The Pork Skin Topic

[Habeas Brulee]

I have some pork skin sitting in my fridge, left over from setting up some pancetta to cure. I've never tried working with pork skin before - what can I do with it?

Someone suggested chocolate covered pork rinds, but I don't even know how to make pork rinds. I tried searching the archives, with no luck. Can anyone explain how to make pork rinds, or link me to a good recipe?

And in the interest of creating a good resource here for all eGulleters -

What else can you do with pork skin?

Let's bring together all inspiration, ideas, and recipes for cooking with pork skin, here in this thread as a single resource!

Thank you, everyone!

[Abra]

Make cassoulet! Either use it to line your cassole pot, or cut it into small cubes and let it melt into the sauce. It's delicious! You can see one I did recently here. The pork skin is a key element for a smooth and melting texture.

[Fugu]

Here is a Filipino pork rind chicharon. We also use puffed pork rind as a garnish for Pansit Luglug and Pansit Palabok. Crushed pork rind is also used to thicken a sweet & sour, pork and liver stew called, Paksiw.

edited to add: Pansit is a general term for noodles. In this case both these dishes, "Pansit" refers to rice noodles.

Edited November 19, 2007 by Fugu (log)

[Prawncrackers]

I have pork skin saved for the next batch of gelatinous stock to make soup dumplings - xiao long bao.

[TheSwede]

I used diced pork rind (and shredded oven baked pork belly, ginger, some soy?) as a filling for duck leg roulades. There was no particular though behind that but rather what I had at hand. Worked great though, the pork rind melted and gave a nice taste/texture to the filling.

Duck leg roulades: Debone a duck leg (tricky to do without holes!). Wrap around filling. Wrap tightly in cling film in a sausage shape, twist ends hard, tie off. Poach in water, cool. When serving, saute the whole roulade (without cling film! ) and then slice on the bias as a garniture for something other duck-ish or as a course on it's own.

[Habeas Brulee]

More searching has led to me to a comment in an older thread by Paula Wolfert, where she wrote:

After you take the rind off, sprinkle it with coarse salt, and spread it out on paper towel lined sheets and keep refrigerated for a few days. When you have braised teh pork belly you'll find you have about half the original weight in pork fat. Strain this fat and hold it in a cool place. When ready to cook the rind, wipe off the coarse salt , cut it into 3 inch x 8 inch strips, tie each strip in a bundle, and cook all the bundles in the strained fat until they become soft and tender, about 3 hours. A crock pot is useful here. You now have what the folks in Perigord call couennes confites.  Keep these covered in the same fat after straining. Usually it is best in the fridge.  Use one or two strips in cassoulets, bean dishes, lentil dishes, and stews, etc .

I hate writing this but the southwest French say it  all the time: 'nothing is wasted in a pig but the oink.'

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I salted some of my skin and spread it out yesterday in the fridge for this, and I'll try confiting it tomorrow night.