Homemade Cracklins


 
What a great read. On this same site is a post with pictures on smoked meat that's inspired me to go out and buy some fresh ham hocks and smoke 'em. I love 'em in beans and to hell with the flatulence.

I have a question. I'm currently curing some pork bellies and had the skin cut off beforehand. It's sitting in the freezer. What is the best way to smoke those? With my bacon at lower temps or when I bbq a pork shoulder or brisket?
 
Yeah Pork Crackling.....it's absolutely mandatory when cooking a Pork Roast here in Australia and it's usually a major scramble trying to keep some for yourself when the pork comes from the grill.

Generally, when we buy a Pork leg or shoulder with the skin and the fat under is still attached to meat and all we basically do is make criss-cross cuts across the skin and into parts of the fat without cutting right through to the meat and rub lots of salt and sometimes fine ground pepper into the skin and into the cuts untill it's entirely covered.It's more of a massage really making sure it has liberal amounts of salt seasoning on the skin,we then give it a good spray with an olive oil ensuring that it's well soaked in.

We generally roast the meat & crackling in the Weber kettle for about 1.5 to 1.8 hours at around 350F untill the desired doneness then remove from the kettle and remove the skin before it gets too blackened but it's very crisp at this stage.
We remove the crackling from the meat and foil the meat for about 20 minutes but by this time, everyone has congregated by the kettle and is chowing down on the succulent crispy crackling.

Who the hell cares what the health experts say...it's hard to beat the sensation and taste of Pork Crackling....

As Homer might say " mmmmmmm Craaaccckklin"!!
 
Crispy skin is the best part of that wonderfully delicious animal known as the pig! I've done pork belly similar to how Davo described. Lightly scored and poked the skin to help fat rendering. Rubbed with liberal amounts of salt and pepper. Lightly oiled skin. Cooked in WSM at 300° for 2.5 to 3 hours or until almost fork tender. Then I remove the water pan(I have the clay saucer setup) and crisp up the skin alternating between the top grate, and the grate right over the charcoal basket with no middle section. Tender pork with layers of fat and meat topped off with crispy skin. That's good, no great eats!
 

 

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