[Sca-cooks] Cracklings

[Marilyn Traber]

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Bit of background - my mom is 79 and grew up on a small farm in south
central Iowa during the depression. As was common, no running water, just a
pump in the kitchen, an outhouse and no electricity.

Just got off the phone with my mom, and she says that the proper way to make
cracklings is to take the kettle [her family used a roughly 10 gallon kettle
- did double duty as a washing kettle, rendering kettle and for boiling
water to dip the chickens in to pluck them.] and put 2 or 3 gallons of water
in. You chop up the fat and skin layer, and pop it into the pot. Render the
fat off the pork bits, the water serves to 'lubricate' the pot so you don't
actually brown the pork bits as she said that if you burnt or browned the
cracklings, the lard had a funny bitter taste that when it was used for
cooking got worse. Makes sense to me. The water boils off, leaving lightly
golden cracklings and a pool of melted lard. Then you pour the lard into
jars and floated a piece of waxed paper over the top and put it into the
cellar to use to cook with during the winter.

Pig tails were given to the kids to put onto a stick and roast ofer the fire
while they stirred the cracklings now and then.


Personally, I don't see it being too much different in the middle ages.

They made sausage, smoked hams, salted side meat, salted and smoked bacon
and had roast pork chops and ribs to eat fresh for the next few days. She
also said that they kept one pig alive until new years specially to have as
a whole roast for dinner, as there were my grandfather and his family [wife,
2 daughters and 2 sons] his 2 brothers [similar size and assortment] and one
maiden aunt sister that was a local school teacher [and a bit of a scandal
as she had a daughter that my grandfather raised with my mom...]and assorted
farm hands. Similar to the way that boars head and roast whole boars were
'conspicuous consumption' goods. They usually only kept 2 sows and a boar
over the winter for the next year. Between the lot of them they had a whole
quarter [which I believe is 1 square mile, as surveyed in Iowa?]
margali
[finally getting mom to remember and write things down! I never knew that
she learned to ride on a cow before she got to ride the plow horses...]

the quote starts here:
So is there any evidence that such a food item was eaten in period? I

can't see where it wouldn't be unless there was a more important thing
to do with this part of the pig.
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