Sailor, Soldier, & Explorer Rations: Food for the Commoner - Salt Pork
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- Опубликовано: 13 май 2024
- Preparing Salt Pork • Preparing Salt Pork - ...
Cooking With Salt Pork • Salt Pork and Beef Pie... and
• Soup, Stew and Hash - ...
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I noticed you poured some liquid over the pork after filling the barrel, was that just water? Thank you, very interesting video
Where did they get all that salt? You used quite a bit in just that little barrel.
i was wondering the same pity no reply, i was like why so much salt if you are going to make it wet@@elliot2291
I’m curious whether you stumbled upon the following during your research: did they also use potassium nitrate to ‘salt’ their meat? it must have been widely available as it is the main ingredient for gun powder. nowadays it is quite common in the meat industry and used to prolong shelf life. we also know it as E252. you will find it in all kinds of meat products: packaged ham and bacon, tinned products like spam and so on. thank you for your work!
It seems like if i was to preserve it for a few months i could use 5 gallon plastic buckets, food grade, of course
"Salt Pork" is the name of the dish, the ingredients list, _and_ the preparation instructions!
lol
@@generalsavage4103 Take her where? To the store to buy some salt and pork?
(EDIT: This comment was originally replying to a comment that (for some reason?) said "Take my wife." which has since been deleted.)
How perfectly true!!!
"Salt Pork"
Ingredients:
-Salt
-Pork
Instructions: salt pork
That defies the universe’s natural order.
“The salted pork is particularly good”
“Salted Pork?”
This was running through my head the whole time lol
Same.
Glad I wasn't the only one
Glad I’m not the only one
I looked for you immediately lol
Followed by 'Po tat toes! Boil em mash em stick em in a stew'
“The salt pork is particularly good”-pippin
I was looking for a lotr comment
My thoughts exactly.
Salted pork!
Uuuhhhggg hobbits …..
You young rascals!!! A merry hunt you've led us on, and now we find you... feasting, and-and... SMOKING!!
This is the same reason Caribbean people eat salt fish or salted cod, the salt preserves it but when you are ready to eat it you would soak it to get the salt out so becomes edible
In the 60's, in the USVI it was served in the school lunches. (Usually, Salt fish & Funji)
I remember my dad talking about his father, who would buy a barrel of salt fish every Christmas, it was considered a treat in Depression era rural Virginia.
If you are on a boat with limited fresh water can you use sea water to rinse the salt off Have you ever seen that ?
@@sailingyoumeandjosapea6770 I'm sure you can. It would still be salty but less than before
Salt cod was invented either by my ancestors (the basque) or the Portuguese in order to transport fish from the new world to Europe.
I am well into my seventies. My grandfather, born in the 1880's, was a farmer and made his own salt pork. So I have actually tasted it and loved it as a kidlet. Every time my mother and grand mother would go up to Birmingham(Al) to go shopping, my grand father and I would have salt pork, three times that day. He was not supposed to eat it but his concession to good health was to boil it before frying, to reduce the salt content. It was still very salty even after boiling. That was part of the appeal.
Now I am in my seventies and live in Canada,.His salty pork and the stuff from our big garden of that time, is some of the flavours I really miss these days.
There were a lot of things you could do with it. I was particularly fond of white beans cooked with salt pork with collards on the side. Corn bread was was always part of lunch and dinner. My mother called those things and brown bread "poor people's food" and did not eat them. She would not touch it , being a very modern woman of the fifties.Ha.
My grandparents would be right at home with my cooking these days.
Did you know you can eat the leaves of the artichoke plant, just like collards. I twice boiled them. They really were similar to collards. My friends up there, (Northern BC) thought I was crazy and refused to try it. I could have really grossed them out with some 0f Daddy Powell's salt pork.
Thanks for sharing!
Such an interesting story! Thanks and hope you're doing well Mr!
Thank you for sharing this story!
That's good eating 😁
all of that sounds amazing.
Standard military ration back then:
Salt Beef
Hardtack
Chisel & Hammer
Hard liquor to keep you somewhat sane
imagine that is what our militaries got this, they would not be crying about the MRE's
@@Alpha-up3mo they'd be too drunk to care.
Side note hardtack was often cooked with "pork greese" to make a hellfire stew
@@rodgersvalkyrie2379 yeah made it more bearable, I have done that
Even the liquor was hard. Must be tough.
Goddam, that’s how you keep a pile of dudes ready to fight all the time right there.
Salt pork, is basically the infamous Christmas Ham we have in Sweden. We have a very small amount of sugar in it, too. Today we also add salpeter, for the color (pinkish - red).
We boil it, or bake it in the oven covered with aluminium foil.
Then it will get cold, the skin will be pulled off, and the ham will be covered with a mix of egg and sweet mustard, topped with bread crumbs, and grilled in the oven until golden brownish.
Served cold.
Pork legs, boiled and eaten with mashed rutabagas (for a smoother texture some potatoes too, also for a brighter orange color a couple of carrots) boiled in the broth from boiling the pork. Old, traditional food, still popular.
Pork sides (the "bacon part) sliced (4-8 millimeter) fried in a skillet, served with either:
Boiled potatoes, a sauce of chopped, and gently fried onions and cream (of course double cream is best 😋), gently with salt, and a lot of black pepper, and a pinch of white pepper. Heavenly.
Or "Brown Beans": Dried brown beans, soaked, boiled, a little potato starch, vinegar, syrup or sugar, salt and pepper.
Served with or without boiled potatoes.
Or stewed fresh cabbage (summer cabbage, not stored the whole winter, it works, but not as tasty).
Cut the cabbage into pieces, boil in water with some salt. Drain most of the water, use wheat flour and (double) cream to thicken the water, salt and pepper.
Served with or without boiled potatoes.
The most popular Swedish dishes with salted pork, up to today!
That sounds delightful and way more appetizing than Surstromming! 🇸🇪
Fascinating info, Townsend!
An extensive pork trade developed between Tahiti and New South Wales during the early 19th century (1800 - 1827).
