Cracklings
{{Short description|Material that remains after rendering animal fat and skin}}
Cracklings (American English), crackling (British English),Oxford English Dictionary also known as scratchings, are the solid material that remains after rendering animal fat and skin to produce lard, tallow, or schmaltz, or as the result of roasting meat. It is often eaten as a snack food or made into animal feed. It is also used in cooking.Alan Davidson, The Oxford Companion to Food, s.v.
Cracklings are most commonly made from pork, goose, and chicken, but are also made from other poultry and from beef, lamb and mutton.Federal Board for Vocational Education, "The Home Project as a Phase of Vocational Agricultural Education", Bulletin no. 21, Agricultural Series no. 3 (September 1918) [https://books.google.com/books?id=5kLyAAAAMAAJ&q=cracklings p. 85]
Sources of cracklings
=French cuisine=
In French cuisine, cracklings (grillons, grattons, gratterons, frittons) may be made from pork, goose, duck or turkey. These are salted while hot and eaten as an hors-d'œuvre, especially in the southwest.Prosper Montagné; Charlotte Turgeon and Nina Froud, eds., Larousse gastronomique: the encyclopedia of food, wine & cookery Crown, 1961. English translation of the 1938 edition. {{isbn|0517503336}}, s.v. grattons, p. 473 Duck 'frittons' are said to come originally from Burgundy.[http://www.vin-vigne.com/mets-vins/plat-principal/viande-rouge-frite-beignet-de-viande-rouge/fritons-de-canard.html Les fritons de canard]
=Pork=
{{main|Pork rind}}
Pig skin made into cracklings are a popular ingredient worldwide: in the British, Central European, Danish, Quebecois (oreilles de crisse), Latin American and Spanish (chicharrones), East Asian, Southeast Asian, Southern United States, and Cajun (grattons) cuisines. They are often eaten as snacks. In Hungary, they are popular as a breakfast or dinner food.George Lang, The Cuisine of Hungary, Bonanza Books, 1971, {{isbn|0517169630}}, p. 92, 350
=Beef=
{{main|Krupuk kulit}}
Krupuk kulit is an Indonesian cracker (krupuk) made of beef skin.
In Argentina and Uruguay cracklings extracted from tallow are called chicharrones and are a common filling for traditional breads.
=Poultry=
{{Rquote|right|In Hungary when you have a party, you start it with hot goose cracklings. It has to be goose.|A Hungarian in New OrleansElsa Hahne, You Are Where You Eat, 2008, p. 125}}Goose cracklings are popular in Central European cuisine.Michael Roddy, "Trip Tips: Hungary, where goose is king - and eaten - for a month", Reuters, [https://www.reuters.com/article/us-travel-hungary/trip-tips-hungary-where-goose-is-king-and-eaten-for-a-month-idUSKCN0J51EJ20141121 November 21, 2014]
Chicken and goose cracklings are popular in Ashkenazi Jewish cuisine, and are called gribenes.
=Lamb and mutton=
Cracklings from fat-tailed sheep were until recently a popular ingredient in Persian cuisine:
{{Quote|...many Iranians recall how, as a child, they relished a sandwich of the crispy remnants of the tail after rendering.|Charles PerryCharles Perry, "Fat-tailed sheep", The Oxford Companion to Food, p. 300}}
Uses
{{Rquote|right|Every part of Italy that raises pigs makes cracklings... [they] are eaten as a snack, kneaded into yeasted dough for breads, and stirred into sweet batters for dessert.|Micol Negrin, RusticoMicol Negrin, Rustico: Regional Italian Country Cooking, 2002, {{isbn|0609609440}}, p. 256}}Cracklings are used to enrich a wide variety of foods, from soups to desserts. Modern recipes sometimes substitute crumbled cooked bacon."Cream of Split Pea Soup", Stephanie Fleischer Osser, Bernard Clayton, The Complete Book of Soups and Stews, 1987, {{isbn|0671438646}}, p. 329
In German cuisine, cracklings of pork or goose (Grieben) are often added to lard (Schmalz) when it is used as a bread spread.Ursula Heinzelmann, Food Culture in Germany, 2008, {{isbn|0313344957}}, p. 64
Crackling is often added to doughs and batters to make crackling bread (French pompe aux grattonsPatricia Wells, et al., The Food Lover's Guide to France, 1987, {{isbn|0894803069}}, p. 534), crackling biscuits (Hungarian tepertős pogácsa), or potato pancakes (oladyi).V.A. Bolotnikova, Byelorussian Cuisine, 1979, p. 78
Salted cracklings are widely used as a snack food.
Cracklings have been used as a supplement to various kinds of animal feed, including for poultry, dogs, and pigs."Use of Cracklings in Feeds", The National Provisioner January 25, 2019 [https://books.google.com/books?id=aZ8-AQAAMAAJ&q=cracklings%20 p. 18]