Gluten Free Pork Scratchings

Naughty But Nice

As mentioned in yesterday's post, it wasn't the end for the thick cut of fat from the pork shoulder, I didn't let it go to waste. Ah no, I made my take on Pork Scratchings, gluten free Pork Scratchings! Very yum.

I left the fat as it was after cutting it from the shoulder.

Porky

I preheated the oven to 160C and placed the fat straight onto the baking rack.

Pork Crackling

3 hours 45 minutes in the oven and it was dried out to perfection.

Crunchy

I let it cool, put it into a food bag, seasoned with sea salt and hit with a meat hammer to break into Pork Scratching pieces. I did consider using other seasonings but it really didn't need it, the flavour was amazing just plainly salted.

Now I know that this isn't the 'proper' way to make them and in actual fact the result is crackling pieces but after months of over indulgence there was no way I was going to fry this. The end result was close enough in flavour for me. If you want to make Pork Scratchings in a traditional way here's how:

• Brine the pork skin in salted water for at least 3 hours
• Drain from the brine and rinse 
• Preheat your oven to 200C
• Cut the pork fat into small strips and put into an ovenproof dish
• Cook for 30 minutes until the fat has come out of the pork skin
• Take out of the oven and stir
• Put back into the oven and cook for a further 20 minutes
• Remove from the dish with a slotted spoon and put into kitchen paper to drain excess fat
• Add a sprinkle of sea salt

The way that I did it meant that most of the fat drained from the skin as it was cooking, using the traditional method means that the skin cooks in the fat and retains some of it. Either way it tastes amazing but my way meant that it was a little less naughty than usual.

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So yes, Pork Scratchings, a bit naughty but very nice. A calorie controlled gluten free diet is pending.