Polynesian peoples brought pigs with them during their settlement of the South Pacific. There were plenty of them in the Islands, including Tahiti, which was one of the first Polynesian islands discovered by French and British explorers in the mid-1700s.
When the British established their penal colony in New South Wales, Australia, they needed to secure a reliable source of food until the colony could establish its own farms and ranches. Tahiti provided a perfect place for them to get supplies, as opposed to having them shipped halfway across the world from Europe or South Africa.
The pork was salted in Tahiti and barreled before being transported to the colony.
The Sydney Gazette (the colony’s newspaper at that time) reported ships arriving from “Otaheite” with 20 tons of salted pork “in the highest preservation.”
Aloha 😊🤙🏼
There is a reason why if you are concerned about emergencies, never neglect salt. Not only do you need it to live, it's also great for food preservation. Not only that, spices, like salt and pepper can make marginal foods palatable.
You'd be surprised how quickly you go through it, too, if you cook.
@@noahboucher125 Indeed!
And Tobasco
@@noahboucher125 the sad part is, most people get plenty salt from food they buy in the streets. These people don't truly know how to cook. They eat from boxes from the supermarket with nutrition labels...
So they don't ever need to use any salt. Yet they are not educated. so they eat McDonald's and then come home and make salad with store dressing... They eat microwave hot dogs and store bread. So no these people should not buy any salt at all. In fact they should be banned from buying salt but... Hey doctors gotta have sick patients...
It's a system.
@@blackleague212 now you're bumming me out
This is how we still do salt pork in Romania.
We do it exactly like you showed it, but we only keep it in salt for 2 weeks.
We did this so that the pork wont get to hard, after that you wash it and then fry all of it. To store it you place it in a barrel and then pore melted lard over it.
When you want to eat it you can take it out and eat it cold or reheat it. Because the lard becomes salty you can also eat it by spreading it on bread so nothing goes to waist.
Its kind of like pork jerky but not as hard.
*pour.
Pore is where sweat comes from
*Waste
Waist is the hips, pelvis, etc
@@australiananarchist480 who cares...
@@samuryebread1065 your mum.
@@australiananarchist480 They're Romanian. Look the other way, bud. They're doing us a favor by making the comment in any form of English even if there are a couple of incredibly minor grammatical errors.
@@jeffman3 I am aware of that, hence I provided the definitions. Is there's something wrong with correcting someone?
I am from Newfoundland canada. It is common to buy large chunks of salt beef or smaller buckets of salt beef. The salt beef is either added to soup or boiled in a pot with carrots, potatoes and other vegetables. Usual this is accompanied with roasted chicken, turkey or some other fresh meet and covered in gravy for what we call "cook supper" or "sunday dinner". Salt cod and hard bread with fried pork fat is also traditional newfoundland food.
YES I was searching for a Newfie in the comment section or else I was going to comment myself! My mom grew up with it every Sunday, I grew up having it 3-4 times a year for holidays (too much food for a typical weekend).
Love me some Jiggs Dinner byes! Whahaha
I came here to say this! For those not from around here, salt beef often comes in a 2kg bucket (Google "Old Port cured trimmed naval beef" to see such a bucket), but you can buy it in smaller portions too. I think it's probably not as salty as it was a couple hundred years ago, though. It's often refrigerated and doesn't really get break-your-teeth hard like he describes in the video.
Historically, salt cod was also a staple but you don't really see it these days. Maybe you'd use some for fish and brews, but fresh cod works too so you wouldn't necessarily go out of your way for salt cod. Fun fact, fish and brews, also known as fisherman's brewis, is a recipe that uses hard tack (insert Max Miller *clack clack* sound here), so you can still buy hard tack in most Newfoundland grocery stores.
Must be from town, lots of salt fish around the bay!!
@@nolankarat5169 Guess again, bud 😂 Not every part of the bay is the same - and mine has veeeeery little salt cod these days.
2022: “wow this is such a cool video about historical food preservation”
2024: *A video about how to preserve food during the global depression*
A friend of mine, who is now in his 70s, grew up on a subsistence farm in rural New Brunswick. They would slaughter pigs for their own consumption, salt them, and store them in barrels in the root cellar to get them through the winter. This would have been in the late 1950s early 60s. It died out later than you might think.
People are still salting foods for preservation, even some locations where fridges are commonplace.
My family did this well into the 80's. I know others that do it today too. It is still very common.
Salt pork is a main ingredient of my Mom's New Brunswick baked beans. Nowadays we use the "salt pork" you can sometimes find in the store or we use bacon.
My dad and grandpa did it in the 90s here in the US.
country ham is what we do we still make them our selfs its basically a ham quarter covered in salt and hung to dry its one of my favorite things to eat and we do salted pork in a barrel we cure a lot of meats our self and smoke
them as well
I am 55, from the Tennessee Valley, in Alabama. My parents lived through the Great Depression; my father fought in WWII. I was born late in their lives, youngest of many children. I was raised on a farm, and lived many of the realities featured on this channel. We slaughtered and salted down a hog every year, in this very fashion, until 1985.
Then I was born
@@PiRaHelTur you’re shot but that made me laugh lol
56 in Tennessee valley also, in shoals area
Everything, except the hearts, lites, and other organs, or fat that was rendered into lard, or meat made into sausage, was stored in a salt box for a period of time. Then hams, picnics, belly, and so on was smoked for added flavor and dryness.
This is what you call a "salt of the earth" upbringing.
In the early 90's I took a job in an old time family grocery store, as a butcher. The customer demographic was mostly older folks, and they wanted salt pork. Really had no idea what I was doing, but apparently I got it right, because they seemed to like it.
its funny to hear you talk about how "there's nothing like this today" because I grew up having salt pork living in the US as a kind of delicacy. Of course, that was because my mother's family was from the Caribbean and my grand uncle would make traditional "Portuguese" salt pork at family gatherings. Tragically I was never super involved in making it but as far as I could tell it was pork bought at the super market, salted much like how you did in the video and left for a few days. Then it was pulled out, soaked in water, cut into cubes, seasoned, and fried in oil. One of my favorite islander dishes growing up.
