salt horse

salted beef; salt junk.

Origin of salt horse

First recorded in 1830–40

Yes, they are all departed, and there is nothing left us but salt-horse and sea-biscuit.

Typee |Herman Melville
They worked at the rope-tarring till suppertime, then rose wearily, stretching, and went for their salt-horse and biscuit.

The Black Buccaneer |Stephen W. Meader
Every man's hunger seemed to increase tenfold, so that even the odor of boiling "salt-horse" from the galley did not trouble us.

A Gunner Aboard the "Yankee" |Russell Doubleday
One must always flatter the pea-soup, and the salt-horse, and particularly the bread-pudding, if one expects any consideration.

The Flying Bo'sun |Arthur Mason

Of food, we had a fairly plentiful supply of "salt-horse," that was something more than high—it was putrid.

The Strand Magazine - Vol. 1 - No. 5 - May 1891 |Various