one I know close to nothing about. Including gastronomy.

I definitely dislike meatless pork belly (so, pork fat tissue, with or without skin. the skin isn’t eaten unless it’s a cooked stuff, I use it then but ground it first. it makes eggs dough-like for some reason and it reminds me of a traditional and very good pasta dish… well I use lard and paprika too so no wonder. and proper, traditional pasta is very eggy, at least here. the water is eggs. just like how I like things) but it’s me, Mom loved it and many Hungarians love it. Bread, pure fat (lard is an option too but a chewy raw fat tissue was the real thing for some reason), some strong spirit, it was a very common breakfast for peasants and workers as far as I know… Mom didn’t use the spirit, just the other two, it was a beloved small meal for her. I only ate it if he slowly cooked it to tenderness and covered it with salt and paprika. But I still want meat with my stuff. At least a few percentages.

#8

Thanks for a great reply. I enjoyed it. If nothing else to remind me of Hungary.

(Bob M) #9

Not really. I’ve made it at home, but I smoked it a higher temperature than what real bacon is smoked at. You need a “cold” smoker to make real bacon, which smokes at a lower temperature.

Most bacon is dry rubbed with “pink salt”, which is where the hysteria about nitrates/nitrites arises. Usually, you also use salt and some type of sugar, like brown sugar (white sugar + molasses). Let it sit in there a while. Then you cold smoke.

I always remember this one, although this uses a brine instead of a rub:

https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/scrap-iron-chefs-bacon-recipe-1939446

Also, instead of using brown sugar, he uses white sugar and molasses. That does provide better control, as you have no idea how much molasses is in brown sugar.

Edit: I guess he didn’t use pink salt for that one. Here’s one with pink salt, though this one doesn’t use any smoking (ah, what?):

I would call this brined pork belly, not bacon.

#10

That’s what I thought, very processed (so not just the animal cut into pieces) with a bit too many ingredients and sugar too. (But homemade is surely better and simpler, indeed.)
So not just pork belly. “Szalonna” only means that, it’s just a cut from the animal - or possibly with extra stuff but most are sold normally or just salted. Okay, we have smoked ones, probably still without sugar as why would we add sugar? But that’s not bacon. We only call those sliced very processed packaged things “bacon” but it’s not our word so I wasn’t fully sure what actually is bacon for an English speaker. I am still not, actually. And I am always lost how to call the pork fat tissue so I call it pork fat tissue. And the meaty stuff pork belly. Except when I talk about pork jowl and I do that often as that is a staple for me, cooked and covered with paprika. Yum. If I want to reach 1000 kcal/minute eating speed (I never do, actually), I grab that. It’s useful when I can’t normal food but need the calories/satiation too. I always can eat that stuff when my body needs food. Probably even when it doesn’t but I am very very careful as I overeat without any help.
Mmmm… Yes, I think this will be my last vegetarian day for a while as planned :slight_smile: (I just had a few. The first time since I first tried carnivore. I think I had exactly 0 meatless day since due to not having any meat on hand but I probably still ate lard.)
Though I can think fondly of things without wanting to eat them.

(David Cooke) #11

Too complicated. Making bacon was originally a method of preserving meat over winter. Salt helps to dry the meat. Smoking helps to dry the meat. I saw in Portugal how the farmers had a wooden box ‘out back’. They just put in legs of pork + other bits, added a LOT of sea salt and just left it there until needed.
What is described as ‘recipes for making bacon’ are over complicated.
Pink salt I have never used, as far as I can see it is claimed to be more effective at preventing the meat from going bad. I have been making bacon (from all sorts of cuts, not just pork belly.) and never had any problems. I live in a hot and humid tropical climate so if I can do it, so can you.
Pork + salt.

(Lucia Roth) #12

A Russian friend of mine told me as well, that “salo” is raw bacon. But each family in Ukraine (and restaurant) has its own vision of how “salo” should look and taste. Thus, I tasted two different types. Home-made salo and salo in the restaurant. The homemade was too salty but with cola it was good.

(Robin) #13

Welcome! Glad you have joined us.

(Bob M) #14

That’s charcuterie, but not “bacon” as we Americans call bacon. Ours is cold smoked.

Can you do it differently? I’m sure you can, as long as you know what you’re doing.

I tend to agree with this:

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Or this:

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