quote:

So, to be cracklins, it needs to have a chunk of meat on each piece? Or what is the difference?

Cracklins come from the pork belly, the same meat used to make bacon. It is a mix of fat and meat. The chunks are cut larger and are slowly rendered down to get rid of a lot of the grease and to lightly brown them.

They are then removed from the oil, the oil is cleaned well to get out any scraps that fell off during the initial cooking and then reheated to a high temperature. Then the cracklin is put back in the hot oil so the skins "pop" and get that blistered look. Then removed and seasoned for consumption

Pork skins are just that------the skin of the pig that has been removed with any fat also removed by boiling the skin to soften the fat and then scraped to get it all off.

The skins are then dried out to a point they are brittle and easily broken apart by hand. They are then flash fried in hot oil and they puff up to many times their uncooked size, then seasoned to eat.

Thank you for your clear, concise explanation.

This post was edited on 5/5/24 at 2:37 pm

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Posted by gumbo2176

Member since May 2018

15237 posts

Posted on 5/5/24 at 5:15 pm to Stadium Rat

quote:
Thank you for your clear, concise explanation.

I've cooked both cracklins and pork skins many times over the years and have gotten a lot of people's approval with the outcome.

Both process take a lot of time if done from scratch, but pork skins are less hands-on since a lot of the time is spent letting the skins dry out until they can be broken apart.

The funny thing with pork skins is you can have a piece of it that measures 1/16 in. thick by 1 in. round and it will puff up to the size of a tennis ball round and a good 3/4 in. thick when it hits that hot oil to cook it.

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