A couple days ago I was shopping at the nearby Asian food
store early in the morning, and as I was leaving I saw a
guy that looked Hispanic leaving the store with two large
boxes of what appeared to be large flaps of pork skin.
This particular supermarket has a large meat section
and they butcher whole pork sides, so I guess this is
a by-product of that activity. I should have asked the
guy what he was going to do with all that pork skin.
I assumed that he would render it for lard, but today
it occurred to me that he might be making chiccarones.
Any other ideas what someone might do with about 50 lbs.
of pork skin?

On May 8, 12:00*pm, Mark Thorson > wrote:
> A couple days ago I was shopping at the nearby Asian food
> store early in the morning, and as I was leaving I saw a
> guy that looked Hispanic leaving the store with two large
> boxes of what appeared to be large flaps of pork skin.
> This particular supermarket has a large meat section
> and they butcher whole pork sides, so I guess this is
> a by-product of that activity. *I should have asked the
> guy what he was going to do with all that pork skin.
> I assumed that he would render it for lard, but today
> it occurred to me that he might be making chiccarones.
> Any other ideas what someone might do with about 50 lbs.
> of pork skin?

Make shoes?

Mark Thorson > wrote:

> Any other ideas what someone might do with about 50 lbs.
> of pork skin?

a lot of bì cuón.

Victor

> Mark Thorson > wrote:
>
>> Any other ideas what someone might do with about 50 lbs.
>> of pork skin?

(piggybacking)

Did you mention lard an/or chicharrones?

Short of that, you could wear it. Maybe make some masks out of it.
None of that fake leatherface crap. You could be the real thing.

-sw

Mark wrote:

> A couple days ago I was shopping at the nearby Asian food
> store early in the morning, and as I was leaving I saw a
> guy that looked Hispanic leaving the store with two large
> boxes of what appeared to be large flaps of pork skin.
> This particular supermarket has a large meat section
> and they butcher whole pork sides, so I guess this is
> a by-product of that activity. I should have asked the
> guy what he was going to do with all that pork skin.
> I assumed that he would render it for lard, but today
> it occurred to me that he might be making chiccarones.
> Any other ideas what someone might do with about 50 lbs.
> of pork skin?

I'm sure you're right about what he was going to do, but there *are* other
culinary uses for pork skin.

1. It can be cut into a circle to cover a pot of cooking beans. (One of the
Thomas Keller books calls for that.)

2. It can be rolled, sewed, and used as a kind of sausage casing. In Italy,
a sausage called cotechino is sometimes made by stuffing the skin from a
pig's foreleg.

Still, it's 99% likely that the guy was going to make chicharrones.

Bob

Victor Sack wrote:
>
> Mark Thorson > wrote:
>
> > Any other ideas what someone might do with about 50 lbs.
> > of pork skin?
>
> a lot of bì cuón.
>
> Victor


Large chicharrones!
Large amount of small chicharrones!
Pickled pork rind (cueritos)!

In article >, Arri London >
wrote:

> Victor Sack wrote:
> >
> > Mark Thorson > wrote:
> >
> > > Any other ideas what someone might do with about 50 lbs.
> > > of pork skin?
> >
> > a lot of bì cuón.
> >
> > Victor
>
>
> Large chicharrones!
> Large amount of small chicharrones!
> Pickled pork rind (cueritos)!

Smoked and made in to bean stock...
--
Peace! Om

Web Albums: <http://picasaweb.google.com/OMPOmelet>
*Only Irish *coffee provides in a single glass all four *essential food groups: alcohol, caffeine, sugar *and fat. --Alex Levine

Arri London wrote:
>
> Large chicharrones!
> Large amount of small chicharrones!

Yes, both seem a likely destination.

> Pickled pork rind (cueritos)!

I've seen those! I completely forgot about them.
That is a reasonable possibility, though much less
likely than the high-volume snack food product.
One of these days I should overcome my disgust
and try some of these products. Pickled pigs
feet is first on the list, followed by scrapple.
(Are beef brains used in scrapple? I'm not eating
anything with beef brains in it.)

Another thought that crossed my mind was maybe
they would be ground with a fine plate and used
in chorizo, along with some real meat of course,
as sort of an extender. Mexican-style chorizo
tends to melt in the pan, indicating a large
contribution from fatty tissues, but you'd still
want a material that has texture before and after
cooking. Skin would have more texture than leaf
fat (which pretty much completely melts away),
so skin may have better properties for chorizo.

