So Anyway…
A few weeks ago I did a diary on a slow cooker “whole hog”. I had mentioned that because I used skin on pork belly, I needed something to do with the skin. Waste not, you know. So I asked around on my socials for ideas outside of the usual frying it up, cause that’s a lot of splattering. A friend suggested cueritos—basically pickling the skin.
So what are cueritos? Cueritos translates into “little skins”. It’s basically strips of pork skin, most commonly pickled in vinegar. It’s a staple snack food in Mexican, Venezuelan, and Spanish cuisines.
So after I took care of the roast, I tried to scrape all the fat off the skin. Everything was so soft and jellified I didn’t quite get all the fat. But I cut it into strips and set it aside for a moment. The next day, I sliced a couple good sized onions and a couple big jalapenos, added the skins, and gave it a heavy salt.
As you can see, there was a lot more onion and pepper than pork skin. But that’s cool, cause I love pickled onions.
I kind of experimented with the vinegar and seasoning. I used a 1:1 ratio of vinegar to water. BUT—I put THREE different vinegars in. White as the base, rice, for mellowness, and for the main hit of flavor, tarragon vinegar. I had about a total of three cups of liquid, so I used about 3/8 cup each of white sugar and salt. Next I had fun with the seasonings. If I showed you a picture of each of the seasonings I used, this would be a LONG diary. I used dried tarragon, a little jar of pickling spice, celery seed, dill seed, turmeric, and for the base of the spice flavor, curry powder.
After their time in the fridge, I took out the cueritos and veggies and gave them a good rinse. Then I filled two mason jars about ¾ full, also using fresh dill as a layer.
I let the brine come to a boil, turned off the heat, let it cool for a minute, then filled my jars. I might have gone a little much with the spices, because at the top of each jar was a bunch of corns, seeds, dry leave, and other woody bits. But I let them cool a bit as you see in the cover photo, then covered them and put them in the fridge.
They yummy. The vinegar is quite sharp, but not overly salty, and yes, curry is the dominant flavor and color. They are GREAT on sandwiches as long as you don’t get some of the bits. The pork skin is a bit chewy, but the veggies are oh so crisp.
So, I’ve made bread and butter pickles before, but that was using a recipe, so this was new to me. Basically getting ratio suggestions, then making up the pickling brine as I went along. But it was successful. Next time I pickle though, I’m going to try for slightly sweeter flavor.
So this Labor Day weekend, I’m making some crock pot chicken soup. What are your Labor Day Weekend food plans? Sound off in the comments.
Next week: Familiar flavors in a new setting.