DCHP-1 Online

backfat back fat

• n. a layer of choice fat found between the skin and muscles of a well-fed animal, especially along the back.

  See also: depouille  Indian bread (def. 1)  

  • 1801  (1933)  Some of the men [are] at work making horse sledges, others melting or boiling back (Buffaloe) fat to put in the Pimican. . . .
  • 1913  We took the tongue, the boss and the backfat and rode back to camp.
  • 1923  (1926)  The Indians killed the buffalo recklessly . . . they killed for the tongues and backfats alone.
  • 1965  A bull caribou in the autumn may weigh 300 pounds, and a fifth of that weight may be fat--perhaps 40 pounds in a single slab of back fat. . . .