Cracklins Question

I have only made cracklins a few times, but I have never put them in water. i have heard of that method before but I was under the impression it was a 2 day process. I could be way off, like I said I have only made them a few times. Hopefully someone that knows better will chime in.

I cut the size to size and fry it in lard to a crackly crunch.

My mom used to render lard and squeeze the last little bit out of what was left and that's what cracklins were. (There was a Czech word for it that we knew it by that might have been something like schvartke.)

I don't recall any water. The whole point is to drive the water off so I can't see where adding any makes any sense.

I would keep cooking it until you drive most of the water off. I would use a low heat for a long time as high heat could burn it.

Epic failures are the surest way of discovering ultimate success! I wish you luck on your next attempt.

Typically, you would render skin for cracklings in lard. But the confusion of adding water may be from the process of rendering lard from pork fat.

I save my fat trimmings from pork butts, (only the clean white fat, no hard stuff) and freeze them. (I'm told leaf lard is best, but don't have a good source)

When we have enough, I cut into 1-1/2" (ish) cubes, and place in a large dutch oven with a cup or so of water, and place on medium-low heat. After a while, the water will evaporate (putting water in helps prevent the fat from going over 212 F , if it does, the fat will brown more than you want) and the fat will melt, and you'll notice little brown bits (cracklings) floating to the surface. You need to stir occaisionally during this whole process (about 45 min to an hour and a half, depending on how much fat. I usually add a little water (about a 1/2 C at a time) to keep the fat from getting too hot, until it's all evenly melted

When the brown, crackly bits sink, take it off the heat. It will look golden brown, but will cool to a milky white.

Cool, and strain through cheesecloth, or, my favorite, through an unused (except for food purposes) handkerchief (does a better job than cheesecloth, and all you need do is wash and reuse!) reserving the cracklin's (salted and put on paper towells to drain ASAP) for other uses. The lard will keep in mason jars for quite a while refrigerated or frozen.

For frying actual skin, take a jar or two of the homemade lard, melt it in a large pot and bring to about 350-375 (outside, trust me) and drop the DRIED (hugely important unless you like being burnt) skin in (preferably in a basket of some kind to make retreival easier) and cook till golden and floating on the surface. Remove, drain, drain more on paper towell, salt liberally, and enjoy!

Tip: These ROCK when added to your favorite chex mix recipe:thumb:

The craclins from just the fat are tasty also!

I just chuck the skin into a screaming hot oven until it has blistered and become all 'crackly' then take out and snap into pieces.

MS2SB said:

I think this is what I had sitting/stuck on the bottom of the pot. I'll need to figure out how to rescue these next time.

Click to expand...

Not sure, never had that result!