Cracklins, Krammeln, Chicharonnes, Gribbenes

[ludja]

Don't know if I got all the spellings correct in the title, but when I was home at Christmas, my Mom made me up a batch of Krammeln (Austrian dialect for pork cracklings) to bring home. Sweet mom

I added in the Gribbenes (though I believe they're rescued from rendered chicken fatty skin) b/c I thought the uses would probably overlap well.

My mom's main use is to add them to scrambled eggs or to a filling for potato strudel (both excellent). I've also read about making a crackling corn bread.

Any other favorite ideas or uses you have to share? Appreciate it!

[Suzanne F]

Whatever the animal source, mine rarely last long enough to make it into any real dish. That is, if I leave them out on a paper towel on the counter to drain, I just pick, pick, pick and all of a sudden OH! where did they disappear to?

However, if I manage to safely store them, I use them mixed with crumbs for the topping of cassoulet, or mixed into hash. Or it they're big enough, I am tempted to make a "Chicken Skin Po Boy" (or other equivalent quadri- or bi-ped) like the one John Thorne discusses. Mmmm.

[SobaAddict70]

Deviled eggs!

speaking from recent experience.

Soba

[Dave the Cook]

How strange! I recently assisted in the assembly of devilled eggs featuring whipped goose fat (a riff on guajolote's beef fat eggs) and a duck crackling garnish. These eggs garnered me a marriage proposal.

[fifi]

This is bringing back memories. My great aunt would always have to make "cracklin bread" when she came to visit. Actually, we had a name for it... bump bides. (I have no idea where that came from.)

She would render out the pork fat to make the cracklins either on the top of the stove in a heavy skillet or in the oven. Then she would make a stiff corn meal mush. The crackilins were stirred in. Then she formed the stiff mush into patties about 3 inches in diameter and about 3/4 inch thick. Her trick to do this without it sticking to her hands was to repeatedly wet her hands in cold water. I think that had something to do with how the surface crust came out. These were then fried in the pork fat to a golden brown. These hardly ever made it to the dinner table.

[malachi]

a little salt, a little chili...

the ultimate beer snack

grin

[past51511]

The making of gribenes has been in my family as long as I can remember, going back into the 30s. I'm sure the idea of doing it might have come with the same immigrants that brought us pastrami and corned beef. As I know it, gribenes is made like this: Go to your meat market and ask the meat guy for about a pound of chicken fat, which is usually available after they strip the chicken to sell as "skinless." Cut it up into small pieces, fry in butter until crispy, throw in small pieces of white onion and fry at the same time. After it's finished, spread out and a little salt. If it makes it to the table, garnish the mashed potatoes. Enjoy!

[Rachel Perlow]

"fry in butter"

That's hardly necessary. You may want to start with a little water in the pan to get it going until some chicken fat is rendered. My brothers would stand by the stove in a fashion similar to my poodles waiting for bits of gribbenes.

I like them as garnish for chopped liver, mmm.

[Comfort Me]

Spread a slice of fine rye bread with goose grease, sprinkle with fleur de sal, and top with gribbenes. Heaven. Don't forget to write.

[Boris_A]

Any other favorite ideas or uses you have to share?  Appreciate it!

I suggest Austrian "Grammelknödel"

two pounds potatoes, cooked, cold, finely grated ('floury' type of potatoes, as we say)

7 ounces of flour

1-2 eggs

salt

Prepare a dough

form balls (a bit smaller than a tennis ball)

fry the Grammeln very shortly, add parsley if you like it

fill the balls in the center with about a teaspoon of Grammeln

boil them until they start to swim

serve preferrably not with Schlag (rather with leaf salad)

[ludja]

Any other favorite ideas or uses you have to share?  Appreciate it!

I suggest Austrian "Grammelknödel"

Wow, lots of cool ideas already. My only challenge is to stop snacking on them (have about 2 cups) so I can use them in some of these recipes...

Never would have thought of the hash, cassoulet/stew garnish or stuffed eggs, but these comments have already spurred a number of other ideas. Our family is huge on stuffed eggs (ususally garnished w/an anchovy slice) but also loves krammeln so I may be able to pull off a big coup the next time I'm home.

Are cracklings on top of stuffed eggs a 'classic' dish? If so, where from? France? I've never heard of it before.

I've never made or had gribenes before either but will definately try. I'm already a chopped liver lover and garnishing w/gribenes sounds like a wonderful gilding.

Boris_A: Thank you very much for the knodel recipe. I love Austrian/Swiss/German/Sud Tirol dumplings and have started experimenting with making them more at home. I have never heard of Grammelknodeln and will definately try them out with my current precious supply.

Now that you mention it, I wonder if they could also be used in a variant of Tirolerknodel (bread dumplings) using the krammeln in place of speck or smoked bacon...

serve preferrably not with Schlag (rather with leaf salad)

And---I'll hold the schlag, at least during the main course and will take your suggestion of a green salad accompaniment--possibly with kern ol and vinegar dressing.

*need to figure out how to insert umlauts!!!*

[ludja]

Seeing this discussion on how to make Filipino fried chicken skin here reminded me of this older thread.

Still would love to hear people's ideas on uses for Krammeln, Gribbenes, etc. That is, when you can manage to have some leftover from eating out of hand...

Edited November 9, 2005 by ludja (log)

[PPPans]

Pound or use rolling pin to crumble then sprinkle on noodles, soup and rice porridge or congee. As a topping, it goes best with fried garlic, chopped spring onions and a squirt of calamansi.

[ludja]

Pound or use rolling pin to crumble then sprinkle on noodles, soup and rice porridge or congee. As a topping, it goes best with fried garlic, chopped spring onions and a squirt of calamansi.

←

Thanks PPPans! Sounds like a great idea and special thanks for describing the additional parts of the topping. Your link also led me to the wonderful thread you have going on Filipino cuisine!

[PPPans]

You're welcome Ludja! I forgot to say you can also add thin slices of hard boiled egg. A few drops of fish sauce and freshly ground black pepper completes it. Mmmm...

[jsolomon]

spinach salad