The Near Zero-Carb Pork Rind Recipes Revelation!

[monotonic]

We made the pancakes yesterday. We got stuck on the instructions to froth the eggs. I think only people who have actually made cake or a lot of wheat products would understand your intent here. We looked up Frothing on google and decided we'd whip the whites from the remaining eggs we hadn't beaten, and then mix the beaten eggs into the whipped egg whites. Can you improve your recipe here?

We used the blender to grind the pork rhinds, which took longer than I would like. Can you qualify just how fine it needs to be?

The resulting pancakes were somehow dense and slightly fluffy at the same time, remarkably similar in texture and taste to Buckwheat stuff we've made before. If there is anything I would change, it would be using less eggs and/or using only yolks. If the batter was intended to be airy due to heavily whipped eggs, we fell short there for sure.

If I understand correctly, they may need to be soaked for at least 24 hours or cooked for awhile in order to soften up.

Sounds like a job for the pressure cooker or crock pot.

 

[skycsil]

We tried to make pork rind flour at home with actual home made rinds we made from zero, and the result was quite discouraging. We got a fatty lumpy near to liquid stuff that looks pretty much like gritty peanut butter (see image attached).
Did anyone else tried it with rinds that are not from the store? I think maybe there was too much lard in our rinds, maybe next time we should remove all the fat from the skin before putting it in the oven?

 

[Meg]

We tried to make pork rind flour at home with actual home made rinds we made from zero, and the result was quite discouraging. We got a fatty lumpy near to liquid stuff that looks pretty much like gritty peanut butter (see image attached).
Did anyone else tried it with rinds that are not from the store? I think maybe there was too much lard in our rinds, maybe next time we should remove all the fat from the skin before putting it in the oven?

It sounds like it may have been the fat in the pork rind. Try to dry them out in the oven prior so they are really crispy.

 

[theos]

We tried to make pork rind flour at home with actual home made rinds we made from zero, and the result was quite discouraging. We got a fatty lumpy near to liquid stuff that looks pretty much like gritty peanut butter (see image attached).
Did anyone else tried it with rinds that are not from the store? I think maybe there was too much lard in our rinds, maybe next time we should remove all the fat from the skin before putting it in the oven?

It sounds like it may have been the fat in the pork rind. Try to dry them out in the oven prior so they are really crispy.

It would turn out much better if you remove all the fat from the pork rinds before trying these recipes. You wanna start with light, fluffy, and crispy rinds for best results.

 

[Renaissance]

We made the pancakes yesterday. We got stuck on the instructions to froth the eggs. I think only people who have actually made cake or a lot of wheat products would understand your intent here. We looked up Frothing on google and decided we'd whip the whites from the remaining eggs we hadn't beaten, and then mix the beaten eggs into the whipped egg whites. Can you improve your recipe here?

I think by frothy, KJN means that the egg mixture has some air bubbles. The process you went through is a bit involved and I don't think is necessary for the most part. KJN can correct me if I'm wrong.

We used the blender to grind the pork rhinds, which took longer than I would like. Can you qualify just how fine it needs to be?

We've only made a handful of recipes so far but I think the end result may have more to do with how much liquid (butter and egg) are in the mixture than how fine the flour is. The flour ends up getting pretty soft anyway, so I don't think it is a huge issue if there are some slightly larger pieces. In any case I found with cooking the best teacher is experimentation!

The resulting pancakes were somehow dense and slightly fluffy at the same time, remarkably similar in texture and taste to Buckwheat stuff we've made before. If there is anything I would change, it would be using less eggs and/or using only yolks. If the batter was intended to be airy due to heavily whipped eggs, we fell short there for sure.

Try it out and let us know how it goes.

If I understand correctly, they may need to be soaked for at least 24 hours or cooked for awhile in order to soften up.

Sounds like a job for the pressure cooker or crock pot.

Sounds like a good idea. In the link the guy used a vacuum seal bag in a water bath, then the skin was chilled, sliced and simmered in broth. Even bpa free bags can leach chemicals into the food, so it would be good to experiment with some variation of this idea. Maybe a bit of fat with the skin cooked in the crock pot would do the job.

 

[KJN]

We made the pancakes yesterday. We got stuck on the instructions to froth the eggs. I think only people who have actually made cake or a lot of wheat products would understand your intent here. We looked up Frothing on google and decided we'd whip the whites from the remaining eggs we hadn't beaten, and then mix the beaten eggs into the whipped egg whites. Can you improve your recipe here?

We used the blender to grind the pork rhinds, which took longer than I would like. Can you qualify just how fine it needs to be?

The resulting pancakes were somehow dense and slightly fluffy at the same time, remarkably similar in texture and taste to Buckwheat stuff we've made before. If there is anything I would change, it would be using less eggs and/or using only yolks. If the batter was intended to be airy due to heavily whipped eggs, we fell short there for sure.

