What word is used to describe a huge flank of bacon, before it is cut?
I used to think "rasher" implied a large portion of (possibly un-cut) bacon. I recently had my mind blown, when it turned out to really describe only a small portion — possibly even a single strip — of bacon.
So now, I'm trying to figure out if there is a word to describe "a giant portion of bacon."
I'm going with "slab". It may be more general than "flitch", but it's much more commonly used. If I asked my butcher for a slab of bacon, I'm sure he/she would know what I meant. Flitch would probably just get me dumb looks. According to Oxford, slab is a rectangular portion of something, whether it's concrete, chocolate or whatever. Referring to a slab of bacon is unambiguous.Also, Oxford gives the first two definitions for flitch as being a piece of cut wood.
The word "flitch" describes a whole side of bacon...
noun
- the side of a hog (or, formerly, some other animal) salted and cured: "a flitch of bacon."