Pork rinds now have skin in the barbecue-joint game
For many of us, the humble pork rind is a culinary curiosity we encounter every once in a while — at a Super Bowl party, for example. That obligatory table filled with bowls of puffy, crunchy and salty snacks isn’t complete without a pile of transparent, cloudlike curls of fried pork skin.
As iron-stomached teenagers we rotated pork rinds into the snack cycle among Funyuns, Cheetos and Ruffles. But as adults, pork rinds take a back seat to arguably more healthful snacks such as pistachios and almonds.
Until recently. The rise of low-carbohydrate, high-fat/ protein diets like Atkins and Keto has given new life to the pork rind. If you notice a coworker snacking on a bag of pork rinds, that’s a clue he’s probably on a highprotein diet.
This pork-rind renaissance has also seen the dish appear on restaurant menus, fancy and otherwise. On Tex-Mex and barbecue-joint menus, pork rinds, or chicharrones, are showing up next to chips-and-salsa as a snackable appetizer. The Pit Room barbecue restaurant in Montrose is well known for its chicharrones drizzled in a vinegary hot sauce.
Pork rinds are just one variation of fried pork skin. Most international cuisines have their own versions of the dish. In Southeast Texas, the primary versions are Mexican-style chicharrones and Cajun-style cracklings (cracklins).
The difference between the two relates to the anatomy of pork skin, which is made up of three distinct layers. First, there’s the outer layer of skin (epidermis), below that a layer of fat, then the flesh or meat. Pork belly is a popular cut with these elements.
The puffy, crispy texture of pork rinds is created by removing all traces of fat and meat from the skin. The outer layer of skin is sliced from a pork belly and then boiled in water to soften up any remaining fat and meat. It is then refrigerated to congeal the remaining fat, which can then be scraped off with a spoon or knife.
The skin is then dehydrated so that it turns into thin, flat slabs with a plastic appearance. These slabs are cut or cracked into smaller pieces known as pellets. The pellets are submerged in super-hot oil (or lard) to fry them. This causes them to puff up into the crunchy curls of pork skin we know and love to eat.
Cajun-style cracklins are a different beast. Cracklins are dense nuggets of fried pork skin, fat and usually some bits of meat that are traditionally sold in paper bags sitting next to the cash register at convenience stores in southwest Louisiana. In Houston, you can find bags of cracklins at Burt’s Meat Market in Fifth Ward.
The dense nature of cracklins versus lighter chicharrones is because of the preparation. Because fat and meat are still attached to the skin, they don’t puff up as much. A typical preparation of cracklins is to trim most of the meat off a pork belly and cut the belly into cubes.
These are then fried at a relatively low temperature to cook and render most of the fat. The cubes are then removed from the oil, the heat is turned up and the cubes placed back in the oil (“double fry”) so the outer skin becomes crispy. During this second fry, the outer skin pops and cracks in the super-hot oil, giving the dish its name.
Note that in Mexican cuisine, there is a version of chicharrones that is similar to cracklins. Gerardo’s Drive-In north of downtown is known for the denser style of chicharrones.
Although I prefer the lighter chicharrones as a snack at most restaurants, I’ll pick up a greasy bag of cracklins at a convenience store as a car snack while driving through Louisiana. But when it comes to bagged pork rinds, I’ll save those for a Keto diet or Super Bowl party.