Salo

Cured pork fatback, thinly sliced and eaten on dark rye bread with garlic and mustard, often alongside vodka.

Salo has a long history in Ukraine as a dense, calorie-rich food that could be preserved through cold winters when fresh meat was scarce, typically cured with salt and often rubbed with garlic and spices before being smoked or air-dried. It holds an almost folkloric status in Ukrainian culture, celebrated in songs, jokes and even a dedicated Salo Festival, and is considered by many Ukrainians a point of national pride and identity as much as a food. It is traditionally eaten thinly sliced on dark bread, often as an accompaniment to a shot of horilka (Ukrainian vodka).

Proper salo is pure pork fatback, not streaky bacon, cured with coarse salt and garlic for at least several days, sometimes longer. It should be sliced paper-thin and served ice-cold.