Pork Scratchings

Preamble

This one came out of the blue. I was thinking of perhaps trying either something I used to like once again (black pudding is high on the list) or something I'd never eaten before (scallops, perhaps), but then someone mentioned pork scratchings and I knew that's what it had to be. The reason being that it's the one meaty thing I pull faces at in the supermarket. "Blech!" type faces. I really don't fancy them at all. But thinking about it I used to eat them from time to time before I became a veggie, and I don't remember going off them particularly back then. I think my feelings about them have become more and more negative over time.

For something made from just two ingredients - pork rind and salt - it's about as far away from anything vegetarian as I can imagine, flavour and texture-wise. Greasy crispy pig-skin. I've got memories of the soft, warm, strangely-powdery textured fatty deposits. And the hairs. Blech!

But that's why it had to be pork scratchings. I said in my intro post if you're going to eat meat you should probably eat it all. Well then, there are very few things I fancy less than a pork scratching, so that makes it an ideal test for me. When I read my Corned Beef post back it occurred to me there's no mention of any trepidation at scoffing meat again - and that's because there actually wasn't much at all in that case. A little bit of uncertainty maybe, but nothing more. This is different. I'm genuinely a little unsure about this - it's so unlike anything I've had in years.

The Scratchings

I thought this one should be given the best chance possible, so I looked for good quality ones. After asking for recommendations a friend kindly bought me a bag of these from a highly regarded local butcher. I'd actually seen the very same ones in my favourite deli a couple of days earlier. I made the "Blech!" face then too.

OK, time to give them a go...

First up a bit of packet sniffing. EW! It's... it's... it's... It's "ew!" is what it is. Ew!

Let's give it another sniff. Ew. Still not keen. The shock of the first sniff has worn off a tad, but it's not smelling any more appetising to me.

Okay, let's take a look at these. They're quite small for pork scratchings. Maybe that's why they're "posh".

Oh well, in for a penny in for a pound. Let's start with that big one on the left.

First bite. Crispy. Greasy. Salty... And a word I haven't got in my vocabulary. I want to write fatty or oily or... or maybe greasy again, but it's not. It's something else.

Let's try another. That dark one there. I'm guessing it's from deeper in the pig. It's dry and powdery and doesn't taste of much... until a bit of porky taste comes through. That one's better. Strange texture (not unpleasant just unusual), but that was actually not too bad.

Ok, I'll go for another pale one.

Nope - that one was worse than the first. That one was a little fatty and it collapsed oilily (is that a word?) in my mouth, seemingly becoming liquid. And there's that taste I can't name. It's deep-fat friery. It's not oil, it's cooked oil. Cooked and ever so slightly porky oil. I don't get it. I don't see why you would eat this instead of a nice ready salted crisp (at least those taste nice and potato-ey). Admittedly there's a nice texture to the best bit, but it had that soft melting bit that wasn't nice.

Let's skip forward to about a third of a bag down.

No. Not keen. I don't find them unpleasant per se, just odd. Really odd. They're just so unlike anything I've eaten in such a long time I don't quite know what to make of them. The darker ones are porkier and that somehow helps a lot, but the pale ones taste almost entirely of meat fat, which isn't a particularly strong flavour, and I'm not enjoying the little of it there is particularly. I think 20 years away from it has made it a tough ask for my taste buds right now.

I guess I'm going to get this a fair bit going forward. I'm aware tastes change due to experience (I had to train myself to eat goats cheese, for example. I hated it when I first had it, but it became fashionable as the veggie option, so I stuck with it until I bloody well liked it.) Maybe continued exposure to meat fat will improve my opinion of it? I'll have another pop at the left-overs tomorrow, but I think this one could take some getting used to...