Here in Austria it's also a delicacy. "Surfleisch" it's called and most often used for Schnitzel.
Question: Does salt pork taste good raw?
Answer: *It can be digested*
If you’ve ever eaten Parma ham then you have eaten raw salt pork, so yes.
@@MrTokinwhiteboy or Prosciutto
jamón serrano is raw salt pork, and is one is the best stuff that you can eat
It's were the phrase ," chewing the fat" is originated from
@@RobertSmith-fx7oe i did not know the expresion, what does it means?
My Great-Grandfather loved hogs and salting pork. Once a year, the farm would slaughter enough animals to make about 800 gallons of lard and several tons of pork meat. They'd make bacon out of some of the bellies, saltpork out of the rest, and that would feed the whole farm, over thirty people, a pound or more of pork a day until the next slaughter. Extra saltpork would be gifted to friends about town or sold for some extra cash. Indeed, Mister Bob so loved his hogs that when ill-health compelled him to retire from active farming in the 1950s, he insisted on raising one last herd of hogs by hand, same as he had since the 1870s. A real reminder that within living memory, real saltpork was a part of American life.
The best thing about this story is that his name is Mister Bob.
@@MichaelKingsfordGray Care to explain?
@@genericpersonx333 ignore this idiot he is just a stupid troll...report him and then delete him..
Have a good day!
Mike 🇨🇦 🍁
@@michaellippmann4474 Report him? What are you going to report him for? Claiming someone else is lying? Thats something you will spend your time reporting for? Its not even an option on the list because nobody has time for that.
What a silly thing to do with your time.
Did they ever make hog head hash?
I love your content man. Very refreshing to see the videos you make
Here in Germany we have Kasseler, which is pork pickled in salt. Still a popular dish, usually served cooked wit mashed potatoes and (B-dumm, Tishhh!) Sauerkraut. My grandmother used to prepare it as she learnt from a Silesian housekeeping teacher around 100 years ago. The Kasseler would be fried in (a good chunk of) butter a big pot until it had a good brown crust. then a cut up onion would be added and fried with the Kasseler for a bit. I guess the onion should not go beyond transparent there. Then water was added and the whole left cooking on for at least half an hour, then sauce thickener added to get the sauce to a creamy texture. I don't remember any further spices that got added. Sauerkraut was heated in another pot and salt potatoes cooked to go with it.
Done right, this gave an incredible amount of delicious sauce. The meat had a wonderfully tender texture and a mild saltiness to it and (Attention, culinary barbarism incoming:) when you squish the potatoes with a fork, soak them in the sauce and add just the right amount of Sauerkraut to that on the for, the slight sweetness of the potato, the fruity-sour note of the Sauerkraut and the mild saltiness of the sauce combine to a whole that just tingles all your taste buds in the most delightful ways!
I imagine these recipes have their origin in salt pork, now that I learn about it! 🤗
Moreover this just got me hungry, and that right after lunch! 🥴
my ancestor had a salt mine, in his writeings he talks about his problems when the nearby "rival" mine got utterly wrecked by a flood in the spring.
he simply can't keep up with demand, as the next closest mine is burdened by several tolls and tariffs a good bit of the land buys from him or tries to.
He writes about ferrying people on carts from far off villages and building barracks for them, prices rise well more like skyrocket. He overpays the workers as there is just not enugh hands on deck.
it is insane how dependent people were on salt back then.
It's insane how dependent people are on electricity today!
@@MyerShift7 electricity can be gained in almost any place in the world, it is a highly redundant production system. salt was not back then.
brine mine
@@gh0st_0f_b0b_chandler insine in the mine brine
May I ask what state it country this was in?
I love this channel. When I was a kid, my farmer friend had a piece of meat nailed to the kitchen wall for a long time. I asked him about it once, and he said, "It's 10 year bacon. Do you want a piece?" I said yes (because I was an adventurous kid), and he pulled the nail out, wiped the dust off of it, (not exaggerating) and cut off a piece for me. Not sure what it really was, or how it was really prepared, but it was delicious.
Sounds delicious
Probably dry cured and smoked pork belly. Or as he said, 10 yr bacon.
@@theKashConnoisseur Very interesting. I'm going to look for the recipe for it. It really was delicious. Thanks for the insight.
Long Pork
Definitely cured meat. Must have been smoked or treated somehow before being nailed to the wall, otherwise you'd be dead
It was fun to watch this one first and then the one about actually making salt pork in a barrel from 11 years ago! What a clean-shaven, whipper-snapper! New or old, all of these videos are a treat. So grateful to have you all making them then and now, a real treasure trove of useful and interesting information. Thanks a bunch.
I'm an aspiring fantasy author, and significance of salt as a food preservative and the prevalence of pigs given how easy they were to farm is incredibly fascinating to me. Thank you so much for this video!
Hit me up if/when you publish a book
@Freedom of Speech Enjoyer who says authors have to write for readers? George R.R. is obsessed with feasts, Rothfass and Tolkein are infatuated with language, why the hell would you waste what little life you are given to satisfy someone else at your own expense?
@Freedom of Speech Enjoyer and I could write an essay on how pissing your life away worried about what other people like is ignorant. But that would be dumb, and a bit of a waste of time. So you go write that essay, I'm sure you'll make it have the broadest mass appeal and not at all dry
You should also keep-in mind the importance of good old salt!
@Freedom of Speech Enjoyer Well. Where is it then, big man? 😶
John, your presentation skills are simply incredible; there were a few long, uninterrupted cuts of you discussing a topic, too naturally to be read from a script, with absolutely no skips or lulls of any kind. Just a steady, well constructed, engaging train of thought straight from the top of your head. It's obvious just how well you know your stuff.
He's had 13 years of practice - the early videos can be a little rough, and he's actually done a few salt pork videos before, but he's decided to remake them and present that information in their more documentary style.
