About 50 years ago I lived in a poor region of North Carolina. The school cafeteria served salt pork 2 or 3 times a week. Being a transplanted damnyankee I had no idea what it was, when I asked a classmate I was told it was meat. Not pork, just meat. I later found out that salt pork was the main staple meat for most of the people. Even chicken was only for special occasions.
It wasn’t soaked first to remove the salt, just sliced and fried. Very salty. I wonder why there weren’t more heart attacks in that town.
... Better known as country ham. City ham is cured with sugar instead of salt.