Pork rinds

[Chu]

As promised, here's the trick to make good pork rinds (but if someone knows of a better recipe, let us know):

Ingredients:

- Pork skin
- Salt
- Lard

Preparation:

1. Take the pork skin and cut it into small squares (or whichever shape you want). Take into account the fact that they will become four times their original size when cooked, so you might want them fairly small (1cm x 1cm or so). You want to remove quite a bit of fat from them only leaving about 2 or 3 milimiters.

2. Spread them in a flat oven tray, and sprinkle lots of salt on them.

3. Set them in the oven at 110 degrees Celcius for about 12 hours (until they are dried - you can knock a piece against the counter and it sounds hard, but it musn't be burnt either-)

Note: You can keep them in the refrigerator for a few days and cook them as needed, a small portion at a time. They will stay crunchy for about a day, after which they become a bit rubbery, so you might want to cook enough for just one day.

4. Heat up some lard at a high temperature just before it smokes. Throw one piece in the pan. If it starts to pop like popcorn within 30 seconds, it means your lard is hot enough and you can add all the other pieces of skin in. Otherwise, heat the lard a bit more and repeat the process.

They should look like these:

Once done, you can sprinkle some salt, and whatever spices you like. Atreides made a really nice sauce with olive oil, garlic and salt, and they taste just like garlic bread. You can pour a bit of the sauce on the bowl, shake it, and it's done. Some of us like them with vinegar too.

Another option we have tried is using the exact same recipe, but instead of raw pork skin, we used the skin from bacon slices. That make very thin and crunchy curls, and with the smoked flavor from the bacon, they are delicious!

We estimate that they contain, roughly, 60% protein and 40% fat. So, if you are on the ketogenic diet, they are too be eaten in moderation, and with fat added. They make perfect little "toasts" for the fatty paté, or as croutons in bone broth.

Enjoy!
:D

 

[rylek]

As promised, here's the trick to make good pork rinds (but if someone knows of a better recipe, let us know):

Thank you Ailen for the recipe, this looks amaying and it will be tried as soon as possible. Looks very yummy!

Atreides made a really nice sauce with olive oil, garlic and salt, and they taste just like garlic bread. You can pour a bit of the sauce on the bowl, shake it, and it's done. Some of us like them with vinegar too.

Good inspiration for sauces, time to get creative and see what else can go on top of these.

 

[Rabelais]

I read this post last week, and yesterday, as the universe would have it, when walking through a local grocery with a real butcher counter I spied a tray with big rolls of pork skin. I bought almost all of them.

Ailén, some questions: Why the need to pre-bake? When baking, should the skin side be up or down, or does it matter?

In the past I had just cut up the skins and fried them in lard. They came out fine, but a little overly thick and puffy since I started out with pieces that were too thick to begin with.

Another question: Can the baked but unfried chips be frozen until ready to fry?

Thanks in advance.

Atreides' sauce recipe is making me drool. Into the kitchen...

PS: I find it hard to imagine that any cracklins at the chateau would be left over to last overnight ;)

 

[Chu]

Ailén, some questions: Why the need to pre-bake? When baking, should the skin side be up or down, or does it matter?

Because at least from our experience, you want the skin to be dry. The low heat in the oven does that. We tried with non-dried skin, and the cracklings came out very rubbery.

The skin side should be up. Sprinkling coarse salt on them helps with the drying process too. If it's fatty, try trimming it as much as you can, leaving only 1-2mm of fat. Or, you just need to drain the fat from the pan as it heats up.

Another question: Can the baked but unfried chips be frozen until ready to fry?

I don't know, but I don't see why not. You can certainly freeze them raw, or bake them and keep them in the fridge for about a week with no problem.

Fingers crossed!

 

[Renaissance]

Thanks for the recipe! I'll be trying this out soon. I had been making crunchy pork skins in the oven, but there seem to be a couple of factors that are needed for them to come out right (timing and dryness of the skin) so they are not too hard or soft. I found pre-salting the skin at least 10 minutes ahead and then dabbing off the water that comes out to be helpful. I do this with pork belly too, and it makes the skin nice and crunchy.

 

[Rabelais]

George HW Bush hated broccoli but enjoyed pork rinds with Tabasco sauce on them. Perhaps this is why the old ogre is still with us?

Ailén, after I posted and before you had responded, I put two pans of skins in the oven, one with skin up, the other skin down. After three hours and reading your response, I inspected the skins. The ones skin down were already getting crisp, while the pan of skins up were still soggy. Since they had all shrunk quite a bit, I merged them all into one drained pan, skin up, to finish.

I am thinking skin down might actually be a faster way to get them dried out. I am going to reload the now empty pan and try Shanes pre-salting blot method.