He could read me to sleep. So calm and soothing. Almost the Bob Ross of 18th century living
When you referenced making salt pork in the colder months, it reminded me of when I learned how to make sausage. My wife's family included several elders who had immigrated from Czechoslovakia, where sausage making was a family tradition. We visited when they were all gathered at one farm to make sausage on a February morning. They waited until that month so they could include the venison taken during the hunting season that usually ended in January. We set up tables in the unheated garage and began by cutting up meat for grinding. All of the meat was just laid out on the tables and everyone grabbed a knife and a hunk of meat and started cutting. Before long we had a makeshift assembly line of people cutting, grinding, mixing in spices, stuffing in casings and carrying out to the smokehouse to be hung for several hours. There were different types and sizes of sausage made and those that didn't require smoking were packaged up and put into coolers. As the meat was brought out of the smoke house, it too was packaged up and put into coolers. Everyone left that day with an equal amount of sausage, as everyone had donated equal cash amounts to purchase the pork, spices and casings. A larger portion was given to those who supplied the venison. It was an enjoyable get together that saw a variety of people talking, joking, drinking, making music, singing and generally just getting along on a cold February day in North Texas.
Thanks for sharing! It reminds me of a similar setting in the house of my grandfather down here in Argentina.
Those are the time of traditions that I miss the most. Not only for the awesome food produced there, but for the quality of social interactions.
Best wishes!
I know a guy, killed 16 cheqs single handled, he was an interior decorator
Good times
That’s always a fun time. My family does something similar, I’m in Minnesota so my family gets together in November/December to butcher hogs, cattle, sheep. Everyone dresses their animal then I cut them up. It’s great fun. I’m trying to find a good way to catch blood for blood sausage.
@@artsofthewood5748 I never made any blood sausage. But, I bet there's a video out there of someone collecting blood for it. I swear I could find a video on building a space rocket if I wanted to!
Just started watching this channel and I have to say great commentary, music, photos, information! Very well put together and myself being a "history buff" (not expert at all!!! haha) can really appreciate this kind of well developed content and maybe learn somethings and have an appreciation of where how we came to be? Not to mention how we are, and when and where we come from through the looking glass of history... . I am looking forward to watching more and hope the channel continues... Thanks!
There is a salt pork you can get today, that is the same as over 100 years ago and its delicious. In Spain its Serano Ham and in Italy Prosciutto, also not forgetting the salami's.
I've been salting hams (aka prosciutto) and hanging them in my basement for 20 years, so the salt pork isn't completely lost in the modern era.
I love me some prosciutto..
Ristretto
Do you have to cover the meat?
@@ryand141 I'll cover yours
Do you eat them after 20 years or use them as the perfect murder weapon?
Here in Newfoundland, salt pork is commonplace. It is used to make a traditional "jiggs dinner" which features salt pork. It is also use as a main ingredient in pea soup. You can buy it at any supermarket and most convenient stores. I comes in one pound portions vacuum sealed or by the five pound pail.
Newfoundland has kept so many old recipes.
Yes, same here in Quebec. Salt pork is available at the supermarket.
Yeah man, love me a good jiggs dinner
We use ham in pea soup. I wish we could get salt pork for baked beans and other things.
My grandmother still makes a jiggs dinner every Sunday to this day. A hearty and soulful meal that will always be one of my favourites
I just finished a book called Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky, it’s an interesting read that traces the history of salt mining and extraction and the world trade that’s gone on since prehistory. Plus it has some interesting recipes for salting and using various salted commodities that were traded all over the world. I love your channel, keep ‘em coming!✌️
I love this book! Such an interesting read
@@weirdbuttrue24 Right? So much information on such a taken for granted and absolutely essential commodity.
It must be remembered that seafarers didn't immediately go straight into salted meat on joining a ship - they got fresh for as long as possible - ir was only on the longer voyages after the fresh had run out that they started on salt pork and salt beef etc.
Impeach democrats
Turtles were often kept on ships alive for fresh meat. Off the coast of Florida is an island called Dry Tortuga. Dry because it had no fresh water Tortuga is the Spanish word for turtle. The island was overrun with turtles. A fresh meat source for ships!
@@albertsnow8835 I learned something, always wondered where/what it was named for.
@@albertsnow8835 there are old journals that praised turtle fat as far superior than any other for cooking and taste lol
@@missourimongoose8858 Franklin disapproves of your comment
I hail from Estonia. Bordering with Russia. Once the Ukraine war broke out...the stores were bought clean from salt. Most likely to prepare salted meat (either farmed or game meat) when electricity could go out.
It's coming. Use these screens you have access to, to learn how to survive without them. Here in the USA, 90% of us were not taught how to survive without Big Daddy Government, & Hand outs. Hunt, Fish, Build.
@@StanHowse Yeah I can easily see how 400 million people going hunting and fishing would work out well. You prepper nutters are funny.
@@catriona_drummond Indeed. There's about ~25 million deer in America. That would last the American population...a single day. Its funny when people just insult mass production and not realize how important it is.
@@catriona_drummond what part of “90% of us” did you not get? Besides that, it doesn’t hurt to keep a stocked pantry and hunting implement handy does it?
@@primethread The part where it's acceptable that these 90 % are apparently just supposed to die in the happy prepper world.
And it makes no difference at all. There is not enough wildlife in the US for 10% of you to survive on, not even for 1%.
Really keeps you invested for the duration of the video.
Definitely interesting to see common good preservation techniques and food items from times past
I had a research paper that I needed to do for US history and remembering this video made me write about salt pork. Props to Townsend for inspiring me to do this. I of course used this video as a source.
My grandfather was from Spain and cured ham in salt. I am 52 now, but when I was a kid we would cut a piece of that cured ham and eat it like jerky. I don’t know how he prepped or cured the meat, as I only ever seen it in a box completely covered in salt yet, the meat wasn’t overly salty. Wish he was still alive so I can get his recipes. So much gardening and food prepping/storage knowledge has been lost since my grandparents passing over a decade ago.
its because the baby boomers didn't want to do the hard work of preservation methods because they associated it with poverty and got used to eating from already canned and convenience foods ..
