I am guessing that it really means to blanch the salt pork. The recipe is really old and sometimes I think some things get lost/changed as they are passed down. I just dice the pork now; I don't always scald/blanch it. My mom takes the diced pork and dips it briefly in boiling water. I don't know that it is necessary to do that anymore. When I asked my mom about it, she said that she remembered the salt pork having something on it that you needed to get off before you could use it. It may have been some extra fat or salt to preserve it.