salt pork brisket

[geminigirl]

I 've been wanting to make some baked beans so picked up some ingredients this weekend but ended up with salt pork brisket when the recipie called for salt pork...dumb question but are they the same thing? thanks

[beekeeper2211]

JACQUES PEPIN describes "salt pork, known as pancetta in Italy and lard in France (hence the use of "lardons" to describe the little pieces of this salt-cured meat that are sauteed for use in salads or to flavor different types of stews). Salt pork, which might be called salted pork brisket, cured pork, corn belly or salted pork at the market, is actually a slab of unsmoked bacon, and the leaner the piece, the better.

If no form of salt pork is available, substitute slab bacon, cutting it and cooking it in the same way as indicated for the salt pork. The only difference will be that the bacon will lend a slightly smoky flavor ... that won't be present if salt pork is used."

[geminigirl]

wow, perfect, thanks!

[horseshoe]

I've never heard of salt pork brisket. Salt pork will add no flavor to your beans. I would use either bacon or some other smoked meat.

[Will Owen]

Somebody from Maine is gonna come along and accuse you of blasphemy! THE classic beanpot bean recipe requires salt pork, and fatty salt pork at that, the idea being to add fat (traditionally considered in those parts as the most nourishing component of meat) and, yes, flavor to the beans. I got into a long-distance snail-mail argument with John Thorne on that very subject, when he was first publishing his Simple Cooking newsletter and I was living in Nashville. I was a partisan of smoked meats in food, he of cured but unsmoked ones, and we eventually agreed to disagree. I also discovered that plain salt pork doth have its charms...