Chilli Pork Scratchings

Firstly sorry that it’s been so long since I posted on here, things have been very hectic of late so I’ve not had time to write as many blog posts as I’d have liked.

Anyway here’s a post that’s remained unfinished for far too long, It was the first time I’ve tried to make pork scratchings and I have to say I was quite impressed, I’ve seen lots of different methods for making them most of them involve frying, but for some reason I didn’t fancy dropping chunks of pig fat into my deep fryer so went for the oven baked method.

You can buy the rind in most supermarkets, if not just ask your butcher.

The longer your leave them in the fridge the better, I left mine in 24 hours but I’ve heard of people leaving them in there for up to 72 hours. You can also soak your rind if you want to but I didn’t bother this time.

Ingredients

• Big chunk of pig rind
• Salt
• Chilli flakes
• Pinch of paprika.

Method

1. Cut the rind into nice big chunks and spread out on a baking tray.
2. Sprinkle with a good amount of salt over the rind and place in the fridge  and leave for a minimum of 24 hours
3. Heat your oven to 200 degrees C
4. Sprinkle the rind with some chilli flakes and paprika
5. Place the rind in the oven and bake for 15 mins.
6. After 15 mins turn down the oven to 140 degrees C.
7. Now the trick is to bake them until they are nice and golden and crisp, I turned mine every 15 minutes and drained off the fat each time too. I think they took just under 2 hours in total but a lot will depend on the size of your scratchings.
8. Once golden and crisp, remove from the oven and place on some kitchen roll to drain and cool.
9. Enjoy with a beer and some chilli sauce to dip them in.