Was it considered Iberian Ham?
Jamón serrano. Still a Spanish staple food
That's a national Spain thing, you can find cured ham almost in every kitchen that they cut a little several times during the day
It’s worth remembering that American hogs would’ve been fattened on chestnuts, which would’ve been plentiful every autumn before the blight came in the early 20th century. Fresh or salted, it could be very high quality, perhaps better than modern factory farmed pork.
Much better.
Which is why several companies have tried to bring back older breeds and feeding methods.
In my state we have a company that hired farmers to grow Berkshire hogs. Omg they are so good. The bacon alone is amazing, you can try it at the yearly "blue ribbon bacon festival".
@@ericwilliams1659 But they have also introduced an invasive species, so you know, thanks for that. The older Euro breeds, can be crazy-wild and very mean.
@@StanHowse invasive species? If you are referring to pigs in America - all pigs are an invasive species.
But I guess it depends on what country you are talking about.
Beechnuts and acorns were more common hog fattening fare in New England.
There’s a traditional Chinese dish that I get wherever I find it that uses salt pork in tiny bits in a “hot pot.” It’s so delicious! I’ve had the same dish without the salt pork, still good but not the same.
What is the dish called?
This is my first time watching your channel. This video genuinely gives me a weird sense of understanding. I have always known that we heavily salted our foods to preserve them before the dawn of modern refrigeration. But in hearing the rhetoric of how much they would buy, how long it would last, etc. It gave me a connection to these ancestors.
Because I looked over, at a room covered head to toe in hobby items, the sheer difference in mind set. Whereas I am constantly looking for reason, trying to understand how to spend this time on the earth pursuing the things I am passionate about. These men had survival at the forefront of every action.
I don't worry during winter that I may run out of food. I don't worry during winter that I will freeze. Our modern fighting back at everything which has impeded us is laudable but also has left us entirely disconnected from all whom came before this era of abject comfort.
How in the world would even the greatest thinkers of past era's gaze upon us, how would they interpret the things which we spend our time on now. In the absence of strife and hardship we are left confused and flailing, looking for some kind of release from the endless mundanity of security. No wonder I and many other turn to combat sports, outdoor hiking, etc. We yearn to have our lives at risk and feel alive in the process, we yearn for that feeling of things being tangible and real again. Now I have a much better understanding for why I have always adored looking back at how our ancestors lived, they had harder lives but were better people for it.
It's also important to remember that pigs at that time were significantly different from modern pigs. They used to be raised primarily for lard production (i.e. lard hogs) but they have been bred to be larger, more muscular, and far, far leaner than pigs in the past. Additionally, most cows were working animals, or at least mature animals, prior to slaughter. As a result, the fattier, more tender pork made a better product than the leaner, tougher beef did.
I remember reading an account of English farmers being so particular about the quality of the lard from their hogs that they'd change what they fed them for the last few weeks before slaughtering them so the lard was harder at room temperature. They'd fatten them on acorns, field peas or whatever was at hand but then feed them barley grain for the last couple of weeks.
I'm from Brazil where cattle was always the primary livestock, specially in the Northeast during the 17-18th century. But the main reason cattle was raised was for leather production, our history teacher showed us some accounts of people writing that beef was extremely tough and sinewy, even on what today would be considered prime cuts and that the cheaper ones were inedible if they weren't boiled.
Jason. I think we’ve lost so much flavor with factory style farming.
@@ranman5501 It had nothing to do with factory style farming. It was the nonsense that started in the 80s that fat is bad for you. People wanted leaner meats, so the farmers switched breeds.
@@MollymaukT There are accounts I've read from Argentina of piles of thousands of skimned cattle rotting on the side of the road.
Because the only part of the animal that was worth selling was the leather. Beef was so abundant it was worthless.
As a kid here in Louisiana my dad would make what he called "green bacon". We would butcher a hog and scald it to remove the hair. Then he would cut what would be the bacon and cover it in salt and store it in a large crock.
Uh... what made it green?
@@vigilantcosmicpenguin8721 oxidizing most likely
@@vigilantcosmicpenguin8721 "green" in most old contexts means "new" or "not aged"
@@KairuHakubi Which makes "the moon is green cheese" make a lot more sense.
@@mindstalk exactly
though as this channel showed us, sometimes (prombambly not in this case) cheese didn't even mean coagulated milk, but any ol' thing as long as it's squished together into a firm mass like 'head cheese' or those 'cheese pies' that contained no dairy.. in fact, the longer I think about it, the more I imagine 'cream cheese' is not meant to be a very very raw cheese, but just 'the 'cheese' you can make out of cream'
man, I really love your videos, you do such a great job with all the primary sources. thank you!
Thank you for all of your knowledge 🙂
My great aunt made salt pork. She lived in eastern Kentucky and I always remember going there when I was a kid and seeing her kitchen table full of food all day and one dish that was always on that table was salt pork. And I loved it.
yeah my family from eastern kentucky did salt pork well into the 90s. they they just buy country ham at the grocery
@Whotube it was real salty and on the tougher side but who knows how long it was stored. I remember it being much darker than pork usually is.
I can't think of this without remembering the following exchange from the Lord of the Rings movies:
Pippin: "We are sitting on a field of victory, enjoying a few well-earned comforts. The salted pork is particularly good."
Gimli: "Salted pork..."
Yeah, that always pops into my mind as well =D
That actually made my mouth water lol.
I keep remembering the kids in the hall skit about salty ham 😂
Ah! Another man of culture!
"we're under orders from treebeard, who's taken over management of Isengard"
I would really love for you to do a video on reclaiming salt after using the meat that had been preserved in salt. I have seen it done on a large scale as for a whole community but how did a single family reclaim their salt?
