What's your favourite brand of pork scratchings?

[Clive Milk]

Mine



They come in a wide variety, from the hairy, to the puffed up prawn cracker type.

Which do you prefer?

[Gluggy]

These are epic - rather hot but really nice quality.

https://www.snafflingpig.co.uk/collections/all/pro...



Also a fan of the ones above but have had a few bag that lacked crunch and were almost stale despite still being sealed and in date.

Edited by Gluggy on Saturday 9th January 10:05

[vladcjelli]

Gluggy said:

These are epic - rather hot but really nice quality.

https://www.snafflingpig.co.uk/collections/all/pro...



Also a fan of the ones above but have had a few bag that lacked crunch and were almost stale despite still being sealed and in date.

Edited by Gluggy on Saturday 9th January 10:05

I treated myself to a snaffling pig advent calendar this year, got a little bag of various flavour scratching every day, much better then chocolate.

One brand that I always seem to remember liking when I’ve found them are Q scratchings, google suggests from Black Country snacks. Must have been good to be committed to memory through the booze.

[Sammo123]

My local butcher makes their own. They’re the best pork scratchings I’ve ever had! I have to hide the bag from the cat otherwise he steals the bag and rips it open

[tr7v8]

Sammo123 said:

My local butcher makes their own. They’re the best pork scratchings I’ve ever had! I have to hide the bag from the cat otherwise he steals the bag and rips it open

Yours as well, mine can hear a packet opened from miles away & can eat them faster than I can! Despite being an old cat & not having a full compliment of teeth!

[Puggit]

Not the modern airy variety. Our local Tesco express used to sell the OP's variety, and they are hard to beat.

[skilly1]

Why is it sometimes one in the bag just tastes awful. I have to spit it out, difficult when driving!
Can’t describe the taste, almost like lard and ruins the rest of the bag for me.

[FWIW]

Gruntled.

https://www.lovepubsnacks.co.uk/

Perfect balance of fluffy/crunchy/fat. Very few odd tasting ones.

As an aside, has anyone tried the chicken scratchings? I thought they were amazing!

[Muppet007]

vladcjelli said:

I treated myself to a snaffling pig advent calendar this year, got a little bag of various flavour scratching every day, much better then chocolate.

One brand that I always seem to remember liking when I’ve found them are Q scratchings, google suggests from Black Country snacks. Must have been good to be committed to memory through the booze.

Manufacturered just around the corner from me and are rather good

[p4cks]

Another vote for Black Country. I get 1kg of them from eBay about every other month for £11 delivered

[greysquirrel]

Black Country for original.
Snaffling pig for hot ones. Pig of doom are lovely but your stomach burns all night and something else burns the next day (because it’s just powder chucked on so like inhaling chilli powder)

[Sammo123]

FWIW said:

As an aside, has anyone tried the chicken scratchings? I thought they were amazing!

Yes I’ve tried them in a restaurant near me. They came with a pot of Tabasco to dip them in. They were really good!! I took two portions home with me

[greysquirrel]

My wife bought me some duck scratchings once. They were rather expensive and absolutely rank.

https://www.wildingsnacks.com/

If you have some money to waste and want to feel sick!

[Gompo]

Sorry for the slight thread diversion, but I am going to repost something I asked 5 years ago to see if anyone can help as it's been a long time since I had any of these..

"A Butchers/Bakers local to me used to make Pork 'Scraps', which I believe were the waste/by-product of rendering pork fat. Think of regular scratchings but smaller, less hair and probably less tasteful and yet more unhealthy - they were however also more addictive. Anyone had similar?"

I really fancy some now, if anyone has a source! I'm not sure if they're a thing numerous butchers would make/have made in the past. Cheers..

[fat80b]

My personal favourite scratchings of the year are the cambridge beer festival ones.

They get served in paper bags and presumably are delivered in bulk and put in to the bags on site. Google doesn't yield the information as to who makes them but they make all plastic packet / shop or pub ones seem like a big disappointment thereafter.

They are so good that every year, the wife asks for some to be brought home for laters. They never last.....

[omniflow]

Gompo said:

Sorry for the slight thread diversion, but I am going to repost something I asked 5 years ago to see if anyone can help as it's been a long time since I had any of these..

"A Butchers/Bakers local to me used to make Pork 'Scraps', which I believe were the waste/by-product of rendering pork fat. Think of regular scratchings but smaller, less hair and probably less tasteful and yet more unhealthy - they were however also more addictive. Anyone had similar?"

I really fancy some now, if anyone has a source! I'm not sure if they're a thing numerous butchers would make/have made in the past. Cheers..

You can probably make these fairly easily.

Get some pork loin from a decent butcher - as for a very fatty piece - with 1" or more of fat between the meat and the skin.

Roast it, or cook it on a rotisserie. Cut the crackling off fairly close to the skin. Enjoy that. Cut the fat off fairly close to the meat. Enjoy the meat.

Leave the fat to go cold. Cut into cubes whatever size you fancy (they will get smaller - quite alot smaller). Add some salt to the cubes then fry them for 10 -15 mins.

For added yuminess add a bit of leftover meat and make lardo fried rice. Fry rice in the rendered fat and mix in the cubes with a bit of fried onion, green pepper and mild chillis - any anything else you fancy - but avoid egg & peas.

[Uncle John]

I like the puffy ones but will not say no to the standard ones.

Think the Black Country ones come out on top for me. Have had various ‘posh’ scratchings & generally still prefer standard.

Still struggle with the hairy ones though......

[21TonyK]

omniflow said:

Gompo said:

Sorry for the slight thread diversion, but I am going to repost something I asked 5 years ago to see if anyone can help as it's been a long time since I had any of these..

"A Butchers/Bakers local to me used to make Pork 'Scraps', which I believe were the waste/by-product of rendering pork fat. Think of regular scratchings but smaller, less hair and probably less tasteful and yet more unhealthy - they were however also more addictive. Anyone had similar?"

I really fancy some now, if anyone has a source! I'm not sure if they're a thing numerous butchers would make/have made in the past. Cheers..

You can probably make these fairly easily.

Get some pork loin from a decent butcher - as for a very fatty piece - with 1" or more of fat between the meat and the skin.

Roast it, or cook it on a rotisserie. Cut the crackling off fairly close to the skin. Enjoy that. Cut the fat off fairly close to the meat. Enjoy the meat.

Leave the fat to go cold. Cut into cubes whatever size you fancy (they will get smaller - quite alot smaller). Add some salt to the cubes then fry them for 10 -15 mins.

For added yuminess add a bit of leftover meat and make lardo fried rice. Fry rice in the rendered fat and mix in the cubes with a bit of fried onion, green pepper and mild chillis - any anything else you fancy - but avoid egg & peas.

You can buy skin in Morrisons for about a quid a pack. Simmer very gently for 10-15 mins, cool, cut into strips, dry in a 80 degree oven overnight and freeze. When you want some thow a handful into a preheated oven at 200 degrees for about 3 minutes.

[Trustmeimadoctor]

When ever I buy them it's always the crappy prawn cracker type and I'm always very very disappointed

[p4cks]

greysquirrel said:

My wife bought me some duck scratchings once. They were rather expensive and absolutely rank.

https://www.wildingsnacks.com/

If you have some money to waste and want to feel sick!

I got some of these as they'd been recommended by someone at work and thought they were a bit 'meh'. Thankfully the ones I got were on offer at Sainsburys so I only paid 20p a pack