Salt-cured pork fatback, eaten cold on black bread with onion and garlic. Slabs were salted in wooden boxes at the winter slaughter and drawn on through the year, and it is eaten raw.
It is raw pork fat cured at ambient temperature and eaten uncooked, where the salt penetration is the only safeguard — and the traditional winter timing exists because the method needs cold that a kitchen does not supply.
What goes into it
- pork back fat, in thick slabs with the rind on
- coarse salt, in quantity
- garlic and caraway
- sometimes smoke
How it is made
Thick slabs of back fat are rubbed heavily with salt, garlic and caraway and packed in a wooden box or crock, layer on layer, each buried in salt. They sit in the cold for weeks while the salt penetrates, and are then either kept in the salt or hung to cold-smoke. It is never cooked.
How long it takes: three weeks to several months in salt
How it is eaten
Sliced thin and cold onto rye bread with raw onion, or diced and rendered into potato dishes.
History
Slabs of back fat were salted in wooden boxes at the winter slaughter and eaten through the year with rye bread and garlic.
Frequently asked questions
What is Lašiniai?
Lašiniai is a charcuterie & cured from Lithuania: salt-cured pork fatback eaten cold on black bread with onion. Slabs of back fat were salted in wooden boxes at the winter slaughter and eaten through the year with rye bread and garlic.
How is Lašiniai made?
Thick slabs of back fat are rubbed heavily with salt, garlic and caraway and packed in a wooden box or crock, layer on layer, each buried in salt. They sit in the cold for weeks while the salt penetrates, and are then either kept in the salt or hung to cold-smoke. It is never cooked. It takes three weeks to several months in salt.
Can I make Lašiniai at home?
No, and the atlas gives no method for it. It is raw pork fat cured at ambient temperature and eaten uncooked, where the salt penetration is the only safeguard — and the traditional winter timing exists because the method needs cold that a kitchen does not supply.
What goes into Lašiniai?
Pork back fat, in thick slabs with the rind on, coarse salt, in quantity, garlic and caraway, sometimes smoke.
How is Lašiniai eaten?
Sliced thin and cold onto rye bread with raw onion, or diced and rendered into potato dishes.
