Where did the term "chewing the fat" come from?

I never knew there was a difinitive answer to the etymolgy of that phrase. There have been several theories. One comes from British Columbia. The history is that Elizabethan farmers kept smoked pork hanging over the kitchen hearths. When it was too cold or wet to work outside they would sit by the fireplace talking and slicing of slivers of pork to "chew the fat"

Another etymology has to do with the preparation of caribou hide. Native women used to chew the scraped hides to increase the flexibility of the garments that were made from the hide. Since it took hours to soften an entire hide, the women would chew it in their spare time.

And probably one of the more better know etymologies is the custom of Eskimos chewing whale blubber (as we would chew gum) and carrying on idle chit chat while doing so.

Georgia - what I read was the first answer you gave, but then again, you might be right - it could be any one of them...