I wonder if that's legal. Can you just grind up
skin and use it in sausage?

In article >,
"Bob Terwilliger" > wrote:

>
> I'm sure you're right about what he was going to do, but there *are* other
> culinary uses for pork skin.
>
> 1. It can be cut into a circle to cover a pot of cooking beans. (One of the
> Thomas Keller books calls for that.)
>
> 2. It can be rolled, sewed, and used as a kind of sausage casing. In Italy,
> a sausage called cotechino is sometimes made by stuffing the skin from a
> pig's foreleg.
>

The stuffed pork leg is called zampino. Cotechino/coteghino uses pork
skin but it is ground and added to the other filling mix. Both of them
can also use quattro spezie (four seasonings) for flavoring. I can see
why there is some confusion here. (I won't even mention zampone here.)
One used to be able to buy zampino in the SF Bay Area over the Holidays.
It was always had a great "platter presence" on the table.

D.M.

On Sun, 09 May 2010 18:12:19 -0700, Mark Thorson wrote:

> Arri London wrote:
>>
>> Large chicharrones!
>> Large amount of small chicharrones!
>
> Yes, both seem a likely destination.
>
>> Pickled pork rind (cueritos)!
>
> I've seen those! I completely forgot about them.
> That is a reasonable possibility, though much less
> likely than the high-volume snack food product.
> One of these days I should overcome my disgust
> and try some of these products. Pickled pigs
> feet is first on the list, followed by scrapple.
> (Are beef brains used in scrapple? I'm not eating
> anything with beef brains in it.)

no beef brains as far as i know. scrapple is usually pork, but you do see
beef scrapple once in a while at the grocer's. look at the label.

i find scrapple more attractive than pickled pigs' feet.

your pal,
blake

On Mon, 10 May 2010 12:45:09 -0400, blake murphy wrote:

> no beef brains as far as i know. scrapple is usually pork, but you do see
> beef scrapple once in a while at the grocer's. look at the label.
>
> i find scrapple more attractive than pickled pigs' feet.

Pork brains are still legal, but beef brains are strictly forbidden
by the USDA. Calf brains are still allowed. They have to be under
8 months or something like that; Young brains only.

-sw

Sqwertz wrote:
>
> On Mon, 10 May 2010 12:45:09 -0400, blake murphy wrote:
>
> > no beef brains as far as i know. scrapple is usually pork, but you do see
> > beef scrapple once in a while at the grocer's. look at the label.
> >
> > i find scrapple more attractive than pickled pigs' feet.
>
> Pork brains are still legal, but beef brains are strictly forbidden
> by the USDA. Calf brains are still allowed. They have to be under
> 8 months or something like that; Young brains only.

No naturally-occurring transmissable spongiform encephalopathies
have ever been observed in pigs.

Mark Thorson wrote:
> A couple days ago I was shopping at the nearby Asian food
> store early in the morning, and as I was leaving I saw a
> guy that looked Hispanic leaving the store with two large
> boxes of what appeared to be large flaps of pork skin.
> This particular supermarket has a large meat section
> and they butcher whole pork sides, so I guess this is
> a by-product of that activity. I should have asked the
> guy what he was going to do with all that pork skin.
> I assumed that he would render it for lard, but today
> it occurred to me that he might be making chiccarones.
> Any other ideas what someone might do with about 50 lbs.
> of pork skin?


Footballs, men's gloves, wallets, handbags, watch bands,
etc. If you think of them as "pigskin" instead of "pork skin"
the possibilities are wider.

gloria p

Mark Thorson wrote:

>
> No naturally-occurring transmissable spongiform encephalopathies
> have ever been observed in pigs.



Not yet. Thirty years ago it hadn't been observed at all, had it?

gloria p

In article >,
"gloria.p" > wrote:

> Mark Thorson wrote:
>
> >
> > No naturally-occurring transmissable spongiform encephalopathies
> > have ever been observed in pigs.
>
>
>
> Not yet. Thirty years ago it hadn't been observed at all, had it?
>
> gloria p

Oi! You remind me of my personal paranoia about blood transfusions.
Especially now that I'm getting in depth training in the laboratory in
transfusion medicine...
--
Peace! Om

Web Albums: <http://picasaweb.google.com/OMPOmelet>
*Only Irish *coffee provides in a single glass all four *essential food groups: alcohol, caffeine, sugar *and fat. --Alex Levine