Beer Snack #1 – Pork Scratchings

This little piggy went into a bag

Just think of all the good things that come from pigs (with apologies to Vegetarians). Bacon. Pork Chops. Gammon steaks. Sausages. Pork Pies (just about). The humble pig lends itself to numerous snacks and quick foodstuffs, which can be eaten from first thing in the morning (bacon roll), to last thing at night (bacon roll). But aside from a blackened sausage roll at a damp barbecue, very few of these products are consumed with beer. They can be, of course – but there’s only really one specific beer snack that comes directly from hogs – the Pork Scratching. The BeerCast panellists bravely took on these crumbly curls of swine fat, and discovered how they go with a fruity Scottish wheat beer. But first, some history…

Pork scratchings are one of those peculiar British institutions that developed from the need to use every part of a valuable animal when it was slaughtered (see also tripe, trotters, kidney pudding). Sometime in the 19th Century they appeared in the kitchens of the urban townspeople of the Black Country, in the West Midlands. These days, they are sold in pubs all over the UK, although in the experience of the BeerCasters these days mostly in older, more ‘traditional’ pubs (i.e. doubtful if you could find a packet in your local Weatherspoon’s). But if you search you can find them in surprising places – I found the packet we tried dangling from a plastic display in the massive beer aisle of one of Edinburgh’s largest Tescos.

‘Mr Porky’ Pork Scratchings are the UK’s largest seller (which explains why they are in Tescos), shifting 20m packs a year. Made by Redmill Foods of Wednesbury, midway between Walsall and West Bromwich, they are from the heart of the Black Country. “There’s snout better with a pint!” claims their impressive website, which has their full product range. We tried the ‘Prime Cut Scratchings’, but they also make regular pork scratchings, pork crunch, pork crackles, and the rather odd-sounding ‘brown sauce crispy bacon bites’ and ‘tomato sauce crispy bacon bites’. The first thing you notice is the jolly packet, which features a rotund butcher doffing his straw boater. The second thing is the warning that ‘only people with strong teeth’ should eat them. The third is the fat content – 46%.

This is unavoidable when you consider what they are – a curl of pig skin, or rind, with the attached layer of fat underneath. Produced properly, the skin is hard and crunchy (hence the tooth warnings), and the fat softer and crumbly. North Americans have a different thing in mind – what they call pork rinds, is puffier and more ‘crisp-ish’. These are known as ‘pork crunch’ in the UK. Pork scratchings are heavy, as they are deep fried and coated with salt. The skin is burned to remove the hairs, but some do remain (apparently the connoisseurs prefer them). Whatever your outlook, and whether you’ve tried them before or not, they are possibly the ugliest food item you can bag up and flog to drinkers. Which is why we started with them.

What We Say – “Being a Yorkshireman, I’ve had these before, essentially it’s just salt. The crispy bit on the outside isn’t so bad, but the soft bits aren’t so nice. I knew someone who used to eat a bag of these every day. They aren’t too bad.” [Shovels]; “I’ve never tried these at all – they really smell porky. Mine’s got hairs on it – that can’t be good – it also looks like a dried up slug. It tastes of pork-flavoured salt. Actually, it’s revolting.” [Richard]; “I’ve never had them before either, and I can’t say I want to – have you looked inside the bag? It smells so bad – but why do they look biscuity? This is the foulest pork-based thing I’ve eaten today…” [MrB]

So, not high marks for the Pork Scratchings. But maybe they are an acquired taste, as the one panellist who’d had them before didn’t mind them as much as the two newcomers. Having said that, this particular newcomer won’t be going back for more.

Red Mill Foods
Hairy Bar Snacks website
Pork Scratching World

Some BeerCast news – we’ve now recorded two podcast episodes, and still need to re-record parts of Episode 1. After we’ve got together and done that, we can hopefully release the first episode – with the second following not too far behind. But we’ve still got to do jingles, sound effects, and artwork – so it might be a while. But we promise to get more blog posts up, and once we’ve finished the two Scottish editions, we’ll be popping over the border to sample some English ales…