Pork scratchings and brines

[21TonyK]

I'm regularly cooking whole legs of pork and decided to play around with making pork scratchings. Pretty successful, dehydrate overnight at 75 degrees then deep fry at 200. Puff up like quavers

But, not that much flavour as they are being fried in veg oil and not cooking in their own fat etc etc

I lightly brined the last skin and there was a subtle difference but nothing special.

Of course they get covered in salt but anyone tried anything similar? Anyone suggest a really good brine other than the usual salt and sugar mix?

I'm wondering about curing the skin and fat for a few days, semi-bacon, before drying and frying.

Anyone played around with this?

[21TonyK]

captainzep said:

This is the approach that I followed...

This is how I used to do them and yes they are good but I'm trying to get something "wafer light" but with the flavour as well.

I'm picking up 20 Kilos of unsmoked gammon in the morning so I'm going to skin it and try using that. If it works I may cue the rind off the pork legs so its more like a "bacon scratching".

Issue is I need 100 odd portions and it needs to be easy to eat.

(plus I want to snack on it whenever the fryer is on)

[21TonyK]

ThomasH01 said:

Try taking the slab of skin / fat and dust in mix of table salt and toasted fennel seeds and cumin which have been crushed to a fine powder. Dust the entire underside, then roll up along the short edge, wrap in cling film like a Swiss roll and put in fridge overnight. Then next day slice the sausage / roll into 5mm thick pieces and deep fry with the seasoning still on. Oil at 180 c

mmmm I like the idea of "pork wheels"

[21TonyK]

Got what I wanted...



Boil the skin for an hour, cool and trim, "Cook" at 75 degrees overnight, leave to air dry for several (6-7) days. Back in the oven at 220 for 8-10 minutes.

Into an airtight box with salt, smoked paprika and chili powder. Shake like mad for 20 seconds.

Edited by 21TonyK on Friday 17th March 11:12

[21TonyK]

4-5 days on and they're still as crispy as last week so I suspect they would last at least a full week and that's without them being in an airtight container.

As for the process the drying time seems to make all the difference. I was using my dehydrator originally but that got very messy with the amount of fat rendering out so I started leaving them in an oven on low overnight but got bored after 2-3 nights so just left them racked up on the side for best part of a week.

Again, got fed up firing up the fryer and spoiling the oil so just tried putting the trays back in the oven and got the result I was after.

Now playing with salt and spice mixes so far...

salt (just like the ones from the packet)

salt and smoked paprika (better)

salt, smoked paprika, chilli powder (better+)

salt and cajun seasoning (better++)

Anyone with suggestions?

I'll be picking up another 12kg of pork on Monday so by next Friday I should have another batch ready for "testing"

They do go nice with a

Edited by 21TonyK on Tuesday 21st March 17:44

[21TonyK]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Yep, and removing any unwanted gunk/soft gooey fat

[21TonyK]

Did a very unscientific tasting at work with a couple of the guys. Five spice seemed a bit odd, cayenne was similar to paprika and chilli. Favourite is salt and Cajun seasoning, or just salt and more salt.

Next test will be powdered bacon...

[21TonyK]

Not yet.

Did another batch of scratchin's but not had time to sort out the bacon element.

Thinking I will just oven cook smoked streaky, dehydrate to remove as much fat as possible then pop in the processor. Will need to do a fair amount to get the processor to powder it though.

[21TonyK]

FurtiveFreddy said:

Don't you have a spice grinder? Only recently got one myself but wish I had done so before as small amounts of spices never work even in a mini processor.

Or you could send me some of your scratchings and I'll give it a go...

My spice grinder is an old coffee grinder from years back. Daren't use it for anything else, glows yellow from turmeric!