Does salt pork have to be fully cooked before you put it in your dish?
I am cooking red beans and rice, and the dish calls for a ham hock. I don't have one of those, so I opted to use salt pork instead.
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1 Answer
No it does not; you can put it in raw and it will cook with the red beans.
I prepare it every year by:
Soak red beans in cold water over night;
fry off the diced salt pork, onion, green pepper, celery and garlic in the pot I will use to make the red beans;
add the beans and liquid and cook till tender & serve over rice.
Your could also prepare this dish without frying the salt pork first, just stick it in the pot with the beans.
One warning: Salt pork is salty, really really salty. If your recipe tells you to use two pounds of smoked hock, don't use that much salt pork - would advise using 1/8 or less as much salt pork as you would use smoked pork.
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You can pressure cook the salt pork in more water than usual, to remove most of the salt before you add it to the soup. This also helps if the salt pork is homemade, and you couldn't find cuts of pork with enough fat to make it tender. Apr 11, 2019 at 16:14