I grew up on the family farm my grandfather established in the very early 1900's the farm was self sufficient through the '50s growing rice and sugar cane and I remember the salt room in the back rooms separated from the rest of the house. A huge heavy table and bins of salt . And the smell of the smoke house.
my mother in 1990s USSR did exactly like this. Fridges were like 13 cu.ft. so no much space there for it. So she put pork in glass containers with salt and meat became like cured meat which could be eaten raw. It was very tasty. It was stored in basement in cold spot. You can not place whole pig in 13 cu.ft fridge. Meat became nice brown color and smell very good with spices in it.
13 cubic foot freezer will almost fit 2 butchered pigs. My freezer is only 7.5 cubic feet and i put an entire pig and some beef in it 3 months ago.
@@josephroach711 clearly there were other goods in the fridge….
Do you remember what spices she used?
@@josephroach711 She was referring to her fridge, but doesn't mention her freezer, does she?
We did the same thing like 10 years ago, except we also put salted water in the jars, boiled a pot of water with the jars and left it in the basement. Took it out like 3 years later and it was still good.
I was born in the 1950's and I like this channel of the old ways. in the 50's there was not a lot of grocery store even then, most had gardens and land with chickens, fruit trees, plums. Today houses are built so close to each other that you hardly have any land and no trees. Truly having a home then you could be independent and survive. People did not kill weeds that was food. speaking of the dandelion in the yard, can provide so such for your pantry. Thank you for such a great channel.
I left the big city for the country. Started an orchard and have a huge garden. Life is good!
I used to pick sorrel in the garden. Makes a great soup ( Poland)
So glad this popped up in my feed. Thank you for the knowledge
I love these kinds of historical videos about how people just got stuff done back in the day. great video mate, really cool!
Brings back memories: In History class in college, we had to do research on how food was preserved in early California. Because I was in the US Navy, I decided to study some of the foods that were shipped on sail ships leaving the West coast of early California. They had salted meats, dried meats, slabs and slabs of smoked bacon, dried beans and several types of grain products, nuts, a lot of split peas, regular crackers, ship's biscuits (type of hardtack), cones of sugar, citrus fruits, a small supply of other fresh fruit, dried fruit, honey, molasses, salt, seasonings, barrels and barrels of water, and more (some strange) items that shipped well. There were two items some captains required. 1.) Pressed cakes of dried fruit. 2.) A dried biscuit that contained dried fruit that was a favorite of the officers. I have found pressed cakes of fruit, however, try as hard as I could, I could not find how they made the biscuits with dried fruit. As I understand it was like hardtack with fruit they soaked in a rum syrup (ruhm in the records) or brandy syrup.
Yeah, that sounds like a fruitcake hardtack hybrid to me... you've got me curious now, I'm gonna have to google this
That's fascinating! Thank you for sharing.
I guess a lot of what soldiers ate was based around the question of, how do we make hardtack good?
@@vigilantcosmicpenguin8721 this is still how the military decides what to feed us to this very day
@@vigilantcosmicpenguin8721 This is true. The general answer is hard tack was hard as nails and inedible raw. But it was just a version of what was common food at the time, which was eating your soup with bread. The bread was a filler and a spoon at the same time. It was either crumbled into your soup bowl, left to soak and then eaten, or you would break a piece off and soak it in the broth, then eat it. So spoon in one hand, fingers in the bowl in another. Bite of soup, bite of bread. Pretty much how it went as far as I can tell.
It's still used today as a precursor to dried meat in the middle east, the Balkans, Mongolia. Salted first to pull out moisture and then air dried, rather than smoked and then air dried. It's pretty easy to do and it's great with wines and hard liquor, salted only or with spices. This is also how most of our(Bulgarian) sausages are made.
Such an interesting video! Thanks for sharing this rich history of something I would not think of!
Thank you. Nothing valued more than information. And you shared so much of it
Regardling laws on salt pork, Virginia, my home state, still have laws on what constitutes a “real” smithfield ham. “No person shall knowingly, label, stamp, pack, advertise, sell, or offer for sale any ham, either wrapped or unwrapped, in a container or loose, as a genuine Smithfield ham unless such ham be a genuine Smithfield ham as defined in § 3.2-5419.”
Its still taken very very seriously. Which, smithfield ham is delicious.
Chinese bought it.
Unfortunately the Chinese have made "Smithfield" not as appealing as it once was
Being that ChiComs bought Smithfield, Wonder what would happen if Virginia citizens would bring a court challenge to any changes of ham production violating the Virginian law. That would be fun to watch.
@@lindaplue4385 i wasnt aware china bought smithfield hams. Im originally from Shenandoah county, so Smithfield hams were just something we had every christmas and thanksgiving.
@@bangel14141 yup was a huge deal in the news because they were buying a lot of food plants here at the time, this was right after the infant formula/milk poisoning scandals in china
In Newfoundland, Canada where I'm from, salt pork is still available. It is treasured as it really spruces up a boiled dinner made with potatoes, carrots, turnip, cabbage and peas pudding.
Yeah, Jiggs Dinner is delicious.
Yes, please! How I miss my great-grandma's cooking! Boiled dinner was my very favorite feast!
Every now and then salt pork in gallon buckets from Newfoundland makes an appearance in Ontario grocery stores. That and purity biscuits.
It can still be gotten on the west coast but you have to search for it Cooking in Newfoundland has a lot in common to cooking in the American south.
@@johnathonwright7920and in Ireland
Thank you so much for posting this
wow your cinematic footage is stunning! My Lumberjack and I live on our homestead, it has been passed down from MacKenzie father to son's since 1875. We will be passing it down to our girls. I appreciate your journey back in time
In Sweden se have the saying “ Nu är det kokta fläsket stekt!” which translates as “Now the boiled pork is fried!” and it means “now I/you/someone have really messed up!”.
Salted pork belly is still very popular in Sweden. It’s served with boiled potatoes and a creamy onion sauce and is delicious. I’d recommend anyone who travels here and visits a restaurant that serves husmanskost to try it.
it is in rural U.S.A (KY) also to a select fuw country folk who know how to do it still yet ! & i Love it !
Yum 😋
that sounds so tasty!
Mathilda, My name is Sharon.