Pork rind "flour" seems to super-absorb any liquid (as in eggs) and rapidly becomes thick. The eggs being frothy help with this.
Frothy: Using a hand mixer, put the dial on the highest setting and mix until the eggs are as consistently bubbly as they can get. It will take a couple of minutes or so to do this. They won't be very stiff (volume density) if you use the whole eggs, but for these recipes, it is enough to result in a more fluffy end product. If you want to go the distance, separate the whites from the yolk. Whip the whites to stiffness and delicately add all other ingredients so as not to collapse all the whites. This process will add more air into the mixture and it may result in a less dense pancake or bread once it is baked or fried.

As to how finely the rinds need to be: They should be as small as grains of sand after blending. The finer, the better.

If you are working with pork rinds that have hard parts (you can feel this before grinding) remove the hard part or set those aside for movie night munchies. If you do use these, go through the processed flour and pull out the little hard chunks before using them in a recipe. While they are fine to eat, it is annoying to bite into a hard crunchy you are not expecting!

So far I have only worked with packaged rinds. More expert folks on the forum will have to address the do-it-yourself rind-making process. (I am a limited but imaginative porker!)

For Thanksgiving we made the loaf bread with rosemary, sage, thyme, garlic and onion flakes. This was then broken up into small pieces for our stuffing base. We added white and green onions, dried parsley and celery to the mix and used the cheesecloth to hold the stuffing in the turkey. Was fantastic.

We made pork rind pie crust and pumpkin pie with organic pure pumpkin. We did one part of the crust with just bacon fat and the other part with butter to cover all allergy considerations. Also made a "whipped cream" by using coconut cream, xyla and cinnamon - whipped at high speed for about 10 minutes. I had to roller pin crush the xyla into a finer powder to be more like regular powdered sugar. It was placed in the refrigerator and kept its shape and density. Yummy was the consensus.

Hope this answered the questions.

 

[monotonic]

Well, we made the pancakes again and this time it was a great success! They were fluffy, absorbed butter fully, and easy to chew. KJN, I think my experience may help improve the recipe.

I think one problem from before was that I actually used an old wheat grinder to grind the rhind after we blended it. This seemed to separate the rhind and lard a bit and made it into more of a fine paste than a flour.

Based on my previous results it seems to me that you don't want to grind the pork rhinds - what you actually want is to shred them very finely. I would say the particles should not be smaller than a grain of sand (feel it with your fingers). Furthermore, you should fold (very gently mix) the eggs into the flour, rather than the other way around. This way you go from a feathery flour texture to a light batter texture, rather than a dense liquid texture to a dense batter texture.

Shredding the pork rhinds in a blender is not straightforward. The blender has to be set on a medium or high speed and then the pork rhinds dropped in slowly as it can accept them. The blender should never be turned off. The flour will build up on the sides and the whole rhinds will fall into the center. When coarse flour has built up on the sides, gently push a little at a time over into the blades. If the flour collapses, an air bubble will form around the blade that will prevent any rhinds from touching it. If this happens, turn off the blender, pour the flour out, turn the blender back on and slowly add the flour again and finish shredding the pork rhinds. I used a vintage Osterizer (very high quality and easy to get on Ebay) with a new Fusion blade.

In the past I had a period where I was whipping eggs like crazy trying to make various paleo breads or cakes. I found that many recipes called to heavily whip the egg whites, but this only really helps much if your dry mixture is compatible with whipped eggs. That is rarely the case with paleo substitutes and so there isn't really a whole lot of point in carefully whipping the eggs. What I did was to add the egg whites to the blender after I poured the pork rhinds out into a dish. Yes, there was some fatty rhind left in and I even spilled in part of an egg yolk. I knew it likely wouldn't matter, so I blended the egg whites on the lowest setting until frothy and then slowly poured in the yolks, and then added softened (room temperature) butter. I found the butter actually curdled and separated while blending - this is usually desirable for pancakes. I used 6 eggs since they were large (they were unusually watery as well).

I poured the thick mixture of curdled butter and egg on top of the flour and then folded it in gently.

To cook the pancakes, I took a heaping and well-rounded wooden spoon of batter and plopped it hard onto the 12" cast iron pan at a temperature close to the smoke point of butter. I pressed the spatula flat against the iron pan surface to cover it with butter to keep the batter from sticking, and then smashed it flat. One of the great things about these pancakes is they're self-lubricating! No need to add butter as you cook them. I found there's a narrow temperature range outside of which the pancakes will either not firm up or they will brown fast while the butter is smoking. I know one side is done when the bottom has just become firm so I can push it around by the side with the spatula. The pancakces don't really need to be browned very much, and they're better if they're only lightly browned. You can gently push the center of the pancake after you've flipped it to gauge firmness. Once they are noticeably firmer than when they were first flipped, they are done.

