re: Cracklin Connoseurs

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Hell I cant even find pork belly around these parts to begin the process. I just stop by the Best Stop every time I get down that way and buy them already cooked.

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You can get them at just about any butcher's who's worth his salt.

I cook cracklins for every home football game against Arkansas. It's always a great time to do it, cool weather, and of course, cooking pig is appropriate.

It helps that I live about a mile from T-Boys. I just pick up about 20 pounds of pork belly and cook them while we're tailgating.

It isn't hard. I like to start off using hog lard. The old timers, when they didn't have lard, would pour about an inch of water in the bottom of the pot and stir until things started frying. The water would help to render the fat out of the cracklin and then you ended up frying in lard.

Some people like to throw the almost cooked cracklins into cold water and then fry them again, but I don't bother with that. They're good just the way they are.

ETA: The trick to cooking cracklins is constant stirring so that they don't stick to the pot. Once they start sticking, they're pretty much ruined.

LC