Even halal and kosher cooking have their own version of cracklin’s (made from fried chicken skin), but it’s pork cracklin’s that rule throughout the American South. Small nuggets of pork rind, roasted or deep-fried, are laced into corn bread to add immense richness or sprinkled on a salad for luxury’s sake. In Cajun Louisiana, pop-in-the-mouth cracklin’s are as popular a snack as boudin; in fact, nearly every butcher who slaughters hogs to make boudin naturally has plenty of material to make cracklin’s, which are vigorously infused with hot pepper and sold—still warm—by the bagful. Hot, crisp, seasoned pork fat: Could there be anything more recklessly sybaritic? At first bite, a cracklin’ crunches, and there may be a few striations of chewy meat (like deep-fried bacon), but after that first crunch and a chaw or two, it dissolves into a salacious slurry of pork and pepper without peer in the world of snack foods.
Cracklin’s from T-Boy’s Slaughterhouse, Mamou, Louisiana.