Next time we try them we might add apple pie spice.

 

[A Jay]

There's finally a keto-friendly pancake, praise the Lard! Thanks KJN!!

 

[Drea]

The problem I've found with pork rinds is that store bought brands are usually processed in a facility that also process things we don't want in our food.
If the brand sells a flavored variation it is likely those pork rinds came down the same line that the plain ones did and I'm not sure how much we can trust the cleanings in between runs.
After doing a brief search on amazon I came across these which look like the cheapest route and fresh puffed rinds sound divine.
http://smile.amazon.com/dp/B009RXZIMQ?psc=1
They also sell 5lb and 10lb bags for those who are cooking for a family.

 

[Chrissy]

I've made the pancake recipe a few times now and it's been a huge hit in my family. Thank you so much for your genius. My daughter who is pretty skeptical of mom's concoctions actually requested them for breakfast yesterday. Even the doggies are enjoying the experiment. The first time I made them, I was tossing them the rinds that were too brown and crunchy as I picked through the bag. Yesterday, I was literally standing in a puddle of drool at the food processor.

I was surprised at how thick the batter is, but I found if I take a silicone spatula, I can press them down a bit in the pan without it sticking. I'm also amazed at how they puff up without needing any baking powder. They are filling and two seems to be the limit for everyone. Definitely a keeper.

 

[monotonic]

After doing a brief search on amazon I came across these which look like the cheapest route and fresh puffed rinds sound divine.
http://smile.amazon.com/dp/B009RXZIMQ?psc=1
They also sell 5lb and 10lb bags for those who are cooking for a family.

That's an interesting product. They might be fresher since they are not fully cooked before being sold. At the same time they might contain a lot of lard which might result in a less feathery flour. We get 3oz. bags of Mac's Chiacharrones at Kroger's for $1 each.

 

[Voyageur]

Amazing mouth watering recipes; what fun this will be. Thanks for sharing and Ave Caesarea's kitchen!

 

[monotonic]

Something has seemed a bit off while I was cooking these. There seemed to be something strange about the smell they would give off while they were browning.

I have always suspected something because the finished pancakes didn't seem as sweet as they should be. I theorized that the xylitol was boiling out, since I knew from past experiments that Xylitol in fact boils at 216C.

Today I remembered to check the pan temperature with an infrared thermometer, and I did find that in the hottest places it was in that temperature range.

I think this is a significant detail. The xylitol serves to sweeten the ordinarily savory and salty taste of the rhinds. When the pancakes are very browned, the salty pork rhind taste comes back in the crust and I suspect this is due to the xylitol boiling out.

If so, the easy way to solve this problem is to brown the pancakes only slightly. Personally I tend to brown mine a lot because without a high pan temperature they take a lot longer to cook. But theoretically, a slower cooked, slightly browned rhindcake should be sweeter.

 

[Jono]

Just in time for Christmas... feww. Pork skin is very cheap here in the UK, so with all these recipes, plus the fat bombs and butter chocolate, there's gonna be no excuse for a carb-attack this holiday :)

 

[KJN]

We Did It!

Brownies! :D

9”x13” dish
8 oz (2 sticks or 16T) unsalted butter, 1/2 c bacon fat, 4 oz unsweetened bakers chocolate (bar), 1 1/4 c unsweetened cocoa, 1/2 t salt, 3 t vanilla, 2T baking powder, 2 to 2 1/4 c xyla to taste, 3 bags 3 oz size pork rinds, 5 eggs

8”x8” dish
4 oz (1 1/4 sticks or 10 T) unsalted butter, 1/4 c bacon fat, 3 oz unsweetened bakers chocolate (bar), 3/4 c unsweetened cocoa, 1/4 t salt, 2 t vanilla, 1 1/4 T baking powder, 1 to 1 1/4 c xyla (to taste), 2 bags 3 oz size pork rinds, 3 eggs

On highest speed, food processor the the pork rinds to flour consistency - about 3 minutes. In a bowl, add the pork rinds, baking powder and xyla - mix evenly. In a double boiler or two pots that fit together with water in the bottom one, melt the butter, bacon fat, chocolate bar - stir as it starts to melt. When melted, stir in vanilla, salt and cocoa.

Using a mixer, at highest speed, whip the eggs for about 4 minutes - should turn a lemony color and be thick and foamy. Add in the chocolate mixture from the stove and blend thoroughly. Stir in the pork rind mixture. Blend well. Lightly grease the dish with a bit of bacon fat. Pour in the batter and spread evenly. Bake in 350 degree oven for about 45 minutes. Toothpick comes out clean and texture feels done.

Do not overbake. Let sit for about 30 minutes on a rack or on a cool counter.
Cuts easily, comes right out of the dish.