spek, noun

/spek//spɛk/
Origin:
DutchShow more Dutch, pork(-fat), bacon.
a. In historical contexts. Hippopotamus fat; zeekoe spek, see zeekoe sense 2. b. Pork or bacon fat. Also Englished form speck, and attributive.
Note:
Found in U.S. English as ‘speck’.
1688 [see spekboom sense 1].
1838 J.E. Alexander Exped. into Int. I. 110The natives..quickly dispatch them with their javelins, and make merry over the rich spek, or fat under the skin.
1856 C.J. Andersson Lake Ngami 517The flesh of the hippopotamus is highly esteemed,..and the fat (‘spek,’ as it is termed by the colonists) is very excellent.
1870 R. Ridgill in A.M.L. Robinson Sel. Articles from Cape Monthly Mag. (1978) 34Astonishment at our escape was mingled with anxiety to pursue the monster, which I forbade, tempting as the idea of sea-cow steaks and spek might be.
1968 L.G. Green Full Many Glorious Morning 17Only in South Africa will you find boerewors on the menu; that highly-spiced sausage with its blend of beef and pork, cubes of spek, coriander, ground cloves and nutmeg.
1968 L.G. Green Full Many Glorious Morning 82One hippo killed in winter often provided two hundred pounds of delicious fat or spek and in the wilds this was used as a substitute for butter.
1972 Sunday Times 6 Feb. (Mag. Sect.) 16Lard the meat with speck strips.
1973 M.A. Cook Cape Kitchen 108All the chopped meat (pork was by far the most commonly used) had to be mixed with fresh pork fat (spek).
1975 Drum 22 Apr. 57Lard beef with strips of speck.
1977 Fair Lady 8 June (Suppl.) 23Mock Venison. 1kg of mutton; 125g spek (pork fat)...Cut spek into strips, garlic into slivers and lard meat using both.
1978 Drum 22 Mar. 57For an outstanding flavour lard hump with strips of speck and raisins.
1980 Meat Board Focus Dec. 10Fry spek in a heavy based suacepan until crisp. Remove and reserve. Saute onions in remaining fat. Arrange beans and crisp spek in layers in the saucepan.
1989 I. Jones Woman’s World Cookbk 86Roast Leg of Venison. This recipe uses the usual lardings of spek.
1991 Weekend Post 4 May (Leisure) 6Venison is a dry meat and should be well larded with spek or bacon fat.
Hippopotamus fat; zeekoe spek, see zeekoe sense 2.
Pork or bacon fat. Also Englished form speck, and attributive.
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historical
Special Branch, noun phrasen. phr.spekboom, nounn.
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