Pork Rinds In Fine Cuisine: Going Whole Hog After the Experience

Pork Rind Topped Skewers
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Turning to culture and the ordinary to create extraordinary experiences …with pork rinds


By Tim Byres, James Beard Award-Winning Cookbook Author and Chef

Not everyone thinks of a restaurant team like a football team. But that’s exactly how I think of it – different players, each having a pivotal role in how the scoreboard racks up the points.

And then there are the customers, who are either having a good time or a bad time. Hopefully, many leave as fans – but to accomplish that, chefs now more than ever must look carefully at the total experience in order to turn that bad time around. And, that total experience typically begins and ends with the plate, ensuring both extraordinary flavors and innovation are working together to help chefs find that secret playbook.

Pork Rind Topped Grilled OystersFor the majority of my professional career, I’ve found myself working in, with or owning high caliber restaurants. But recently, I’ve been drawn to something very different. Today, I spend most of my time consulting with individuals and restaurant groups, helping truly creative chefs turn up the dial on using new and uncommon ingredients that connect guests with a more cultural and familiar experience. And to me, ingredients such as pork rinds, fit squarely into that ideal.

Pork rinds have been around for centuries – once reserved for specific generations and cultures as a snack. But today, we find that simple foods, like pork rinds, which are often simply pork skins and salt, become seriously complex when you introduce them as an ingredient. My favorite pork rind is Southern Recipe Small Batch. They add a savory, bacon-y, gluten free flavor to a dish that somehow is hard to find with traditional seasonings. And, in a world of speed, an easy go-to is always a plus.

As well, for bustling restaurants, cooked to order rinds are great, because they afford chefs the opportunity to go straight from the fryer to the bowl, serving up an experience of pork rinds as an appetizer or a snack, that can be seasoned at the table by the guest, while they’re still crackling when they get to the table. And the experience is where it’s all at when it comes to a successful restaurant.

If this sounds outlandish, consider both the traditional pork rind consumer and today’s new pork rind consumer. They’re vastly different and unique, which speaks to the widespread intrigue and acceptance of pork rinds as an ingredient, an appetizer or even a garnish.

I’ve always found success in both following and leading, too, at the same time. As chefs, we’re all influencing each other, and being creative is a big part of that. For me, that has often meant striving to have recipes that are both present and current. It’s no secret that lifestyle and food have come together. People are interested in what they’re eating, where their food is coming from, and the history of that food. Staying in the front of that is important.

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Some of my favorite uses for them serve them finished with a mustard oil and the chef’s own spice seasoning, and then served with a chili dip or a salsa, a crème fraiche or sour cream. And, as an added bonus, from an operational standpoint, pork rind pellets on their own store really well, they’re affordable and easily trainable, which is always desirable.

Grilled Oysters Tim ByresOne of the mounting challenges in a restaurant also revolves around meetings guests where they are with respect to dietary preferences and needs. I also turn to pork rinds, interestingly enough, as a way to address these challenges. If chefs are attempting to break away from the pack while also trying to corner gluten free or keto guests, pork rinds are making a great bread crumb replacement, adding pork flavor and crunch – not to mention an exotic twist. To address balance, texture and nuance, mixing fresh vegetables with pork rinds, often bring balance which also presenting a unique side that’s light, fresh … as well as a whole-hog adventure. 


Pork Rind Encrusted Grilled Lobster

This is a fancy step-it-up grilling recipe that’s super easy. We’ll split the lobster, grill it meat side down, flip it over and spoon on some coconut yogurt sauce, then top with pork rind crumbs and parsley before closing the lid to roast. The remaining sauce is used to dip the lobster and some extra rinds. I love it, the toasty rinds make the dish. This is a gluten and dairy free “chefy” dish to add to your summer recipe mix that’s quick to master.

Ingredients:

  • 4 oz. Southern Recipe Small Batch Sea Salt and Cracked Black Pepper Pork Rinds
  • 1 cup Coconut Yogurt
  • 1⁄2 cup Golden Curry Sauce, Prepared from a Jar
  • 5 Tbsp. Fresh Lemon Juice
  • 1 Bunch Parsley, Chopped
  • 1 1⁄2 tsp. Kosher Salt
  • 2 Whole Live Lobsters (1 1⁄2 lb. average each)
  • 1 oz. Olive Oil
  • 1⁄2 tsp. Kosher Salt
  • 1⁄2 tsp. Ground Black Pepper

Directions:

  1. In a mixing bowl, combine the yogurt, curry sauce, lemon juice and salt with a whisk until completely smooth and incorporated. Turn your grill to high and close the lid to pre-heat while we prepare the lobsters.
  2. Next, place your live lobster on a cutting board facing you. With one hand on the tail, take a medium Chef’s Knife (blade facing you) and insert the tip of the knife through the shell and head pressing down to cut it in half. Turn the lobster and repeat the splitting cut down the tail until the lobster is in two long halves.
  3. Season the meat with a pinch more of salt, a few cranks of a peppermill and a drizzle of olive oil, completely coating the meat so as not to stick to the grill.
  4. Once the grill is at maximum heat, open the lid and place the lobsters meat side down on the hot, clean grill grates. Let the lobsters cook to sear the meat side about 3-4 minutes, look for grill marks then turn to the shell side.
  5. Now with the meat side up, spoon in your curry yogurt mix to coat the meat and fill the shell with the tasty sauce. Next, sprinkle the lobsters with chopped parsley and crushed Southern Recipe Small Batch Pork Rinds. The sauce will bubble in the shell and the rinds will crisp and release their pork flavors.
  6. Close the lid to the BBQ and let the lobsters roast for about 10 minutes, the meat will be firm and coated in flavor. Remove the lobsters to a tray and serve with fresh lemon wedges, (4) lobster claw cracker tools, the remaining Coconut Yogurt Curry Sauce for dipping, and some extra pork rinds.

Tim ByresAbout Tim Byres: Tim Byres is a James Beard Foundation Award-winning chef as well as a consultant, entrepreneur, author, educator, gardener, and outdoorsman. The early years of Tim’s career were marked by major recognitions, from People’s Choice Best New Chef by Food & Wine Magazine to supporting the U.S. State Department’s diplomatic missions as part of the American Chefs Corps.

He became an established name in the international food scene thanks to his groundbreaking Dallas restaurant SMOKE. With the 2014 publication of his first book, Smoke: New Firewood Cooking, Tim established himself as an expert in “Live Fire Cooking,” a unique style of entertaining that highlights the bold flavors found within the landscapes of American Southwest. Tim made a bold pivot by walking away from the fame-driven treadmill of the mainstream culinary scene and returning the roots of his culinary education. Drawing on his experiences hunting, fishing, foraging and farming across the American southwest, as well as the traditions of heritage kitchens from Europe to the Deep South, Tim set out to reinvent firewood cooking as the foundation for a unique culinary style that marries modern sophistication with stripped-down authenticity.

Today, he is a sought-after creative consultant who specializes in unearthing the “food voice” from bioregions around the country. His creative use of seasonality, geography, cultural heritage and primitive technology expands the boundaries of fine cuisine by paying conscious homage to the earth and to the traditions that honor it.

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  • McKee Foodservice
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