Pork fat

Interestingly, pork fat, which is a uniform mass of white or a little cream, has virtually no specific odor. In liquid melted form, this animal fat has a clear consistency, which can be slightly amber, while the frozen product has a uniform structure without sediment and white color. The shelf life of pork fat in the refrigerator is quite long and is up to one and a half years.

In cooking, pork fat, often referred to as smaltz, means a traditional product of village cuisine of various peoples. This is fat that is extracted from the lard of the pig, its gut and subcutaneous fat, as well as fat trimmings. By the way, gut fat is often processed separately due to its specific smell.

Before starting to directly heat pork fat, the raw materials are carefully cleaned of contaminants, meat and blood residues. To do this, everything is soaked in salted water for at least twelve hours, while the water changes several times. After soaking, the raw materials cut into small pieces are melted over low heat, resulting in squashes and liquid fat. Clear tar is poured through gauze into ceramic pots or glass jars and tightly closed.

For culinary purposes, ready-made pork fat is used in the preparation of various dishes, in particular for frying products. In addition, it is often consumed as a snack, spread on black bread. In the latter case, pork fat is trimmed with ground black pepper, grated garlic, bay leaf, coriander, salt or other spices. Ukrainian cuisine, for example, is characterized by the use of smalts as the basis for most fried and other hearty dishes.

The benefits of pork fat

Even considering that this product has a high degree of harmfulness, pork fat can also be beneficial. Undoubtedly, it is absolutely not suitable for a dietary diet, but it represents one of the most popular and most often used dietary fats of animal origin. The benefit of pork fat lies in the content of some especially important vitamins for the human body, in particular provitamin A, as well as linoleic acid. In addition, it is characterized by a relatively low cholesterol content.

Traditional medicine claims the benefit of pork fat in the treatment of pneumonia, numerous colds, bronchitis, dermatitis, eczema, burns, ear diseases, ulcers, as well as in case of exhaustion of the body. This healing product contains a much higher amount of essential fatty acids than a significant proportion of other solid fats, including butter. Regarding biological activity: if we compare beef fat, butter and pork fat, then the latter has about 5 times higher.