For The Crispiest Pork Scratchings, Break Out The Air Fryer

If you're a big fan of pork skin, you've likely sampled everything from pork rinds to pork crackling to the ever-famous pork scratchings. This hard and crunchy snack packs a whopping punch of porky flavor complemented by salt alone, rather than the seasonings often added to rinds or crackling. Pork scratchings are fried just one time, which is why they keep a lot of that flavor. But even though they're bountiful bar food staples and available in bags at grocery stores, that's not always ideal. What if you don't want to hit town just for a snack? What if you don't feel like dealing with the greasy, overly-hard bagged version at your local market? Well, you can just make your own pork scratchings at home, instead.

For truly crispy pork scratchings, you need an air fryer, so set aside anything you may know about microwavable pork rinds or cooking your pork scratchings in the oven or on the stove. Air fryers give you a lighter texture while keeping the burst of porky flavor that good pork scratchings need. Air fryers don't require much oil so you can control the temperature precisely, and some of the oil from the pork cooks out and drains without leaving the skin soggy or hard. It's the perfect marriage of texture and flavor.

To get the crispiest pork scratchings possible, focus on ingredients and how to use your air fryer. First, let's look at the ingredients. For scratchings, you just need salt, a bit of oil, and your pork skin with most of the fat removed. I suggest rubbing the skin down with salt to remove any remaining hairs and to add a bit of seasoning. Cut your pork skin up into bite size pieces with a good knife; you'll need a sharp one to get through any tough parts. Then add a bit of neutral oil like sunflower or canola oil, which will kickstart the cooking process and let your skin crisp up deliciously in the air fryer.

Add your pork pieces into the air fryer basket and cook at 400F for around 30 minutes. At around the 10 minute mark, stir or shake the basket so everything cooks evenly. Make sure you continue cooking your pork scratchings until they're crispy all the way through. Don't rely on sight alone, either! A good way to test doneness is by taking a piece out and trying to break it in half. 

If it snaps cleanly, then you can take the basket out. If there's still a bit of flexibility to them and they tear or rip rather than snap, stick your pork scratchings in for another 5 minutes. It's best to eat your finished scratchings in a few days, but you can store them in a cool, dry place like a cupboard for one or two weeks. But these are so delicious that it'd frankly be a miracle if they lasted that long.