Thank you for all of your info.
Can’t wait to visit your country someday. I live in the Southeastern United States.
I hope my son in Rosevik, Sweden will get to taste some of this.
Growing up in Chicago, my friends (who were Yugoslavian) used to make salt pork, cured meats, pasta/noodles/bread, sauerkraut, and even brandy. It was all soooo good - I miss it!
Yugoslavia 😭😭😭
Absolutely fascinating.
Thanks for posting.
Just discovered this channel only about 2 weeks ago. This is my favorite video so far. I really love to learn about the most mundane or common things from past eras like this. I think partly because those types of things tend to be sort of marvels at just how functional they are, hence how common they became. It makes me much more inclined to want to try reproducing them myself some day.
You *MUST* add some curing salt (saltpeter, potassium nitrate, Prague Powder 1, etc) if you plan on doing it as a preservation method (and i believe that's how they did it back in a day). The reason for this is Botulism, a potentially lethal disease cause by anaerobic bacteria Clostridium Botulinum. *You do not want botulism!* My uncle had it (got some homemade salted fish) and he barely made it alive.
botulism is the reason Im not a fan of dented cans and gas station nacho cheese
@@pigeon2806 Chubbyemu?
Saltpeter?
Potassium Nitrate?
Is salted pork useful as an explosive as well?
@@OZTutoh Pig urine and dung (urine becomes ammonia from bacteria on dung) are useful for making salt-peter; but the pork? Probably not.
I believe it was mentioned that some of the salt should be heated as much as possible and then rubbed on the pork. That passes as curing salt right?
As a kid in the 50-60s, we would salt venison for the deer camp (Nov-Dec) since refrigeration was not available. Even after many rinsings, the meat was very salty tasting.
I've never really been much into history but this was super interesting and engaging, I appreciate your presentation
This is so cool, I love learning these small tid-bits of history that had major impacts on life at the time and history overall.
It's both enlightening on how far we have come, and humbling regarding where we've been as a society.
I'm really glad I found this channel. It's not only interesting and informative, teaching a lot of interesting things. The videotography, especially the B-Roll footage is absolutely gorgeous to watch too. Amazing work.
Bruh get rid of that profile picture right now.
@@mustangbeauty4 how about no?
I remember _a_ _lot_ of recipes from culinary school would reference or straight up include "salt pork". In nearly every case I would use very thick, high fat content bacon. It's a top tier garnish for chowders or a beef stew, imo.
In the bush country of Alaska along the Yukon and Kuskokwim Rivers we still use salt to preserve fish. We salt salmon in five gallon buckets.
I love your channel man just discovered it today.
We Cantonese people still eat a variation of salt pork. No idea if it's prepared in any way similar to the old European method, but I can guarantee you it is just as tasty.
Apparently, in the mainland, you have to watch out for lead and other heavy metals in the sausage and salt beef, at least according to my Hong Kong family
金華火腿
@@1224chrisng lol, I've never heard of that before
This is really fascinating. Salt preservation is something I have been curious about.
I love this channel and his knowledge, passion for the discovery of life from those who lived at those times, and realizing the difference from that time to today. Subbed, turned bell on, and notis
In Norway, Salt Pork or Lamb is still really common. But mostly enjoyed during holidays or festivities. Goes really well with mashed root vegetables and potatoes
you're mashed root vegetables and potatoes
@@AnimatedStoriesWorldwide your face is mashed root vegetables and potatoes
salt pork is a common staple in my very rural small town. my grandma used the term "pickled pork" as opposed to salt pork. it was the very same as this.
So no vinegar?
@@nunyabiznes33 yup, that's right. no vinegar involved in the preservation process, though pepper vinegar isn't an uncommon addition when it's eaten.
@@eliolinalaundo8331 oh thanks. My try this, kept in the fridge.
This was the first video ever to introduce me to historical foods/cooking/rations etc. Once and a while I come back to this video just to rewatch it cause it's always so interesting.
In Brazil we did something very similar to salted pork ( in rural areas it is still common practice due to lack of electricity to power freezers ), it is called "Carne de lata" or "Carne de pote" which means Can/pot meat . The procedure revolves around the conservation of cooked meat cuts in melted pig fat inside a sealed metal can or clay pot, and as far as I know it can safely stay there for some years if done right.
I think he did cooked beef like that, in a jar with fat on top, a couple of years ago
Mr Townsend you truly hit that sweet spot that history channel and food network used to for me.
Always great work and research. 👏 👏 👏
I have been dreaming of eating salt pork since I was read aloud the Laura Ingalls books at 4 years old. Always sounded so good 😋 That and cracklings!
Great video, thank you for all your great content!
Salt pork is highly nutritious and delicious. I buy fresh meat from a farm and make it in a 5 litre oak barrel myself. Simple and easy and stays fresh in my basement cold room for several months.
Can you describe how you make it please. Thanks. God Bless.
How much salt do you use?
This reminds me of “Prosciutto.” Typically made from a pig or wild boar's hind leg, prosciutto-the Italian word for ham-is salted and cured for several months, before it's pressed, washed, and hung with care to dry slowly in a cool and stable environment. 👨🍳 Delicious!!!
I think I prefer prosciutto to salted pork, espeically prosciutto San Daniele or the prosciutto a guy i used to work with made every winter.
The Croatians have a variation of this called prsut, it's like prosciutto but also lightly smoked. Super delicious.
Many of that I am certain were Roman rations. Dried sausage, prosciutto, hard cheeses. Great stuff!
Sounds like "county ham" they are cured in a salt sugar and black pepper mix.
Gabagool
So appreciate these type of contents
Salt pork is still quite popular in rural Slavic places. Great episode : )
Would love an episode dedicated to traditional foods in Newfoundland. You will be surprised how unchanged dishes are for more than 500 years. Including salt fish, pork, beef, pease pudding, puddings in general, root vegetables, and many jams, breads, and ,yes, even hard tack from sailor (have a few bricks in my pantry here in ontario! - hopefully without weevils!!). In some Newfoundland grocery stores you can fish out your pieces of salt beef and salt pork barrels
yes! its nice seeing all these comments about newfoundland cousine, as a newfoundlander myself. my dad was just soaking hard tack and cod in water to make fish and brewis!
we still do this here in Tyrol throughout winter month.
parts of it is taken out of the barrel and smoked in the attic in a chamber using the vent system from oven through the chimneys.
