Unto galego
Also known as Manteca Gallega, Unto gallego
Galicia, Spain
Galician salt-pressed lard.
Overview
Manteca Gallega is a firm white or cream roll or slab of fat with a clean salty-smoky aroma. yellow rancidity, tackiness or stale smoke are faults.
Where it's from
How to recognise it
A firm white or cream roll or slab of fat with a clean salty-smoky aroma. Yellow rancidity, tackiness or stale smoke are faults. Yellow rancidity, sour brine, slime, exposed unsalted pockets or dark contamination are faults.
Origins and history
In the farmhouses of Galicia the fat taken at the winter pig killing was never wasted. The soft fat wrapping the viscera, and at times the firmer back fat, was rubbed with salt and drawn for two or three weeks to shed its moisture, then rolled into a tight cylinder and tied with cord. Hung high in the lareira, the open hearth at the centre of the home, it took on woodsmoke and aged through the cold months until its scent turned deep and frankly pungent. Galicians know this cured fat as unto, and a broth made without it was long held to be a broth left unfinished. Galician kitchens used a small piece of unto to enrich caldo, legumes and greens. Salt and smoke preserved the fat and contributed a recognisable farmhouse aroma. Galician unto is traditionally added in small amounts to caldo and other soups, where the aged salted fat contributes a distinctive savoury aroma rather than acting as ordinary rendered lard.
- Protection
- Unprotected.
- Seasonality
- The winter matanza.
Serving and cultural significance
Use a small piece of unto in caldo gallego, beans or vegetable soups, allowing it to simmer and perfume the broth. It is normally a cooking ingredient rather than a raw table fat, and excess surface salt should be managed carefully.
Recipe and cure
This is not a finished recipe. It is a window into how this meat is traditionally cured. Before you follow any process, please run it through one of our curing calculators, so the salt, cure and timings are right and safe for your own batch.
Make this — the measured Curesmith version →The cure below is the traditional reference. “Make this” opens the measured Curesmith home recipe, scaled to your batch.
Traditional or protected production
The traditional Galician product is more accurately called unto: a sheet of pork fat salted, commonly rolled and sometimes smoked for use in soups and stews. It is not the same as rendered manteca or lard.
- Meat
- pork fat
- Cut
- back fat
- Salt (%)
- 45
- Fermented
- No
- Smoked
- Yes
- Maturation
- salt-box pack
- Basis
- per 1000 g green meat
- Style
- Galician salt-pressed lard
Ingredients
- coarse sea salt45% · 450 g/kg
- sugar15% · 150 g/kg
Notes
- The salt-box figure is a packing amount, not uptake.
In the Codex
What this product teaches, and where to read more.
Temple. Roof, Water Activity