A day in the pork rind laboratory... Summary and conclusions to follow.

Edit Update:

OK I finished the first batch. High nom nom factor. In the end it seems that skin up or down makes little difference. One note of caution - the final stage fry up doesn't take long. Watch it like a hawk or you will burn the batch. I now understand the pre-bake logic. If you just throw them in the hot lard without the pre-bake they puff up nice, but the skin winds up so hard it can break teeth.

Thanks for the recipe Ailén. Its a keeper.

 

[Rabelais]

I have been experimenting with pork rinds for a few days now and seem to have hit on a good method using Ailén's recipe with Shanes suggestion. Shane salts the skin side up to draw out the moisture, then blots it for his baking method, but this also greatly reduces the bake time needed for Ailén's recipe. It cuts it in half. The fry time, after baking is very fast. Once they are fully puffed up, they are done.

During this period of research into making lard and cracklings I discovered an interesting web page.
_http://www.spain-in-iowa.com/2011/02/how-render-lard-the-right-way-snow-white/
She recommends grinding the fat before rendering, to maximize the extracted fat. I did this and it works well. When done you just let the drained off solids brown a bit. They can be frozen and later reheated then crumbled on top of salads and soups, or sprinkled into omelettes. I am considering using it for breading meats.

She points out the benefits of acquiring Leaf Lard – Leaf lard is the fat from around the pig’s kidneys. It makes the pure white lard best for baking, but I am thinking that it will be good for making salt lard snacks as mentioned elsewhere in the Diet and Health section. My butcher just gave me 4 kilos of leaf lard. I am going to render a small experimental batch with a sprig of fresh rosemary and garlic for some refrigerated salty lard snacks.

 

[Beau]

My pork rind experiment is starting to be perfected. I started off cutting them smaller than I do now, but the way they shrink in the oven I can cut them pretty big to save time. I was also cutting a bit too much fat off of them so that after they were fried they would be more hard than puffy. Now I think I've got it down. Here's a pic of my latest crop:

 

[Chu]

Those look great! Ours look like that too. You just have to experiment. Some batches are better than others. Which reminds me that we haven't had any in a while over here, so it's probably time for a treat. :P

My favorites are very thin but long stripes (about 2-3 inches). They curl up nicely when you cook them.

 

[Foxx]

I agree with Ailén, Heimdallr--those look really tasty! I'm sure that they were well enjoyed :)

 

[Deleted member 8431]

We have an equivalent in Québec called "oreilles de crisse" (which for some reason means "Christ's ears").

Same thing basically but straight deep fried in lard instead. It's a classic ingredient in sugar shaks throught the province. That's the thing I always eat the most there. It's delicious.

Thanks for the receip! I don't have any oven but I might be able to fry of deep fry them in good lard.

Peace.

 

[Oxajil]

Those look really yummy! I was wondering, how does pork skin really look like when you get it from the butcher? When I asked my butcher for it, I got a really thin skin. Was that it? I would think it would be much thicker, but maybe if he would have cut it with an added layer of fat it would look thicker? I was looking for a picture, but I don't know which one it may be.

 

[Chu]

Thanks for the receip! I don't have any oven but I might be able to fry of deep fry them in good lard.

The trick is to dry them before you fry them. But without an oven, you could still do that by putting them on a warm surface (like a wood burning stove or a radiator - but just warm) for a long time. And then, fry them.

Those look really yummy! I was wondering, how does pork skin really look like when you get it from the butcher? When I asked my butcher for it, I got a really thin skin. Was that it? I would think it would be much thicker, but maybe if he would have cut it with an added layer of fat it would look thicker? I was looking for a picture, but I don't know which one it may be.

The one we get looks pretty much like this:

And we have to cut it off ourselves from the actual meat cut, so yes, it usually has a bit more fat than that. It depends on how fat you want it to be.

 

[Oxajil]

The one we get looks pretty much like this:

And we have to cut it off ourselves from the actual meat cut, so yes, it usually has a bit more fat than that. It depends on how fat you want it to be.

Yes, what I got from the butcher did look like that. Thank you Ailén!

 

[Deleted member 8431]

Thanks for the receip! I don't have any oven but I might be able to fry of deep fry them in good lard.

The trick is to dry them before you fry them. But without an oven, you could still do that by putting them on a warm surface (like a wood burning stove or a radiator - but just warm) for a long time. And then, fry them.

Good. Thanks for the tip.

I live in a small studio so all I have is a regular electric stove and a small grill-oven. So what I could do is to take a large pan and let them dry for a while on low heat.

There is a common kitchen though downstairs with a regular oven but I don't have time to monitor my food for such a long time, and we can't leave it there with no surveillance. Anyhow, could be useful for other stuff.

Peace.