"Streakolean"
The thread below about deep-fried bacon (which also includes my nominee for best idea of the week -- tempura kim chee) made me think of something I have only seen once in my life.
Having breakfast at a factory cafeteria north of Atlanta one morning, I saw something on the steam table that looked like bacon but was almost white. I asked the lady standing behind the table what it was, and after about the fifth time she repeated it, I deduced it was something called "streakolean." When I asked what "streakolean" might be, she said, "Wayell, when yew eat bay-con, yew know how it has a streak o' fat on it? This stuff has a streak o' lean."
My guess is that it was sliced fatback, but I wonder two things: Is this something that is served only at factory cafeterias in the Atlanta area? And if not, how widely dispersed is it? I've never seen it in Texas, for example, but I've never looked hard for it either.
And, in answer to your next question ... of course, I tried it. This IS Chowhound, after all. It tasted a little like the salty end piece of a steak done on a grill, in that it kind of liquified into its essential fat components as soon as you bit into it. As I said, I've never looked hard for it again.
Kirk
Jan 29, 2004 02:44PM
"Streak o'lean" does, if I remember from my southern years, refer to a slice of fatback that has a discernible layer of meat in it. Sort of like reverse bacon cousin.
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Now, I am not positive about this, but I believe I have the terminology right. Streak of lean or whatever it is called is salt pork. It differs from bacon in that it is brined and not smoked, but it has some lean meat in with the fat. Fatback is brined in the same way, I think, but has no lean meat at all.
I was raised in the South but we never had either of these. We did have lots of bacon and ham, though.
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The streak o' lean I'm familiar with is just fresh fatback, not cured or salted. It does make the BEST cracklins. Render the fat for other uses, but keep the crispy meaty bits. I haven't had it for years, though. My very southern mother-in-law always put some in her green beans and then cooked them for hours. They were good!
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Hummm,that's interesting,Pat, I could have sworn the streak 'o lean I remember was cured in some way. It is always possible that I don't remember it correctly, however. I do remember my southern mother and grandmother's long cooked string or pole beans-always cooked with seasoning meat, of course. One would think they would be disgusting, but like your mother-in-law's, they were sooo good.
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Hi Marcia, I was moved to call a relative and you're right, it is salt-cured. I guess it's possible I had a fresh piece right after slaughter, but probably not. Thanks for setting the record straight. It's salted, but not smoked. Pat
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Thanks, Pat, I'm impressed that you actually made a call about this. But I'm also glad to have the definative answer.
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Same here...family has been in the Carolinas since forever, we never touched fat back or salt pork.
I think our elementary school lunchroom used the stuff, though, 'cause I can remember the lunchroom ladies frying up fatback and when they announced it to the kids, there would be this RUSH to the counter to get fat back. I was left standing there horified at the thought that someone would eat pure fat.
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We lived in the country and had no electricity until I was grown, so all pork perforce had to be cured, and salt was the order of the day. Either that or live off nothing but chicken, ducks, and guineas. Besides, we didn't have a smokehouse.
I don't quite get your objection to salt pork (not fatback), since it's nothing but bacon without the smoking.
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Double flour dipped bacon, deep fried. It is prepared just like chicken fried steak.
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Streak O' Lean is ordinary hogbelly or side meat, like bacon but not smoked or sugar cured. For those (like us) who didn't have a smokehouse, the meat was usually dry-salt cured (lowcountry SC, where brine tended to become ropey) and put up in crocks. We referred to it as "white bacon." It was usually parboiled (the longer it stayed in the crocks, the saltier it would become) and then fried the same way you would ordinary bacon. There are a few restaurants around that still serve it, sometimes breaded, sometimes not, but most of them don't bother to parboil it so it tends to be overly salty.
To this day, I prefer "white bacon" to the smoke- or sugar-cured, but I have to put up with using ordinary commercial salt pork.
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