Cracklin

BBQ Pork Cracklin`s = Scrumptious Southern Style Satisfaction!

Boss Hog`s "BBQ Pork Cracklin`s", it simply HAD to be! We`re talking one of the most delicious snack treats on earth. These, my good friends are no mere "mass produced pork rinds," this is a sweet and salty, savory sample of Southern Style Satisfaction!

While driving along, on a wonderful trip down below the "Mason Dixon Line," I stopped at a local, road-side food stand for something to go along with my snack of Bacon Freak Bacon Jerky! 

The enthusiastically friendly lady working the stand recognized the package of my Bacon Jerky and told me that the same company makes her favorite bacon and that I actually look a lot like the guy on the package.

As you can imagine, that led to a pretty interesting conversation, when out of nowhere she said, "Hey Rocco, I gotta show you something!" Out from under the counter came a Tupperware bowl and when opened the lid, it was like the gates of Heaven had just swung open.

They were what the locals called "Cracklin`s" made from award winning pork with the most awesome barbecue aroma and flavor. Now I have had "store bought" pork rinds before and I must confess, I`ve never been much of a fan, but these "Cracklin`s" were absolutely delicious.

Read full story [SOP]

Young woman sets sights on local Cracklin’ Cook-Off

BARROW - How does it feel to be a young woman surrounded by a bunch of males at a crackling cooking contest?While this may not sound all that strange at first, it does once you realize 24-year-old Kristina Bare will be one of the competitors at the eighth-annual Cut Off Cracklin' Cook-Off this Saturday.

From the best anybody associated with the event knows, Bare's appearance will mark the first time a <0x000A>female has cooked up a batch of cracklings.

Cracklings are fried and seasoned and made from the fatty layer of tissue that rests under a pig's skin.

"I started working at a supermarket in Sorrento that makes them (cracklings)," Bare said. "At first no one wanted to show me how to do it because they told me I was a girl."

Instead of backing away from the challenge, Bare set her mind on learning as much as she could about cutting, frying and serving up a Cajun delicacy people also refer to as "gratons."

"I picked up a few things from one cook, then some more from another," Bare said. "Eventually I knew enough to enter my first contest (Sorrento Cracklin Festival)."

This is only the second crackling contest Bare's competed in since fixing up her first batch two years ago.

Bare found out about the Cut Off event on a recent camping trip to Grand Isle.

At the urging of her father, Bare registered on Wednesday.

"I'm a little nervous because I don't know anybody there," Bare said. "In Sorrento, I knew all the cooks. I hope the guys treat me OK even though I'm a woman entering a male-dominated sport."

Read full story [Daily Comet]