Awesome video, just discovered your channel but either way I want to congratulate you because I see you’ve been making RUclips videos for several long years!
Here where I live, salt Pork is still somehow common. Mostly not prepared in that way, but I know a Russian store, who still sells it. You could eat it raw, but it tastes salty as heck. But with Stews and so, its really nice to have.
Good point, Lars, the host of Survival Russia takes uncooked salt pork on his winter camps and eats it sliced thinly out of hand.
Mr Townsend, when I was a kid back in the mid to late 40’s-after the war-we has salt cod in wooden barrels. But the salt was rock salt. Have you come across the use of rock salt? Do you know when this came into common use? Thank you.
Woah you're about my grandfather's age.. hope you're doing well good sir!
@@realtissaye Thank you.
Thank you for sharing that tidbit of history
I know "corned beef" is actually called "corned" because it uses rock salt, or "corns" of salt.
By the way, are you Portuguese? That's the most common context I see for salted cod.
I don’t know if it’s the same but we use rock salt for icy roads
love this channel! i wish you had prepared some to show how you might prepare it! i was looking forward to that...
Love this! Great videos guys!
In the novel, "The Mutiny On the Bounty," one of the ship's Warrant Officers presented the narrator with a snuff-box he'd carved. The man exclaimed that the wood had a "most unusual wood-grain," and the carver laughed and said that the snuff-box was carved from a portion of "His Majesty's Salt Beef!"
Many of us take for granted that we can go to a Big Box store and get frozen dinners, pizzas, sliders and so on; this video begins to give you an idea of how things were back in them "Good Old Days."
I wonder how many chemicals and micro plastics were in their meals
I imagine this man would eat the shaved bits
@@johnroyal4054 back then, nobody lived long enough to ask those questions.
@@SGobuck I love being able to live a longer life so I can spend the end of it with cancer from chemicals in everything I eat and drink and massive debt from a broken health care system
@@johnroyal4054 get to work fixing your life, then fixing the world
I remember the salt pork episode. Actually made it with John's recipe. Had it in the fridge for a couple months before we used it all. I even tried your strawberry preservation. Turned out pretty good. I would really like for you guys to do a whole season full of preservation techniques again. Someday we may need them again.
For some reason, this channel was recomended to me... I purely use RUclips for video game content... However I find myself, 4 hours later have been GLUED to this channel. I normally hate the algorithm but this is the reason I put up with it. I am blessed with this content. Its fantastic.
In Russia and Ukraine we prepare salt pork with garlic and eat it raw to this day. Sometimes we cook it but most people prefer it raw. The method of preparation is similar to some extent and the taste is very very good. It’s like bacon but better, because it’s fresh.
I tought you guys grill or cooked them first.
Is this something only far rural areas of Russia? Because I never heard this before, aside from Sashlik.
@@suryanovahexogen No, I am from Moscow and I eat it and even make it myself at home sometimes. My father taught me how to make it. It's just bacon but salty and with garlic, you can cook it with eggs or potatoes or put on a black bread and eat it raw, it's like spanish hamon. You buy a piece of pork belly, rub in salt and garlic. Leave in room temperature for 8-14 hours and put in the freezer for 24 hours and after you can consume by cutting small cuts. It’s called "salo" and you can order it in some Russian or Ukrainian restaurants. You can eat it regardless of your social status. It's a good snack for example if you drink, and you put it on the table everyone will start eating it, if you have Russian or Ukrainian friends they will know what it is.
@@antonio12544 I have heard Sala / Сала before. But this method of consumptio is new to me.
If I have Sala on hand, what's your preference in processing it? Aside from your way of eating it raw?
@@suryanovahexogen Get a frying pan, put some chopped potatoes fry it and add mushrooms, later when potatoes almost ready, add “Sala” and mix it together. Fry it a bit and it’s ready. Get salty cucumbers and put on a separate plate with tomatoes, garlic and black bread. Enjoy a typical thing Eastern Europeans eat.
7:35 that's a fascinating way of perspective, I'd always presumed it would be cheaper due to taste and how our long lasting meat (i.e. fozen) is the cheaper option. But when you think about it from their perspective of course the one that would last longer is worth more to them personally.
Salt was not free either.
When I was a kid, my Mom would send me to the butcher across the street to get "a piece of salt pork" that was just a portion of pork fat that had been salted. My Mom used this to "glaze the pan" when cooking ribs or chops. It added flavor and kept the ribs from sticking to the pan. I was little at the time and didn't know the details but, the butcher was a Polish meat market. So I guess that at that time (early 1970's) what was called "salt pork" had culturally evolved into being just the fat portion used for that purpose? When my Mom would sear it in the pan, it had a unique aroma, like bacon fat but not nearly as good a smell, it was an unpleasant odor but the flavor it added to the ribs (with sauerkraut) was amazing and delicious.
Sadly, those days are long gone, I may have gotten some details wrong because I'm older now than my my Mom was at the time. I'm sure that if I could smell that unique smell again today, I'd appreciate it far more than I did when I was 6.
You maybe referring to side pork(uncured bacon)
Look up "Salo (Food)" I think that's what you're referring to!
@@svetaphantom - I think you nailed it! I Googled it and came up with images of "salted pork fat salo" and that looks exactly like what I remember. Thanks! 😁
That sounds like fat back, which is essentially just heavily salted pork fat, ie Lard. I can still find it today at Publix and Ingles down in the Southeast US, no idea how common it is anywhere else.
It's lard. It's still used often in the UK. You can buy it from the supermarkets easy enough. Horrible smell though I agree
One of the most interesting videos I've ever watched on RUclips!!!!